Reply to do you ask about guns at a family's house before letting your kid go to a playdate there?

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Reply to "do you ask about guns at a family's house before letting your kid go to a playdate there?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For the gun owners, if I expressed concern over guns, might you also be worried that it's because my kid is curious/shows interest in guns? (my actual kids are 1 and 3, so not an issue now). My nephew is 8 and a curious kid, and I think that if I owned guns I would want to know that the kid might be vaguely interested, and I would want to be aware to ensure the kid doesn't go hunting for them...[/quote]

My boyfriend has a gun.  Our bedroom and bathroom are the only things on the very top floor of the house.  The gun is in his closet.  The kids know they are never to bring friends up to that level of the house.  They know they are to tell us if they can not control their friends and need adult intervention. [/quote]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Honestly I wouldn't expect someone who had guns in the house to be responsible about locking them up.[b] Almost all of those people assume that nothing will happen[/b] - that's the reason they allow guns in the house. They ASSUME they're safely locked up and that their kids don't have the combo or can't access the key, they ASSUME the kids know never to go into the room that has the guns and ASSUME their kids are good kids who don't disobey the parents, they ASSUME their kids aren't the type of kids to try to impress other kids, assume their husband could never ever get distracted by something important and forget or not be able to secure the weapon after using it or maintaining it and therefore leaving it accessible to the kids JUST THIS ONCE, etc. And then they're a statistic and say on the news "but I never ever thought it could actually happen to US!"

So I feel like it's a bit of a pointless exercise asking them anything. It would be pretty rare for any parent of a younger child to say "yeah, we have a gun and the kids can easily access it but they know not to, so don't worry".

They will always lie and/or assure you that there's NO WAY the kids could POSSIBLY access them.

Personally, I just don't let my kids go somewhere unless I know the parents pretty well. I'm the type of person who talks about important stuff and doesn't just make small talk fluff all day, and I can usually trust the reading I get from people. Accidents can always happen of course, but I do what I can to minimize risks of not just gun casualties but other things that I'm concerned about too.[/quote]

Every single person I know who has guns does have them stored in a completely safe manner.  And many PPs who have posted on here state the same.  [b]None of those people are relying on assumptions to keep their own children safe.  [/b]They're relying on the precautions they have taken to store their guns so that children cannot access them.  Your sweeping generalizations make you look like more of an idiot than the people posting about how people knowing they have guns is a safety issue.[/quote]

Even this very thread (on a forum that is heavily skewed towards highly educated, high SES people) has examples of people who are indeed relying on assumptions to keep their own children [u]and those of others[/u] safe.

Your sweeping generalizations make you look like an idiot. Maybe you could learn to read and think before you post.[/quote]

Why don't you work on your reading comprehension?  I didn't make a sweeping generalization.  I spoke about the people I know and a few of the PPs who had posted on here what their situation.  You're the one who said "almost all of the people who own guns."  Better luck next time.[/quote]

What? I said that all gun owners assume that nothing bad would ever happen in their house with their gun. Are you saying that's not the case, and that there are some gun owners who assume that something bad WILL happen in their house with their gun?

Even if a gun is usually locked in a safe, it is taken out to use and maintain it, at which time it's vulnerable to being left outside the safe in an emergency/urgent situation (things that are uncommon but do happen to people sometimes no matter how much they think they won't, such as a kid screaming his head off from the yard because he's fallen and badly broken his arm, a phone call saying that someone has been in an accident and is in the ICU and you need to come right this minute if you want to talk to them in this life again, a sharp pain in the abdomen from food poisoning). Also many kids find the keys to the gun safe and never mention it to their parents. I've heard it from a child myself - "the gun is in the safe but I know where the key is! I found it one day when I was looking for ....".

People are idiots if they think that it's 100% safe just because it's usually stored in something called a 'safe'. And they're total jerks if they don't even bother using a safe.[/quote]

I’m not the PP, but this is why we should all have systems that allow for a point of failure or multiple points of failure and still provide safe gun storage. In your situation, my guns would still be safe because they are individually locked and disabled, locked apart from ammo, and apart from the combo safe (not a key), the room is windowless and has a locking door with auto code locks (no key).  If anybody had to rush out AND the guns are out AND the guns are individually unlocked and operational, AND there was ammo available, the room would still be completely locked off from the rest of the house. [/quote]

I am truly curious PP...you know how dangerous having a gun in your home is, clearly, by the extreme lengths you go to keep it locked away. 
So, could you please explain 1. why you feel the need to own something that is, as displayed by your own caution,  incredibly dangerous and 2. how you think keeping this in your home would help in any type defense situation (if it is truly so difficult to access with your multiple points of failure system  :roll: )?? 
I am baffled by your logic here.[/quote]

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