Reply to BIL got my SIX-year-old nephew a rifle for Christmas. Not a BB gun, a hunting rifle

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Reply to "BIL got my SIX-year-old nephew a rifle for Christmas. Not a BB gun, a hunting rifle"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The BIL sounds like a piece of shit, and his gift to his son also sounds like a crazy-stupid idea.  Is it illegal for 6 year olds to shoot guns?  It should be.  If it's not, clearly we have an insane gun-nut society.  We don't live in Sherwood Forest where we're all trying to hut to survive...  The cost and risk of arming a 6 year old is higher than not (meaning, we won't starve if a 6 yo doesn't know how to participate in a hunt).

My kids are also taught gun safety.  Specifically: If they see someone with a gun and he/she is not a police officer, they are to run in the opposite direction as fast as they can.  They are not to approach or touch (or clean or 'safely handle' WHAT??? IS??? THAT???? STUPIDITY????) a gun for any reason, including if their classmate sharpshooter insists that he/she is highly trained in the firearm arts.  I cannot roll my eyes back far enough....[/quote]

You do not sound particularly intelligent.  Guessing you have very young kids.  You can tell yourself all you want to that your kid would never touch a gun.  You might be right.  But kids are curious.  If a gun is an unknown and especially if there is peer pressure involved, you don't really know what your kid might do.  I watched a television show not too long ago where kids were tested.  Every single parent swore that their child would never touch a gun.   The kids were left alone in a playroom with a gun hidden under an attractive book.  Every.  Single.  Kid.  picked up the gun.

My boys would probably not touch an unknown gun.  They would probably yell for an adult.  However, if they did pick it up it would be to ensure that no one else touched it and to make sure it was not loaded.  Guns are not a novelty to them.  They've grown up around them.  They see them as a tool.  A dangerous tool that requires very careful, safe handling.  But a tool nonetheless.

You do not know how your kids would react if they saw a gun lying in someone's house.   I'm not sure I do either.  But I do know that my kids have safely handled firearms.  They have taken gun safety classes.  They have seen first hand the damage a gun can do because they've seen a watermelon blown to pieces as an example of the devastating affects of a bullet.  They know how to pick up a gun.  They know how to safely unload a gun.  They know to always treat every gun as if it were locked and loaded.[/quote]

There is no research or data that supports your idea of your children or children in general being responsible with guns. The rule is: DO NOT TOUCH IT EVER. A better rule is DO NOT HAVE ONE AROUND.  And if there is a "realistic" expectation that your child or any child will come in contact with a gun, then we have a very serious policy problem in our nation that this is even something we think should be part of reality in a child's life. In other words: Gun control now.[/quote]

And here is your reality check.  All the men/boys in my family hunt.  I have three boys.  One of my sisters has three boys and the other has two.  Plus countless cousins.  We probably have 15 or 16 kids in our family under the age of 20 that hunt on our land.  They have all been shooting since they were seven or eight.    My dad is out in the woods with my 12 year old right now checking on the deer stands and setting up game cameras.  They'll certainly be doing some shooting while they are out there today.  That will not change.  Everyone does not live in an urban area like D.C.  This is a temporary home for us.  Back home hunting and shooting are part of life.  That is not going to change no matter how much you might want it to.

There will never be "gun control".  It won't happen.

The irony?  How many people were killed in D.C. by handguns just in the last 24 hours?  This despite some of the toughest gun laws in the nation.  In my hometown, we haven't had a violent crime involving a gun in almost three years.  And I am not from a small town.[/quote]

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