My neighbor knows the horrors of cleaning up the blood splattered bedroom of her friend’s son. They’re from Indy – near Butler. The teenage son shot and killed himself. Teenagers are not adults, sometimes they make the most unexpected idiotic decisions. This kid would be alive if it weren’t for an adult’s decision to keep something in the home (in a cabinet) so easy to use and so quick to kill.
The forbididden fruit analogy should be considered with what we all know to occur in our own lives. If there is a compound mitre saw in the garage and no comfort level to use it…it just sits there…no fancy woodwork. Sure, you might saw your finger off because you haven’t had training, but chances are your fingers will be just fine because the mitre saw will be wholey ignored. If you have a hand pastry blender in your kitchen drawer, but Grandma never taught you how to use it, it just sits there. If the multimeter is given to someone with no electrical knowledge – they won’t even think about it during times when it could be used. Common knowledge shows if you don’t have experience, you are not likely to choose it.
Teaching a child how to operate a gun safely isn’t like teaching them how to operate a bicycle safely. The gun is designed to be an efficient killer. There is plenty of time in adulthood to learn gun safety.
It’s not about making children comfortable using a gun, and therefore capable. It’s about the development of the human brain, a child cannot be instilled with adult judgement just because they have been filled with information and passed the tests.
I don’t deny the boy’s natural “aggressive/protector” instinct. Just like I don’t deny the girls “submissive/nurturer” instinct. Humans also have an instinct to consume high starch and fat for the sheer purpose of hording energy. Instinct doesn’t trump judgement.
I have yet to meet the American who must hunt for sustenance, so why chose guns for a child? Self defense? Well maybe, back when the pilgrims were fighting the Indians. Sport is the only logical answer I have. Sport. What degree of danger is acceptable to still be
considered an appropriate children’s “sport”? Football gets a lot of flak about the dangers of their sport. They may think otherwise, but football players are not designed to be efficient killers. I view Hockey and Rugby as “dangerous” sports – missing teeth and
concussions…
There are lots of accidents with archery or knives – there’s blood and pain and a Tetnus shot – but accidental death would take some pretty amazing circumstances. Maybe you could consider fencing as a less lethal alternative…
I don’t accept the “it won’t happen to me” idea. We have family and friends whose kids are well trained with guns, nothing hideous has happened to them. I also have family and friends who refuse seatbelts, chain smoke, and drive while intoxicated and they are still alive…
It’s that blood on the carpet and splattered against the walls thing that I cannot escape – kids aren’t adults. I guess if you haven’t been close to it, it doesn’t haunt you. My neighbor was a NRA member, grew up in a hunting/fishing family up North, her husband had a gun collection. They mounted their prized antique rifle over the stone fireplace which displayed the antlers. She came home from cleaning the boy’s bloody bedroom and removed every gun and the cabinet from the home. She told me the most important thing to do before my child goes to a new house is to ask if there are any guns in the house. That thought had never occurred to me before her tragic experience. Guns are not for children.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I can’t tell you how much I agree with this, guns were built for one purpose and that certainly wasn’t play. To think, we are allowed to have rifles and hand guns, some, if not most are built specifically for killing other human beings, and yet we can’t smoke a little cannabis if we feel like it. It doesn’t make any sense to me, it never has, and it never will.
Utter nonsense ! I’m sure GANJA GRUSCREW likes it, but ream after ream of documented research indicates it’s fallacious. The misinformed author apparently misunderstands the ‘forbidden fruit analogy’. it’s the forbidden fruit that is desirable, because it’s forbidden.I grew up in the south, and all households had fire arms. Most had handguns. I knew exactly where my dad’s hand gun was.Iit never occurred to me to bother it. It wasn’t ‘forbidden fruit’, nothing mysterious or appealing it. i knew it was heavy, damned loud, and hurt when you fired it. The long guns were the same way. Common items, for finding food; and like the hand guns, they could hurt people if you screwed up. I also knew perfectly well that, as with other tools(which is what they were), when I was old enough I would naturally be able to use them.
It was part of becoming a man( a concept lost today) and we boys were provided with enough other responsibilities we could feel proud of, that we felt no need to rush the ones the adults felt we weren’t ready for yet.
Liberals, ACLU, NEA, and other groups with similar philosophies have made the firearm a dreaded, fascinating object. Given the current social climate, we’ll probably never regain the attitudes that once prevailed. But articles like the one I’m commenting, written out of timidity and fear, complicate the situation, and endanger all our lives.
“This kid would be alive if it weren’t for an adult’s decision to keep something in the home (in a cabinet) so easy to use and so quick to kill.”
On what is this gem based? The implication in the paragraph is that this was a suicide, not an accidental death. Either the paragraph is just poorly written or it’s foolish. Someone who wants to commit suicide will do so, a gun is not required.
The reaction, removing guns, etc., makes as much sense as deciding to give away the family car because a friend or family member died in a car accident.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to live in a society where there are no guns. However, this post makes no logical sense.
I am saddened by your story and the loss of your friend’s child.
However, removing all the guns from the house and refusing to send your kid to a house that has guns in it won’t bring him back.
I also grew up in the southern United States. There were guns (pistols, rifles, shotguns) just as there were fishing rods and filleting knives. I treated them all with respect and was fully aware of when it was appropriate to use them. I never enjoyed hunting, but I sure enjoyed eating the deer, squirrel, rabbit, etc that my dad brought home with his guns.
As far as you never knowing anyone who has to hunt to survive, perhaps you should understand that your circle of friends and influence does not incorporate all possible segments of our country (which is quite large, by the way). I’ve never met or known anyone who owned their own airplane. Should I therefore conclude that no one should be able to own their own plane? Those things are dangerous; just look at what happened to the Twin Towers (yes, I went there).
For someone who grew up in a city or suburb, farming is a foreign concept, as well. Should we all assume that, since you can buy beef, pork, fish, eggs, milk, corn, etc from a store that no one should have a desire to earn something on their own? Some folks like the satisfaction of seeing the direct results of their hard work. Others like to use their hard work to pay someone else to do it for them, so that they may have more leisure time. There is nothing wrong with either approach, but there should be a choice.
I understand fear and I understand the urge to protect our children from harm. The key to overcoming this is not running from the source or banning it or punishing people who think differently. They key is education and understanding.
Of course “children are not adults”, but they will be some day. It isn’t a switch that someone flips that makes them suddenly mature. They are trained every single instant of every day by their surroundings and their experience on who they will be tomorrow.