Experiment Shows Differences Between Children With Guns in the Home and Those Without

originally posted by: MarioOnTheFly

originally posted by: eriktheawful
We have guns.

I've had kids (most grown now).

Guns are locked up, and so is the ammo. Keys are with me at all times.

Just like dangerous cleaners or prescription drugs: Keep Out Of Reach Of Children.

Problem solved. No over reacting or knee jerk crap laws needed.

No gun locker.

No ammo.

No guns.

No kids.

Problem solved.

That doesn't always work. My wife and I raise chickens, and if a coyote decides to join the party... buckshot shampoo time. I have no desire to kill anything, but, live in N. Idaho like I do and a 12 Guage shotgun is a NECESSARY implement.

Stupid.

More like an experiment on bad parenting or irresponsible gun ownership with kids in the house.

Or what happens when you set a bunch kids up and bait them with a gun.

A lot of people have safes, or the gun is up High in the master bedroom . Anywhere safe.

This doesn't seem to portray reality and is just another way to demonize guns.

originally posted by: GoShredAK
Stupid.

More like an experiment on bad parenting or irresponsible gun ownership with kids in the house.

Or what happens when you set a bunch kids up and bait them with a gun.

A lot of people have safes, or the gun is up High in the master bedroom . Anywhere safe.

This doesn't seem to portray reality and is just another way to demonize guns.

Safes don't matter.

Education matters.

originally posted by: madmac5150

originally posted by: GoShredAK
Stupid.

More like an experiment on bad parenting or irresponsible gun ownership with kids in the house.

Or what happens when you set a bunch kids up and bait them with a gun.

A lot of people have safes, or the gun is up High in the master bedroom . Anywhere safe.

This doesn't seem to portray reality and is just another way to demonize guns.

Safes don't matter.

Education matters.

Obviously.

Safes matter too. No matter how many random kids you put in a room, they won't get into a safe. That was my point.

You can educate your kid, which any gun owner/guardian with a brain should do. You just can't educate everyone else's kids. Sooooo put the gun in a wise place. Poof problem solved.

Eta: This was just to show that kids with knowledge of gun safety know how to apply it? That's cool. Maybe that's news to somebody.

There were, at any one time when I was a child, six of us in the house. The guns were not locked up. They were in my parents closet, on a shelf...rifles, and shotguns. Two revolvers, in each of my parents nightstands, were loaded where my parents could get to them, if necessary.

How odd, that none of us kids ever shot anything, or let our little friends play around with 'em...

Actually, no it's not. We knew, beyond any shade of a doubt, what would happen should we ever get into those without permission, or without one of them, or an uncle/aunt, grandparent, present. We would be lucky to survive the experience. Only direst emergency would ever allow us to survive.

It comes down to parenting. Period. Full stop. Nothing else.

My family never had any gun safes. I grew up with a loaded shotgun stored in my bedroom closet.
I was taught to handle firearms at age seven and learned the same lessons as several posters here with the same threats should I have ever decided to be stupid with one. We learned to shoot because we like rabbit and squirrel and as kids we had a lot more time to hunt than Daddy did. I remember the pride I felt when I handed over a rabbit dinner to my Mom at age eight.
Similarly, our children were taught to handle and respect firearms and the consequences should they not behave properly. We never had any issues. While they were too young to be properly trained the firearms were kept out of their reach but well within the reach of adults because they were there for our protection.
My Dad taught me that a firearm is a great equalizer for a female, he didn't think a pepper spray was quite enough to protect the women he loved so he taught us to use and carry firearms.

The only reason I mentioned a safe is because I am Imagining eight random kids stuck in a room with a gun. In that particular situation it's either a crash course in gun safety or lock the thing up. That is all.

I was taught at a young age, I've taught my boy, there's guns everywhere here out north and just like everyone is saying, through good parenting and education we don't have any problems.

No matter what house we are in, there are guns everywhere. No safes, can't get to them quick that way. We are blessed with a Lot of wee ones In this family too.

Guns Are an ordinary part of life here, yet none of the problems that are supposed to exist do. Weird....

a reply to: seagull

...or let our little friends play around with 'em...

This is another very important lesson on responsibility!!!
If you're a kid who knows how weapons works, to stop and explain to other kids, who don't know how to handle them, not to mess with them.

It could have been a box of chocolates!!! It all depends on the preceding education. It has absolutely hee haw to do with "guns". Jesus H, you US folks really need to grow up about your gun obsession.......must be education....

I identified with the OP greatly, a short story similar I have to share i will...my wife's best friend is dead against guns and abhors them life you would not believe. Her kids come around to play with my my kids who were much older than hers and tipped out the box full of toys for them to play with together. The boy immediately sifted through all the toys and immediately set up on the toy gun like it was his destiny.

He had never played with one but it was like a magnet to him and his mother quickly run over and grabbed it out of his hand, I said a boy is a boy and guns are what they want. I will never forget the look on the kids face when stumbled upon the toy gun it was priceless.

Here's data from REAL LIFE, i.e.: not an experiment...
And guess what....more guns (however good the education for kids about them) lead to more gun deaths...what a shocker!!

Anyone who looks at that chart with the raw data and does not see the problem must be blind.

www.humanosphere.org...

Nuff said...

source:
vizhub.healthdata.org...#

a reply to: infolurker

man what a sad set up.

pile up bunch of toys on a couch, and then hide a gun in the middle of them.
then you let in about bunch of 6 to 10 years old kids come in and and rummage through them.
hell yea their gonna find it, play with it and pass it around, that's one of the ways kids learn.

first off, if your gonna hide a gun, you don't put it in a common place that anybody can sit down in and find it.
if your sitting there with it that's fine, but you never leave it.

i have guns hid all over the house and we have kids come in all the time, and they have never found them. main reason because they are not hid where they would be interested in. and they are within easy access and can be reached quickly.

all that said i agree that yes kids should be taught the dangers of firearms, and how to handle them. and if you have them around house, you should teach them not to touch them unless a adult is present.

It's not just guns. It's matches, chemicals and medicines. My parents always told me "if you play around with matches, your fingers will catch fire". Then there's safety by keeping medicines, household chemicals out of reach of pets and small children.
That also applies to your lunch

And this is surprising to anyone because..?

Is this meant to be some "anti-liberal" post? (They tend to be.) All it's really doing is showing that education is a good thing.

Yeah, that's why I don't let an army of unsupervised kids run around in my house.

It's disingenuous to call this an experiment. Let a bunch of hyperactive kids run around loose in a relatively barren room, they pick up they one item they are unfamiliar with, and start playing with it. What a shock.

Put an Xbox and a litter of puppies in the room and it would have taken them hours to find the gun.

For those of you who seem to not be getting the point, it's this:

If you educate children on gun safety, then you can reduce the amount of children being harmed by them without restricting the freedoms of law abiding adults.

In the U.S. it would seem many adults need gun training as much or more than the children. The mythology, fear, and ignorance, that has come to surround guns in the past 3-4 decades is mind-boggling. It's adults that break out in cold sweats, and start trembling at the sight of a firearm. The kids don't have preconceived notions in their head, and are trainable to be responsible gun owners who RESPECT guns, NOT FEAR them.

a reply to: infolurker
Even if you don't have a gun, signing your kids up for a military cadet service will teach them to respect firearms and be safe.


My eldest is a Marine cadet and entirely comfortable with stripping a SA80 and an AK47...He also knows how to ensure it's safe and clear every time he picks one up and can translate that practice to other weapons. Unlike so many people in the UK.

ALL kids you have gun lessons.
in the past criminales have dump't guns
to be found by kids.
they think its a toy! and play with it.

originally posted by: seagull
There were, at any one time when I was a child, six of us in the house. The guns were not locked up. They were in my parents closet, on a shelf...rifles, and shotguns. Two revolvers, in each of my parents nightstands, were loaded where my parents could get to them, if necessary.

Same here. My brother and I knew where my father's firearms were located and we never played with them, the thought never even crossed our minds to treat them like toys.