Kids and real guns!

[abrink]

I went over this situation several times with my kids. They are to check the chamber, drop the mag (if there is one), lock the slide back, and find me or their mom and hand it over. If they were somewhere me or their mom wasn't, they'd call the cops and wait for them to arrive.

They learned this at age 5.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Hi Bumm,

It's easy to say that the kids with training would know what to do with the gun, but IT WAS DELIBERATELY PLACED IN A BOX OF TOYS by adults in a police station!

Simply because it's too early in the week to be accused of 'cop bashing', let the record reflect I made no comment.

Selena

 

[walking arsenal]

It's easy to say that the kids with training would know what to do with the gun, but IT WAS DELIBERATELY PLACED IN A BOX OF TOYS by adults in a police station! Most kids would assume that they're in a safe, controlled, situation.

Well that and because it was in a toy box brought in by a COP the kids had no reason to assume it was dangerous because of the environment they were in.

Now say that they had planted it on a playground, they may have gotten entirely different results.

 

[akodo]

Dropped magazine, checked chamber and no firing pin regardless, there's no way in the seventh circle I'd allow my kids to be in such an environment for a "test."

Yes, that to me sounds like a recipie for disaster. All you need is that one FBI agent 'I am the only one professional enough' to accidentally get the deactivated gun and his duty weapon switched' Further, couldn't this be used against the cops? Imagine later at court for some unrelated incident. The defense attourney says 'so, we should rely on your judgment, you are a good person, a law enforcment officer and all that...tell me, yes or no, have you ever given a child a real gun?"

I think you guys are totally right. A kid is still a kid and 5, 7, 10 year olds, you can only hope your training sticks. But even still, it isn't a one time only 'don't play with guns' it is repeatedly telling them the rules. This is the same with drugs, smoking, sex. You don't just one time in passing declare 'drugs are bad' it is something you must teach them by repeatedly bringing it up, time and time again, so they know what is expected of them and that it is important to you, and that they understand the consequences in the form of how it can harm them AND how you will punish them if they are caught doing it.

And yes, there is a huge difference between a gun tossed into a box of toys they are told to play with and opening a desk drawer in the neighbor's home office and seeing a gun. Context is very important. In the same manner, lets say you have never seen a kel-tec 380 pistol before. (or just imagine the next new supersmall polymer 380 that hasn't been invented yet) now, spraypaint it red, and toss it in a box of toys. Do you think your kids would spot it as a real gun rather than a toy one? Would you? What if in addition to coloring it, a white plastic plug with a pinprick hole was placed in the barrel...to simulate the look of a squirt gun, and the slide was superglued so that it wouldn't rack, unless you really really forced it. Sure, it goes click when you pull the trigger, and a magazine pops out....etc etc. You start mixing guns in with toys in a play area and you are attemtping to dictate the outcome of the test.

 

[RebelKangaroo]

Nothing like rigging the "test" to get the results you wanted. They need to all repeat 6th grade science.

 

[buck00]

This is a test that was set up to achieve the result that the antigunners wanted. They put a bunch of kids in a room together with a box of toys. One of the things in the box is a very real looking gun. It's easy to say that the kids with training would know what to do with the gun, but IT WAS DELIBERATELY PLACED IN A BOX OF TOYS by adults in a police station! Most kids would assume that they're in a safe, controlled, situation. I had a few "real" looking guns when I was a kid. I played with them. The parents with tears in their eyes really added to the desired effect.

This is exactly my conclusion as well, this "experiment" planned for this to happen. A kid finds a gun in a box of toys, he is going to assume its a toy gun. Even a kid who is "taught not to touch guns", if he finds a "gun" mixed in with other toys, is most likely going to assume its a toy. This is much different than finding Daddy's .357 on the top shelf of his closet.

This story is pulp propaganda crap and unprofessional.

 

[Beagle-zebub]

The phrase "this is not a toy" comes to mind.

 

[mljdeckard]

This is why there are no toy guns in my house. My kids know, guns are not toys.

 

[RedLion]

I'm sure if they dumped cocaine or hypodermic needles in the toy box the kids would have played with them too.

 

[harbingerm]

This is part of an attempt to inact California type "child safety" laws here in AZ. In short, they want to make you keep every gun locked up with the ammo seperate. Just like back east!!

That's not always true. The three "back east" states I've lived in never required guns to be locked up and unloaded. It was only "recommended" in FL, MD, and CT.

 

[Mr White]

I'd be more worried that my kid might pick up the talking Hillary doll and play with it.

NO!! PUT THAT THING DOWN!! THAT IS NOT A TOY AND IS VERY DANGEROUS!!! IT WILL TURN YOU TO STONE IF YOU LOOK DIRECTLY AT IT!!!

 

[Nightwing]

My son is almost 4. he knows the difference.
If we go to a sporting goods store, he always is saying "That's a toy gun becasue it's got orange parts on it's nose".
I used to think the orange tip thing was stupid, but it is a BIG clue to my kid as to what a real gun ISN'T.
He also knows if he isn't sure, that he needs to leave the gun there, and come tell a parent, and make sure all the other kids come with him, so nobody is left by the gun.
I love my kid.

 

[novaDAK]

And I'm sure a kid would also not think twice about eating CRACK that was given to him in a POP ROCKS package.

A gun that is in a bin full of toys that the kids were told to play with doesn't tell me anything.

 

[.cheese.]

when I found my father's revolver at the age of 12, I was too scared to touch it.

A) I knew nothing about guns and TOTALLY bought into the "they just go off" baloney.
B) I knew that if my parents found out that I had found my father's gun I would be in deep trouble
C) I knew that if on top of B I touched the gun, I would be in a WORLD of deep trouble.

I didn't tell them that I had found it for a couple months, but I didn't touch it ever.

 

[Nightwing]

And I'm sure a kid would also not think twice about eating CRACK that was given to him in a POP ROCKS package.

A gun that is in a bin full of toys that the kids were told to play with doesn't tell me anything.

Yeah. I mean.... doesn't this experiment put the kids in a position of distrust. You bring a in a container AFTER they've started playing and there's a gun in it?
If my parents walked into a room as a kid while I was with a group of kids and said "here's more toys we brought to let you play with".... I, as a kid, would assume first of all that my parents hadn't brought me a ticket to the grave. But... .still.... these kids needed to be educated. Wish their parents had done so.
Of course, they tell their kids "That knife is sharp. The stove is hot. The lawnmower can cut your foot off. Cars can run you over". Seriously.... people can have such double sided agendas. scary stuff. people.... that's what's scary..... man..... where did I go with that?
I need some water. haha

 

[CountGlockula]

I wonder what the parents did for a living and if they are pro or anti gun.

 

[Geacko]

The recommendation at the end shouldn't be about storing guns and ammo separately, or about putting locks on your guns. It should say "We recommend that you don't store your guns in your child's toy box."
Because nothing else even pertains to this experiment.

 

[frogomatic]

all I can really say is GOOD GRIEF!

Context, as previously stated. No doubt this test was intended to give a certain result. I'd bet money not one of those kids had any idea the real gun was real. What does a kid expect to find in a toy box...toys...duh! To expect a kid to act any different with somthing they "know" is a toy is just plain stupid. Maybe some of those kids (especially the boy scout) had been educated on guns, but by placing it in a toy box, any chance any of them had to recognize the gun for what it is, was lost.

 

[jonboynumba1]

The alarming thing is that people don't recognize this as scientifically worthless from a behavior point of view. They put the real gun in a place where the kids go to get things to play with....then they found it and played with it...SHOCKING!!! (duh-huh)

It would have made more sense to put it in a neutral background where they would eventually happen upon it in a general household type context to gauge response. Then of course you have the kids themselves...had they really ever been closely instructed in what to do or how to properly and safely treat a real gun? Probably not if liberal puke Mommy and Daddy volunteered them to go play with a gun for a liberal media newshour put-up job. My buds 8 year old daughter knows how to safely handle load and undload a firearm. She has never tried to gain access to one but even so would have a difficult time doing so.

When demonstrating some basic safe handling and answering questions for his nephews (8-12) he dropped the loaded mag from his pistol emptied 15 rounds from the magazine into their hands as they counted (having just asked and been told the gun held 15 plus one in the chamber) They counted 15...he asked them if the gun was now empty and unloaded...they both agreed it was....he asked them if they where SURE it was unloaded...they both said yes because they counted 15 rounds and saw the empty magazine. He asked them again if they where possitive....his daughter (then I think 5 years old) raised her hand and answered..."NO Daddy...there is one in the chamber...that's 16...plus you didn't clear the pistol and lock it back on empty so you aint supposed to hand it to anyone yet...you are supposed to look in the gun AND the chamber before you do that!" She KNEW she was right and she KNEW WHY she was right. Because she recieved good safe handling instruction from probably 2 1/2 on. She's known since she was 3 what a gun could do...and as much as any kid can she understood it was permanent. Would any of us allow her unsupervised access to a gun...NO! Would she act completely different than the above kids. I'd bet anyone that would take me up on it a hundred bucks any day.

She also knows how to break someones grip to and get away from them...basic self deffense...and could probably put the average person on the floor for several minutes they'd regret several different ways...yet she's never hurt another kid in a regular "kid fight" ...and I guarantee you firsthand she is capable of it...because her Dad and I both trained her. I pitty the first drunk frat guy that tries to get fresh with her when she hits college age...he'll be regretting being born and trying to live it down for years-LOL You don't make a kid safe by leaving them ignorant any more than you make them literate by not reading to them. The odds are every kid will encounter some type of weapon or something at least as dangerous as a weapon many times before they mit Jr. High age. It's up to the parents to decide how to raise their kids...all the kids in my life have been educated on safe handling. I believe this is the most prudent way to make them safer in a world full of environments you will not always have control over. If we're wrong I guess we'll have to be wrong...but I feel safer and I feeel they are safer for the relatively small amount of time it takes to do that and re-iterate it on a regular basis until you know they have the basics down.

Heck I know LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS that are deffinately less safe than most of the kids I've worked with.

 

[Sharps-shooter]

Oh, the irony!

Kids, taught to trust their parents and the police, are put in a play room by their parents and the police. There, they find an object that used to be a firearm, and come to the CORRECT CONCLUSION that this object must not present any danger to them.

Adults, watching this happen from behind a two way mirror, are shocked and horrified. They have come to the INCORRECT CONCLUSION that the children cannot identify a threat.

I only hope that children can teach adults how to avoid being so reactionary. If adults could learn from children that they needn't be moved so strongly by fear, then the world would be much safer.