Out of the Mouths of Babes

[rainbowbob]

My 3-year-old grandson is over today. He brought with him a toy "machine gun". Some of you may remember me writing about his parents - my anti daughter and her husband.

It seems his Dad is sending mixed messages by buying him toy guns all the time. Leaves me some hope that before too long his Dad and I will be taking grandson to the range to shoot my Remington .22 semi-auto rifle.

My grandson has a natural fascination with guns. Whenever he talks about them (which is often) I ask him what to do if he sees a real gun.

"Stop"
"Don't touch"
"Walk away"
"Tell a grown-up like you or Grandma or Mommy or Pappa."

I pointed out to him that often the tip of the barrel on a toy is orange - like the one in his hands. He told me (remember he is three)...

"If you take this off (the orange tip) you could get a ticket!"

 

[rainbowbob]

Something occurred to me when my grandson repeated the "Eddie Eagle" mantra I had tought him. I have perused many gun websites - both pro an anti. Most of them claim to want to keep our children safe. I don't recall reading anything on the anti sites that would qualify as practical safety tips for children.

Are the antis really interested in keeping our families safe?

 

[Flintlock Tom]

Wow, Bob, that there is one exceptional 3 year old.
And the plan, from the Anti's, to keep kids safe from guns, is to make them all (the guns, not the kids) disappear from the earth.
I'm not holding my breath.

 

[rainbowbob]

And the plan, from the Anti's, to keep kids safe from guns, is to make them all (the guns, not the kids) disappear from the earth.

Yeah...how's that workin' out for 'em? I won't hold my breath either. Seems like it would be a lot safer to deal with reality than to sacrifice everone to a utopian fantasy.

 

[rainbowbob]

By-the-way...I don't know much about rifles - but I looked up AR-15 and my grandson's toy appears to be a replica. I'm surprised you can even buy a toy like that these days.

 

[230RN]

How'd your daughter get to be "anti?"

 

[jgo296]

well i think kids should get ccw at 9 to protect themselves from the "trench coat mafias" they have shooting up the schools

 

[rainbowbob]

How'd your daughter get to be "anti?"

Well...I have to shoulder much of the blame for that. In my earlier (child-rearing) years, I was a non gun owning liberal type who had pretty much swallowed the kool-aid.

I have since seen the grevious error of my ways. Her mother, unfortunately, isn't there yet.

In addition, my daughter went to a liberal university and obtained a degree as a social worker. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of indoctrination she received there.

I do not want to cast aspersions on my daughter. She is a wonderful mother, a loving daughter, and has used her degree to do admirable work in the field of geriatric critical care.

 

[pyle]

Well...I have to shoulder much of the blame for that. In my earlier (child-rearing) years, I was a non gun owning liberal type who had pretty much swallowed the kool-aid.

I have since seen the grevious error of my ways. Her mother, unfortunately, isn't there yet.

In addition, my daughter went to a liberal university and obtained a degree as a social worker. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of indoctrination she received there.

I do not want to cast aspersions on my daughter. She is a wonderful mother, a loving daughter, and has used her degree to do admirable work in the field of geriatric critical care.

If I may ask, was there an "event" that helped you to "see the light" or was it a gradual thing? Just curious - I very much like to know inside stories of people who were "anti" but have come around.

My wife was an anti before we got married. After being married for almost 11 years, the other day she told me she wanted to get her CCP and wanted to know how to shoot all my guns (that's a lot of shooting and teacing). I was so excited I almost messed my pants!

 

[ProficientRifleman]

safety?

Are the antis really interested in keeping our families safe?

Perhaps the "useful idiots" in the movement really believe they are working to keep kids safe. The Movers and Shakers at the top care not one bit about safety.

To them it is ONLY about power. It is about them having power over everyone else or at least making everyone (except Benevolent Daddy/Government) equally impotent. It is the same with Socialists everywhere.

Try this with an anti- next time you engage in polite conversation...

"So, its safety you seek is it? I'll tell you what, since guns ARE in our society and will be for the foreseeable future, and since our children WILL encounter them from time to time, especially as teens and young adults, don't you think we should have mandatory firearm safety training in public schools?"

If the answer is yes, then continue...

"Don't you think it would be beneficial to have weapons familiarity training early on, so that kids know the difference between real guns and toys? Don't you think a young person should KNOW HOW to render a firearm safe and unload it, just in case they come across one?"

Now that you have them thinking...

"Why don't we have mandatory familiarization, safety and proficiency training in our public schools, starting, say, in the second grade...at about seven years of age? That way, a child would have to demonstrate knowledge of firearms safety and proficiency before he can move on to the next grade. Every child will be familiar with the safe handling, shooting, and storing of firearms by the time he graduates high school. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"

When your anti-gun friend begins to gasp in horror and foam at the mouth, just ask two simple questions.

1. "So you think ignorance and fear is preferable to knowledge and proficiency?"

2. "If it saves even one child's life, wouldn't it be worth it?"

 

[rocinante]

My son had barely turned two before christmas and when asked what he wanted he said ' a bigga gun'. He didn't get that from me at that time but I thought was kind of cute. Mom was like no. I picked him up a star war rifle that made noise and flashed at Krogers. He loved it and it ran on one set of batteries like five years.

Boys genetically know how to make motor sounds and play weapons.

 

[rainbowbob]

If I may ask, was there an "event" that helped you to "see the light" or was it a gradual thing? Just curious - I very much like to know inside stories of people who were "anti" but have come around.

It’s a good question. And since I’m the OP, I don’t mind the thread-drift. Maybe the answer is even relevant to the thread.

There may not be a single life-changing event that helped me see the light. But there was an event that may have put me in the other camp. I have written about it before in a previous thread about toy guns, so I will simply cut and past it (with minor modifications) here:

I hope I'm not going too far off thread here…but I played with many of those toys as a kid and had a ball. But my Mom wouldn't let me have a BB gun because "I might put someone's eye out."

Well...my best friend and I got our hands on some BB guns and decided it would be great fun to have a gun fight. We would wear protection, of course. Before we knew what we were doing, he had taken a shot at me, I had returned fire, and we were taking cover and shooting at each other's heads! It ended when - you guessed it - I had shot my best friend in the eye! We made up some story about an accidental ricochet to avoid the obvious repercussions, and our parents bought it.

To this day - 45 years later - my (still) best friend has limited sight in that eye. I didn't own a gun until recently (at the age of 55) and I think that incident had a lot to do with it. I'm not sure what this has to do with toy guns, but maybe if my parents (my father was an FBI agent) had taught me the proper care and handling of firearms, things would have been different. I'm not faulting my parents. I just think I, as a Grampa, should teach my 3-year-old Grandson positive lessons about firearms.

The other day he cut a piece of paper into the shape of a gun and asked me "Do you like guns?" I replied, "Yes I do, but you must be very careful with them because they can hurt people. Then I had him repeat the four “Eddie Eagle” rules. It’s a start.

Perhaps the single most influential event to “turn on the light” was 9/11. This caused me to realize that there really are predators out there who want to kill us. Blissful ignorance was no longer an option. I had to re-evaluate my beliefs regarding the necessity and moral justification for the rightful use of violence to counter evil on a global scale.

That thought process got me thinking about the justifications for the use of violent force to counter evil on a more personal scale. After some reflection, I realized there had been many, many incidents in my own life where I had avoided serious injury or death from criminal assault only by dumb luck and the grace of God.

I took the opportunity to go shooting with some of my “gun nut’ friends. I discovered to my surprise that I was a better shot than most of them, and that I really, really enjoyed shooting!

My shooting buddies urged me to get my CPL, “while you still can” – and so I did. A few weeks later, before I had received my license, I was helping to clean out my Uncle’s apartment after having moved him into an Alzheimer’s care facility. My sister-in-law came upon his old Chief’s Special in a cupboard, and her and my brother acted as though they had found a live cobra! Needless to say, they are not gun people. I graciously assured them I would take care of it.

And that is how I became a card-carrying gun owner and NRA member.

 

[mekender]

My wife was an anti before we got married. After being married for almost 11 years, the other day she told me she wanted to get her CCP and wanted to know how to shoot all my guns (that's a lot of shooting and teacing). I was so excited I almost messed my pants!

my wife ever does that, ill divorce her.... just so i can marry her again

 

[Catherine]

QUOTE:

Quote:
Are the antis really interested in keeping our families safe?
Perhaps the "useful idiots" in the movement really believe they are working to keep kids safe. The Movers and Shakers at the top care not one bit about safety.

To them it is ONLY about power. It is about them having power over everyone else or at least making everyone (except Benevolent Daddy/Government) equally impotent. It is the same with Socialists everywhere.

Try this with an anti- next time you engage in polite conversation...

"So, its safety you seek is it? I'll tell you what, since guns ARE in our society and will be for the foreseeable future, and since our children WILL encounter them from time to time, especially as teens and young adults, don't you think we should have mandatory firearm safety training in public schools?"

If the answer is yes, then continue...

"Don't you think it would be beneficial to have weapons familiarity training early on, so that kids know the difference between real guns and toys? Don't you think a young person should KNOW HOW to render a firearm safe and unload it, just in case they come across one?"

Now that you have them thinking...

"Why don't we have mandatory familiarization, safety and proficiency training in our public schools, starting, say, in the second grade...at about seven years of age? That way, a child would have to demonstrate knowledge of firearms safety and proficiency before he can move on to the next grade. Every child will be familiar with the safe handling, shooting, and storing of firearms by the time he graduates high school. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"

When your anti-gun friend begins to gasp in horror and foam at the mouth, just ask two simple questions.

1. "So you think ignorance and fear is preferable to knowledge and proficiency?"

2. "If it saves even one child's life, wouldn't it be worth it?"

~~~~~

I absolutely agree with this post. Dead on and thank you.

Catherine

 

[Catherine]

No offense~~~

I can't imagine being married to an ANTI GUNNER or someone who did not agree with me in basic fundamental political/social FREEDOM issues. Even if the person/spouse only owned one gun or no guns but still BELIEVED in the Second (ALL of the Constitution/Bill of Rights too!) and did not care if I owned 1 or 500 guns... it would be up to me.

Great news on your grandchild.

Take care!

Catherine

 

[230RN]

rainbowbob said:

I had to re-evaluate my beliefs regarding the necessity and moral justification for the rightful use of violence to counter evil on a global scale.

That thought process got me thinking about the justifications for the use of violent force to counter evil on a more personal scale.

Let those words ring.

Thank you.

 

[ProficientRifleman]

+1 also. Sometimes it takes a severe wake-up call.

 

[jackdanson]

In addition, my daughter went to a liberal university and obtained a degree as a social worker. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of indoctrination she received there.

Ack! They tried getting me in my Criminal Justice program.. overlapping with sociology(socialism) classes.