Raised "with" firearms

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OilyPablo

OilyPablo

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My father was never a gun nut. He's an a old time independent Democrat for what it's worth. But he owns guns and started taking my brother and I to the range when we were old enough. We learned all the safety rules first, took the local gun and hunter safety courses in the 1960's. Point here, my brother and I learned and respected guns.

My rambling thoughts this Sunday AM while my wife and daughters sleep (6AM here) - I know there probably aren't records or stats of such things, but these "mass shootings" by these truly mentally ill guys - how many of them had such a proper introduction to gun from their father before their teen years? I know the anti-gun people will bring up the nut job in Connecticut but was his dad involved at an early age? I'm just curious about discussing this. Not saying this kind of teaching stops mental illness. I mean I have an opinion, girls and boys without good fathers have a tendency to not end up well. Not all people, but a statistical tendency for broken home kids to have difficulties.

Thoughts? Articles?
 
My parents were also old time Democrats that owned guns. There were 4 boys and since we lived on a farm, raised sheep, cattle, pigs, chickens, and had a number of coyotes and wild dogs in the neighborhood, there was always a loaded Argentine Mauser in the back door closet to welcome the fur covered raiders that would come calling. We were all taught to never point a gun unless you were ready to shoot, to be aware of what was behind your target (Dad didn't want any holes in tractors, farm machinery, or other living things), and not to shoot unless we were ready to kill. There has never been a gun "incident" among any of my brothers even though we always had a loaded gun available. I am concerned about the lack of facilities to safely take kids shooting. A lot of the clubs and none of the indooor ranges I know of allow fun targets like cans or plastic jugs filled with water so sometimes it is hard for new shooters to stay interested if all they can do is make holes in paper.

I am also sure that lack of proper parental figures prevent learning to safely handle and operate a firearm. Removing shooting as an activity from the education system was a travesty. We teach them how to have sex but not how to safely protect themselves? Too many kids only exposure to firearms is by watching a fool in a movie or television program hold a Glock sideways to shoot. It is little wonder there is not 100% support for the Second Amendment.
 
I don't know what my parents' politics were. We lived in the country; I still do. Dad had a garage/gas station/small store. Mom ran the Post Office in the same building. Dad also sold guns and ammo and traded guns on the same premises. He'd sometimes take a gun in on a debt if the customer had no money. This was when BATF, FFL, NFA were merely letters in the alphabet. The good ole days.
 
The kind of mental illness that would cause a person to massacre does not discriminate between one and two parent families. These people have severe brain chemistry imbalance or brain abnormalities such as a tumor. Until we are willing to put the mental health care situation in this country right, we will continue to see tragedy.
 
Furncliff said:
The kind of mental illness that would cause a person to massacre does not discriminate between one and two parent families. These people have severe brain chemistry imbalance or brain abnormalities such as a tumor. Until we are willing to put the mental health care situation in this country right, we will continue to see tragedy.
Click to expand...

I more than suspect you are 100% correct when talking about "mass shootings".

Crime and troubled youth, there is some causal linkage with homes without fathers.

However, I think we can wrap it up and say gun crime and mass shootings are not caused by sane, rational gun ownership. This really seems to be left out of the "national conversation on guns."
 
My oldest son and I were talking about this just today on the way home from Pheasant hunting. He was lamenting that we were unable to bring his oldest daughter along on today's hunt. It was 7:00 a.m. when we left the house, 12 degrees and snow up to our knees. Pretty tough walkin' for a 6 yr old who only stands as tall as her grandpa's waist. Generally she likes to tag along, watch the dogs work and help carry the birds(if we get any). Then there is the stop for ice cream on the way home. My son commented on how she accepts the fact that hunting is a tradition and not just the killing of pretty birds/deer. Like fishing she accepts the fact that sometimes other animals have to die so we can eat. Meanwhile in the field she knows well what a gun can do, stays behinds us out of the line of fire and knows that the only time she handles a firearm is when we are around....and there is always plenty of opportunity for her to shoot. She has her own little pink .22 and just yesterday shot her bow alongside dad at the indoor range. While one can grow up healthy and normal without both parents and without both a mother and a father figure in the house.....it sure helps.
 
Yes, I don't seem to recall reading that any of these nutcases who shot lots of people were the products of stable, two-parents-who-stayed-together families.

Nor should you expect to hear much about that aspect of things. The news media is made up of people who consider one-parent families not just perfectly normal, but also feel that you shouldn't dwell on two-parents-who-stick-together families because you'll make somebody feel bad.
 
I've also been intrigued by the number of them that are under the age of 35. Kind of right around the time it became less "PC" to play outside, with toy guns, or to have exposure to real ones in the household while growing up..
 
My grandparents owned guns, as they were farmers for much of their lives. My mother's father had a single-shot 12ga that I saw only once. Her brother had a Remington single shot .22cal rifle that's in my brother's safe now (my uncle died during the Koren conflict). Grandpa's 12ga evaporated, apparently.

I remember clearly the external hammer SxS 12ga my dad's dad had by the back door of the screened porch (on the way to the outhouse). You could always tell who had used it last by the hammers. If Grandpa, they were cocked. If Grandma, not. There was another 12ga in the milking barn, along with a 30-06 and a .22 rifle that belonged to the owner of the land they farmed. I was never given the chance to shoot the -06. They left the farm when I was 10.

So my dad grew up with guns, but when he married my mother he was never allowed to bring one in their house. So we grew up gunless. I got to shoot only when we went to the farm--without Mom.
 
Mass shootings are exceedingly rare, and therefore not statistically significant. I don't think we can draw conclusions from the family background and upbringing of the shooters.

However, family upbringing (lack of a role-model resident father, for example) does have a significant effect on the day-to-day misuse of guns, such as the gang shootings in our inner cities. This is actually a far more serious social problem than mass shootings, despite the fact that it doesn't gain as much publicity.
 
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