Were Ralphie's parents irresponsible?

[RetiredUSNChief]

It sounds like a silly question at first, but I'm dead serious. For years I've been petitioning my daughter and son-in-law to allow me---Grandpa---to present my grandkids with a Red Ryder BB rifle this Christmas. Instead of thoughtful consideration, their answer is always the same, per A Christmas Story: "He'll shoot his eye out!". (An emphatic NO.)

And there are no other risks in life the grandkids will ever encounter and have to learn to deal with safely and with perspective, either.

Like swimming, crossing the street, playing ball, driving, cutting their own foods, cooking on a hot stove, and more.




Frustrating as this is...they ARE the parents and their views on raising their children should be respected, difficult though that may be. Best advice I can give you is to occasionally breech the subject as the children grow. Persistence, as well as growing children, have a way of changing perspectives.

And, just because you can't currently GIVE your grand children such things doesn't mean that you may not be able to take them out and SHOOT them together, fully supervised. Which adds a demonstrated level of competency and responsibility to the children, which will work in your favor.

Good luck!

 

[gc70]

1911 Guy nailed my childhood exposure to guns. Living in town, I didn't get a BB gun until I was an adult because they were too dangerous for the perception that they were toys. However, I learned to shoot early on my grandparents' farm and was the designated pest eradicator whenever I visited. I bought my first .22 when I hit my teens.

My parents were extremely strict about gun safety, but there were two big differences between what they did then and what many people do today. First, they did not have all of the safety tools that are commonly available today, or I am sure that I would have been wearing "eyes and ears" from the first shot I fired. Second, they described their expectations for safe gun handling, monitored my actions for a bit, and then trusted me to follow their directions; that third step is where a lot of parents seem to get hung up today.

 

[beatledog7]

We (three boys all within a four-year age span) had no guns in the house growing up, and we weren't even allowed to play organized football. So I ran track and played in the marching band.

It was a different age (60s and 70s). We rode bicycles all over heck and back without helmets and body armor, and we rode in the car without airbags or seat belts. We played outside until way past dark and often went where we told not to go.

Yet we were never kidnapped or severely injured.

I am as safety conscious as anyone, but I often think we'd all be better off if we focused on living our lives the fullest--took a few risks--instead of merely making sure we survive to face another ho-hum day.

 

[SleazyRider]

And there are no other risks in life the grandkids will ever encounter and have to learn to deal with safely and with perspective, either.

Like swimming, crossing the street, playing ball, driving, cutting their own foods, cooking on a hot stove, and more.




Frustrating as this is...they ARE the parents and their views on raising their children should be respected, difficult though that may be. Best advice I can give you is to occasionally breech the subject as the children grow. Persistence, as well as growing children, have a way of changing perspectives.

And, just because you can't currently GIVE your grand children such things doesn't mean that you may not be able to take them out and SHOOT them together, fully supervised. Which adds a demonstrated level of competency and responsibility to the children, which will work in your favor.

Good luck!

Sage advice, Chief, and advice that I'll follow. I learned a great deal from the anecdotes members have contributed to this thread, most of all not to underestimate the potential for BBs to ricochet. I, too, appreciate the "freedoms of youth" many of us have experienced growing up in the 50s and 60s, but fully acknowledge that firearms safety education has taken an enormous step forward since those heady years. Quite frankly, it was purely a matter of luck, perhaps fate, that my friends and I hadn't been injured. I'll not roll the dice like that with my grandchildren, and remain indebted to THR and its members for furthering my safety awareness.

 

[SC Shooter]

The parents were not irresponsible, Ralphie was just being a kid. My one and only shooting accident was self inflicted much like Ralphie's and it happened with my Red Rider. My father taught me well, and I was a member in good standing of the junor NRA. I had the patches to prove it!. My target back stop was a carboard box stuffed with old newpapers just like my junior NRA instructions showed. However, I decided I would set up a target on my fathers backstop of railroad ties he and my older brother used for their .22s. Oops. 60 years later, my chipped front tooth reminds me of that experience every time I look in the mirror. I must have been smiling at my shot, because the ricochet never touched my lip.

 

[Comrade Mike]

The parents were not irresponsible, Ralphie was just being a kid. My one and only shooting accident was self inflicted much like Ralphie's and it happened with my Red Rider. My father taught me well, and I was a member in good standing of the junor NRA. I had the patches to prove it!. My target back stop was a carboard box stuffed with old newpapers just like my junior NRA instructions showed. However, I decided I would set up a target on my fathers backstop of railroad ties he and my older brother used for their .22s. Oops. 60 years later, my chipped front tooth reminds me of that experience every time I look in the mirror. I must have been smiling at my shot, because the ricochet never touched my lip.

Wow talk about a 1 in a million ricochet

 

[bobinoregon]

I grew up in the 60's living out in the country, never had a bb gun till I got one for Christmas in my 40's. I had a .22 in the first grade though and I hunted the heck out of my little world with that thing, it's one of my childhood treasures I still own.

 

[jrdolall]

I got a BB gun when I was about 10-11. Prior to that I had been hunting with my grandfather for a few years using and old Stevens SS 22 and a bolt 20 g. I knew gun safety pretty well so stepping "up" to a Red Rider wasn't exactly a problem.

I kind of feel sorry for people that grew up in areas where shooting was frowned upon.

 

[thump_rrr]

Let me start by saying that I don't mean any disrespect in my posting but merely offering an unbiased opinion.
Unfortunately it seems your failure may have begun decades ago.
Did you buy your daughter a Red Ryder BB gun when she was a little girl?
If she learnt the same way when she was little it becomes a tradition which gets passed on down from generation to generation and grandpa's little lessons would have been second nature.

I wish you good luck in getting your grandchild into this hobby we love so much.

We all talk about how good the good old days were when we were growing up.
When I was a kid I would sit in the front seat between my parents in my dad's Olds 98.
Yes children used to have 2 parents too.
The only thing keeping me from slamming into the dash sometimes was my dad's arm being flung out in front of me.
Lets just say that not all things were better in the good old days.

 

[JohnBT]

I was born in '50 and got a bb rifle from my grandparents for Christmas in 1955. I'd been shooting bb guns and real guns with my father, uncles, cousins, neighbors and such, so it wasn't like they gave me a power saw with no training.

It was a different world back then anyway, worry wise. My first football helmet didn't have a face guard. The NFL didn't require face bars until 1955 and even then they could ask for an exemption. It hadn't been that many years since the NFL required helmets.

Don't even ask about existence of silly things like bicycle helmets and knee pads for skateboarding (we made them from a board and a street skate with metal wheels. Dangerous on turns, but the sparks were a nice touch.)

So you shoot your eye out - you have a spare. Okay, so we never wore eye or ear protection when shooting and never knew of anyone who did. The most casual were the WWII vets like my father - I think they were half deaf already.

 

[Sam1911]

Yep, the good ol' days. Folks didn't realize they might have to live a long time with the results of their free-wheeling ways. The army air corps gave my grandpop all the cigs he wanted. Back when a smoke was a smoke, as the song goes.

In about 1980 he walked into a surgeon's suite, laid down on the table and had his LIPS cut off, folded over and stitched back down to make new lips. Under local anesthetic. So the skin cancer didn't spread and kill him.

Funny, he didn't wear eye/ear pro. either. Man how times have changed.

 

[SleazyRider]

… Unfortunately it seems your failure may have begun decades ago.

Ummm … what failure?

 

[MtnCreek]

When I got my first BB gun I was let loose in the yard with it unsupervised. One of my first shots killed a robin (shot a robin's eye out, not my own). That was a good lesson for me. I felt bad about killing it.

I also remember anytime my parents had to slam on the brakes, they would hold their arm across the middle of the car. This was to prevent us in the back seat from flying out the windshield. Good times!

 

[Officers'Wife]

When my Dad wanted to teach Donna the fundamentals of rifle operations my only words where not to act like a training Sargent as he did with me. I have never seen my son (age 5) happier as when he, his Dad and "pa paw" had the Daisy out shooting pop cans hanging from the clothes line.

 

[DammitBoy]

Ummm … what failure?

Your failure with your daughter and her fear of firearms. Did you raise her as a shooter? Is she anti-gun or just a helicopter mom?

 

[sansone]

13 when I got a bb rifle for Christmas, my parents gave me a speech about how dangerous they are but I already had friends with bb guns so understood..

This was a suburb about 25 miles from NYC and ALL the boys had them, nobody shot at dogs, maybe a stray cat got popped, but we all knew our dads would warm our bottoms good if a neighbor called complaining.

one of my friends intentionally shot another buddy in the rear one day and his was taken by dad, and probably a spanking as well

 

[TUBBY1]

There are pictures of me at 5 years old holding a pheasant my father shot in one hand and a Daisy in the other. After the hunt it was always locked up in the home made gun cabinet next to his model 1148 I still shoot today. By the time I was ralphies age I had a single shot .410 which was locked up as well. I had also completed the NRA safe hunters course. What a wonderful time it was. All young people should be that lucky. Thanks to my father, who's been gone for 34 years, I had a great beginning. At birth I have given all 7 grandchildren a red rider ( or pink carbine ) so in case I wasn't here, they knew how I feel about it. BB guns are more about dreams and attitudes than killing. I say keep it alive. Ralphie's parents were just fine.

 

[Wishoot]

I didn't need a BB gun to inflict a number of injuries on myself when I was a kid.

 

[DeadFlies]

Yes. It is inexcusable to give a child a firearm and, with no instruction or supervision, send him outside to plink.

Even if that's "just how it was done back then".

 

[mr.trooper]

I had a Red Ryder when I was about Ralphies age.

But I also knew better than to shoot at hard surfaces, because of ricochets...

Then the .gov taught me how to ricochet rounds on purpose. I still have not shot my eye out

 

[JohnBT]

"Even if that's "just how it was done back then". "

I think the way it really went down back then more often than not was that the kid - like me - learned to shoot someone else's bb gun before they got their own. Maybe it was belonged to an older brother, uncle, cousin or a kid down the street, but they'd already been told the rules.

Even the local fireman's carnivals and county fairs had a shooting gallery with .22s chained to the counter. This was still true in Montgomery County MD when I was in high school in Rockville in the mid-60s.

 

[HOOfan_1]

Yes. It is inexcusable to give a child a firearm and, with no instruction or supervision, send him outside to plink.

Even if that's "just how it was done back then".

They didn't give him a firearm....
and his father did give him instructions.

 

[jrdolall]

Now we have gun safety courses and hunter safety courses and CCW permits and bike helmets and MADD and SADD and child proof locks and child proof medicine bottles and just about every conceivable method of making sure we are safe at all times. Smoking is bad and drinking is bad and sex is bad and on and on and on.
Yet we still have drunk drivers and STD's and accidental shootings and bicycle accidents and cancer and kids still get into stuff they shouldn't.
How many hand sanitizer dispensers do you pass by in a day compared to how many you passed by 20 years ago yet we still have colds and the flu?
His parents were parents of the time. A few years ago there were parents that bought their kids "Lawn Darts"! Even I saw that as a bad idea.
FRA-GI-LE'! I actually have a miniature of that lamp. I also have a Christmas decoration where the kid has his tongue stuck to the pole and if you push the button he screams "come back". Great movie.

 

[tarosean]

The only instruction I wished I had received as a kid with a BB gun, was to never pull the trigger with the Red Ryders lever open.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Now we have gun safety courses and hunter safety courses and CCW permits and bike helmets and MADD and SADD and child proof locks and child proof medicine bottles and just about every conceivable method of making sure we are safe at all times. Smoking is bad and drinking is bad and sex is bad and on and on and on.
Yet we still have drunk drivers and STD's and accidental shootings and bicycle accidents and cancer and kids still get into stuff they shouldn't.
How many hand sanitizer dispensers do you pass by in a day compared to how many you passed by 20 years ago yet we still have colds and the flu?
His parents were parents of the time. A few years ago there were parents that bought their kids "Lawn Darts"! Even I saw that as a bad idea.
FRA-GI-LE'! I actually have a miniature of that lamp. I also have a Christmas decoration where the kid has his tongue stuck to the pole and if you push the button he screams "come back". Great movie.

Heh!

I especially like the "sex is bad" part. Must not be TOO bad, what with 7.13 billion people on the planet today.

And that decoration of the kid with his tongue stuck to the pole...where did you get that? I seriously have a great need to get at least one of those, possibly 5, if they can still be found.