I understand that fear, but I don't think it's a realistic one. I say this because, if your kid has ever seen a gun used on TV or a movie, she already knows "how to shoot this now."I just have in theback of my head that I take my say 8 year old to the range and shoot a 22 or even a pellet gun and he or she is so intrigued by it when at home(which guns should be put up and will be but still) or at some friends house(where guns arent put up as well God forbid) they will see a gun and think "hey I know how to shoot this now" .
So if she does come across a gun, and you've never talked about firearms with her, never admitted to her that you have guns in the home, if she's going to be overwhelmingly curious. After all, that would be the very first time she's ever seen one in real life instead of in the movies. Who wouldn't be fascinated? Without education, without being taught that handling firearms is really rather boring when you follow all the rules. So she won't have any motivation at all to leave it alone in the first place. And she won't have even a rudimentary understanding of firearms safety rules (muzzle direction & trigger finger) which might put the brakes on tragedy even if she did deliberately disobey and pick it up.
Ignorance is really an ineffective strategy for keeping kids safe. It relies on adults to be perfect -- and we're not. We're human beings and human beings make mistakes.
On the other hand, if you show your kids your gun early on, and teach them the safety rules, and make sure they know that any time they are tempted to touch a gun all they have to do is come find you and ASK and that you will help them handle it and stay safe, then you have just removed nearly all of their motivation for picking up a gun when you are not around. Why risk a spanking or worse, when all they have to do is ask? There's no longer that aura of forbidden fruit to entice them to do something stupid.
And if you have taught them well, there is at least a thin veneer of gun-handling knowledge (re muzzle direction & trigger finger) which might prevent an outright tragedy even if you negligently leave the gun out and they deliberately disobey.
Humans are not perfect. Neither children nor adults are perfect. So any safety plan that relies on humans of any age to be perfect is a flawed plan.
Keeping the kids ignorant and trusting the firearms locks relies on adults to be perfect. It assumes that none of the adults around them will ever goof by leaving the safe door open. You might never, ever, ever leave your own safe door open -- but can you say the same of every one of your kids' friends' parents? Probably not.
Leaving the guns accessible, or just putting them out of reach rather than locking them up, relies on children to be perfect. It assumes that children will never be tempted to disobey, and will never be pushed by their peers into doing stuff they know they shouldn't. Anyone who's ever lived with a child knows how unlikely that is.
So instead of relying on adults to be perfect, keep the guns either under the conscious control of a responsible adult at all times, or locked up where a child could not possibly get it. And educate your children against the day when an adult goofs.
pax