what have YOU taught your children ?

[Shannow]

to do if they come across anything that they think could be a gun (or syringe, strange chemical, white powder, etc.)

Easy to wish that these things don't exist, but you still need to teach your children what to do.

Ours found a syringe tossed in the back yard, and a leaking alkaline battery...

 

[Astro14]

Leave it alone and find an adult.

7 years ago, When I started carrying a weapon, I removed the mystery by unloading the gun, letting the kids see it, touch it, and setting the rules about it...I don't want them curious and looking. All but the youngest have been to the range to shoot...so they understand the 4 fundamental rules and how guns work....

But they are still to leave it and find an adult....even if my oldest is now technically an adult herself...

 

[BISCUT]

2 cops in the house so my kids were exposed to firearms at a very early age. They were taught never to touch and to always ask an adult first.

 

[Greggy_D]

Originally Posted By: BISCUT
my kids were exposed to firearms at a very early age. They were taught never to touch and to always ask an adult first.


This. My kids grew up around pistols/rifles since the day they were born. For this reason there is no "mystique" about them. They are just as common as the chair at the kitchen table.

Having said that, they know never to touch them and if they want to they need to go get Dad first. Eight years later I've never caught them "sneaking" and they have never asked to look at them.

 

[jjjxlr8]

Originally Posted By: Greggy_D
Originally Posted By: BISCUT
my kids were exposed to firearms at a very early age. They were taught never to touch and to always ask an adult first.


This. My kids grew up around pistols/rifles since the day they were born. For this reason there is no "mystique" about them. They are just as common as the chair at the kitchen table.

Having said that, they know never to touch them and if they want to they need to go get Dad first. Eight years later I've never caught them "sneaking" and they have never asked to look at them.


Yep. No different than any of the very sharp knives in the kitchen. My son knows not to touch.

When he was 4, my wife and I did a little test by leaving my little plastic Ruger LCP on the floor in the other room (unloaded of course!). As soon as he saw it, he came running out of the room yelling Daddy! Daddy!

We still don't take any chances, though, and our firearms are ALWAYS inaccessible to him. My worry is that if he is at a friend's house or something. Hopefully he can convince another kid not to touch a firearm.

My wife and I have also taken our son to the shooting range a couple of times. Besides teaching basic firearms safety, it really does take the curiosity out of the equation.

Here's his first target with a Ruger 10/22...he was 5 years old and there were a few more off the paper.

 

[Fleetmon]

My wife and I teach all of our grandchildren how to handle firearms and how to shoot IF they show an interest. We do not allow playing with toy guns and each child receives as their first firearm, a cap gun that stays in the safe with all other firearms and the golden rule of not touching the trigger until on target is enforced even with cap guns. Eye and ear protection is mandatory and no child uses a firearm (cap gun or other) unless in the presense of a responsible (our definition is what rules) person (always a family memeber). Our eight YO grandaughter can disassemble a 1911 as quick (or quicker) than most adults. She can only handle a .22 1911 (yep, the Browning 1911-22 is hers) however.

 

[DrinkDuff77]

I just had 'the talk' with my boys the other day. They are young (3 and 6) so I just kept it simple. I gave them three rules if they ever see an unattended firearm

1. Stop, don't touch
2. Leave the area
3. Tell an adult

I also explained they were allowed to see the guns whenever they wanted to, they just have to ask mommy or daddy. I like the testing idea...I have BB gun they would physically be unable to use. I might test them some time.

 

[zerosoma]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Leave it alone and find an adult.

7 years ago, When I started carrying a weapon, I removed the mystery by unloading the gun, letting the kids see it, touch it, and setting the rules about it...I don't want them curious and looking. All but the youngest have been to the range to shoot...so they understand the 4 fundamental rules and how guns work....

But they are still to leave it and find an adult....even if my oldest is now technically an adult herself...


Good job. I 100% agree with your post. Glad to see you are teaching your kids this way!

 

[OB4x4]

Like others here I believe in demystifying guns for my kids. They have both been instructed using airsoft guns and air rifles. My 13 year old girl has also been taught the manual of arms for both of my home defense weapons a 12ga mossberg and a 4" 357 S&W model 19. They also handle my firearms whenever I have them out. As a result having a gun around them generates little curiosity.

I have also "tested" them using one of my carry guns left out. They both passed.

Just continuing a family tradition. My dad bought me my first gun when I was about 8(10/22), and I was allowed to keep it( and a 20ga) in my room from the time I was about 12-13.

Unfortunately this tradition may be coming to an end if the DEM's have their way and make all guns forfeitable to the govt upon your death; read Diane Feinstein's draft of her proposed bill on her website. Truly sad if we can't even pass down family herilooms...

 

[Robenstein]

When i was a kid, I knew where the gun cabinet was in the house, and I knew where the key to that cabinet was. But I was taught from a young age that guns were tools that could be dangerous and deserved respect. My dad and grandfather(a ww2 vet) took me shooting beginning at 5(just to observe)to show me how powerful they were.

As I have said time and time again...its not the guns, its something much deeper wrong with the youth and our society today that has caused these mass shootings.

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
As I have said time and time again...its not the guns, its something much deeper wrong with the youth and our society today that has caused these mass shootings.


One thing is that "society" is nearly always put at fault for just about everything. Even with these shooters it's the fault of "society" and the "gun culture" that is the problem as posited by the lame stream media.

And that mind set is at work here with all of these shootings. If these lunatics see their problems as society "oppressing" them, then they are apt to strike out at "society". Since everyone is in "society", then shooting up a school or some other place becomes acceptable in their twisted mind.

As individual responsibility in our society continues to recede in favor of "victimhood", these things and other atrocities will continue in ever greater numbers.

 

[Robenstein]

Well the lack of respect and personal responsibility is one of the shifts I see in society. And working with college kids 18-20 for the most part, I can tell you there is a feeling of being almost a lost generation going around. The old formula of go to college, get a good job, build a career, have a family...ect. Just is not there like it was pre 2008 and lots of hard working people....especially young people just can't seem to catch much of a break. I feel that this stress is taking people who are already weak or on the edge and in some cases throwing them over. I certainly feel that may be the case in the Aurora shooter. When I was in grad school I saw it wreck a lot of people who got in before the crash and saw their job prospects go to hades...but were so far in they had to finish or waste their money.

 

[Win]

Bleak though the current economic outlook may be, it's been bad before. Being in school, and having Jimmy Carter as President, did not exactly fill one with warm fuzzies of hope for the future.

But kids didn't go around blowing people away willy nilly, or massacring helpless people in movie theaters or kindergartens. Or, if they did, there was not unrelenting 24/7 media saturation of the event.

Whatever the problem may be, firearms are not it, and gutting the Bill of Rights and disarming everybody else is not the solution, so far as I am concerned.

Back on topic, my adult children are gun owners. The infant I have a bit of time yet. Astro14's approach is well taken.

 

[mcshooter]

http://conservativebyte.com/2013/01/oops-obamacare-amendment-forbids-gun-registration/

 

[Robenstein]

Originally Posted By: Win
Bleak though the current economic outlook may be, it's been bad before. Being in school, and having Jimmy Carter as President, did not exactly fill one with warm fuzzies of hope for the future.

But kids didn't go around blowing people away willy nilly, or massacring helpless people in movie theaters or kindergartens. Or, if they did, there was not unrelenting 24/7 media saturation of the event.

Whatever the problem may be, firearms are not it, and gutting the Bill of Rights and disarming everybody else is not the solution, so far as I am concerned.

Back on topic, my adult children are gun owners. The infant I have a bit of time yet. Astro14's approach is well taken.




Jimmy Carter was bad from what I have studied, but I do feel this economic situation trumps that bleak era as well. I also feel that we are more disconnected in this more "digital" society. Easier to feel isolated. There is no simple answer as to why we have these events, but I feel that the idea of the bleak future is one of them. But I am not gonna blame inanimate objects and law abiding citizens for sure. Gun violence like this are a symptom of other problems.