I could not have expressed it better than this article courtesy of Rachel Maddow.
“Owners, check your own guns to be sure that they’re secure. Remind a friend to do the same. Enroll your children in safety classes. President Obama isn’t going to take away your gun. Make sure that your gun doesn’t take away your life or the life of someone you love.”
This writer is correct. The 2nd Amendment is not suddenly going to go away. The NRA is simply using fear to boost gun sales. The same thing happened after Clinton was elected.
Increasing restrictions on ownership will solve nothing. However, to suggest that background checks to ensure that potential owners do not have criminal records or serious mental issues is a bad idea is just stupid. The issue is what happens when firearms are in your home.
If you want to stop accidental discharge, lock them up. Do not keep your ammo in the same spot as your gun. Don’t keep the keys in the same spot as both. If you need to access your firearm for the rare but horrific event that your family and property are in danger, drill yourself and other responsible adults in the home periodically on going through the motions to access the components that you need to lock and load.
Teach kids about guns. My wife’s high school had gun safety classes and skeet shooting becuase so many households had guns readily available. The fact is that people who shoot each other are not in the practice of legally obtaining firearms. Therefore, increased restrictions will not solve the problem.
If you want to keep kids from playing with guns, teach them how to respect them and how to use them. If you want to keep your kids from getting into fights at school, teach them self-defense. In Karate and Tae-Kwon Do the greatest lesson that kids learn is discipline along with self-respect in order not to get into fights! It’s the best form of deterrence that you can give your kids. You know they are safe if something bad does happen, and you know that they are not likely to have thrown the first punch or instigated the fight. Same thing with guns. So get your kids to a firing range and enroll them in a gun safety course today and lock up your guns.
On a final note, this is why toy guns should be forbidden in the home. Sure squirt guns are fine, especially Super Soakers that look nothing like a real firearm. But BB guns and other toy guns look far too real to law enforcement and can cause accidental death in more ways that one. Moreover, they promote improper gun handling with real firearms because the toy guns look so authentic. If your kids have toy guns, demand they treat them like a real one. Rule 1: Never aim it at another person or yourself even if you are just playing. Rule 2: Carry it muzzle down with your finger resting off the trigger. Rule 3: Make sure that play safety is on - even if it is not real. Or, don’t have toy guns in the house and let them use sticks instead.
Re-spect.
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