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Knimrod
04-30-2006, 10:29 PM
Poor Parenting To Blame for Gun Control Debate
April 28, 2006
By Melissa Davis
Daily Nexus Online (UC Santa Barbara's Student Newspaper

As a child, I was taught proper gun safety. To this day, I can still remember this animated eagle telling me to never touch a gun and, if I saw one, to immediately notify an adult. My dad used to take me to gun shows, which, despite popular assumption, entailed more than just a bunch of right-wing, gun-totin’ rednecks showing off their latest forms of weaponry. So, even though I was raised around such violent tools of death and destruction, I have still somehow managed to not murder or shoot anyone. And I don’t seriously plot world domination. So, in this matter at least, as a fairly well-adjusted nonviolent person - although I admit, when it comes to insects, I operate on a kill-on-sight basis - I consider myself a testament to the fact that guns do not kill people - some people kill people. But mostly, the catalyst of all this mayhem is bad parenting.

There is an initiative in Wisconsin aiming to lower the hunting age to eight years old. Sure, some people are outraged, but I’m not. Imagine the situation: A father takes his eight-year-old son or daughter out on a hunting trip. The argument is that a child of such a young age is incapable of safely handling firearms. If that were the case, would a responsible father ever take the kid out in the first place, risking his own life as well as his child’s? No; by hunting with his kid, he is simultaneously creating a picturesque bonding experience and is teaching his child gun safety and the proper uses for guns.

Really, it all comes down to education. Guns, the NRA and the Second Amendment are not the enemy. They don’t advocate murder or school shootings. Plus, Charlton Heston was a cool cat. Maybe, if people had been properly armed, they wouldn’t have been eating each other in “Soylent Green.” … Just a thought. But hey, I’m not unreasonable; I even understand gun control to an extent. I don’t particularly get warm, fuzzy feelings knowing that a psycho killer is purchasing high-powered artillery. Actually, I’m not a fan of homicidal maniacs in general. But, really, what is so goddamn bad about a hardworking, taxpaying American observing his right to own guns?

“Well, what if his kid finds it and uses it as a toy and gets his head blown off?” Then his father was tragically irresponsible. No one is ever too young to learn gun safety. Witness Dick Cheney. “What if my kid goes to the house of a gun owner, finds a gun and blows his head off?” Then you should have taught your kid not to touch guns and not to go poking around other people’s houses.

Instead of blaming inanimate objects that really do not just happen to “go off,” why not take responsibility for the lack of gun safety taught in this country? While I’m not usually one to advocate the public school education system doing the job of parents, perhaps there should be more discussions about gun safety built into the kindergarten or first-grade curriculum. We’ve already got the whole “Don’t run with scissors” thing down by then. Why strip away the rights of law-abiding gun owners simply because people don’t know how to raise their kids properly by instituting in them notions of right and wrong?

It’s wrong for someone to shoot someone else. And it’s just as wrong to make people suffer the consequences of someone else’s crime by revoking their constitutional rights. So, that being said, who’s up for some target practice?

Melissa Davis is a copyreader for the Daily Nexus.


Link to article (http://www.ucsbdailynexus.com/opinion/2006/11560.html)

M1911A1
05-01-2006, 04:55 PM
Poor Parenting To Blame for Gun Control Debate
By Melissa Davis

>>>>...

Then you should have taught your kid not to touch guns and not to go poking around other people’s houses.
...



Unlke Ms. Davis, I did not have an animated eagle telling me not to touch or tell an adult. I had a Korean war veteran USMC SSGT telling me that those guns were his and if I wanted to see them or go shooting or handle them I had to ask permission.
Why?
BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T MINE!!
The same rule went for anyone else's property of any kind.
It was simple.
IT'S NOT YOURS SO YOU DON'T TOUCH IT WITHOUT ASKING THE PERSON WHO OWNS IT FOR PERMISSION!

Sorry for the rant here.
The kid safety message is a good one that I firmly believe in, no disrespect intended there. I would like to see more young people taught to respect other people's property however.

Executioner
05-07-2006, 07:57 AM
Wow! What nice points she makes.

My dad was a police officer. We were taught to leave his guns alone and when we were old enough he would teach us more about them. I was 10 when he let me touch his S&W Model 10 duty revolver. He took it out of the holster and than showed me how to unload it. We talked for an hour about that gun and the difference between different types of weapons. We spent time over the next year discussing guns and gun safety, good guys and bad guys and why we needed policemen. I got my first gun when I was 12, a single shot .410. I wish I still had it.

But I digress...

I guess that my biggest surprise in reading this article isn't that it was worded well, that she explained that she understood the rules and the difference between them and us or even that she is a girl.

My big shocker is that she took her whole lifestyle into her hands and is in jeopardy of losing her right to live in the land of fruits and nuts out in California. And to think this was actually published in the University of California, Santa Barbera paper.

Wow!