You know you have to ask it. You can’t let your child play over there until you do. You swallow hard, take a deep breath, and ask:
“Do you have any guns in the house?”
Regardless of your stance on gun control, we all agree children shouldn’t have unsupervised access to loaded firearms. Every day, 9 American children die of an accidental gunshot wound. Many are shot by friends or siblings who, upon finding a gun, do what they’d done so many times in play: they pick up the gun, aim it, and pull the trigger.
This isn’t an unlikely situation. Over one-third of American households own guns (42.3% of South Carolina’s), and of that percentage, over half do not keep them locked up.
Asking the uncomfortable question is worth a kid’s life.
Some keep them loaded, like the local family I know who keeps a handgun stashed at the top of their closet, or the one whose firearms sit in baskets on a high shelve. These parents claim that the kids can’t reach it, or that they won’t find it, or there’s no reason for them to be in the master bedroom, climbing up to the top of the closet, so it’s not dangerous to keep a loaded gun there. They say they need it for personal protection.
In my experience, no parent has acted offended when I asked about guns. In fact, most were glad I asked, and happy to answer the question. It’s a matter of gathering up your courage and gently asking. And if the answer’s in the affirmative, follow up and make sure:
- Firearms are locked up, with the keys kept inaccessible to children (not stored in the same place as house keys, for example, or on the same keyring)
- Guns are stored unloaded
- Ammunition is stored separately
- Preferably, the firearms are stored with trigger locks
There are a lot of other ways to keep your kids safe around guns. While we allow gunplay and water pistols, we ask the kids not to aim at each other (we tell them to “shoot imaginary bad guys!”). We let them know that real guns are dangerous, and if they ever see a real gun, they need to tell an adult right away, and never ever touch it. We emphasize that guns are dangerous and can hurt people very badly.
Have you had the gun conversation? How do you teach firearm safety?
We recently acquired a new hand gun after my FIL passed away and while I am 3000x against even owning one, my husband refuses to get rid of it. I am now a person who has to say yes, against my will. I’m furious and terrified of the what-ifs. He has a lock that goes through the barrel and the area where the magazine goes, so it cannot be used while locked. The ammo is kept separate. The key is hidden from everyone. And still I hate knowing it’s there. That being said, I now even have more of a reason to start even earlier on gun training and awareness with my children so that they know not to ‘play’ with one or pretend. I’ve always planned on getting my children into a gun course when they were of age (16 in SC) for their own safety but I’ve also personally known families rocked by accidental shootings. It’s all a mess for my mombrain. Thanks for writing about this and helping to spread the awareness of the thought and need to ask. So many people never consider it’s an option.
Locking up guns is NEVER enough. That’s only one layer of protection. The second layer is, I believe, the most important. Disarm the child’s curiosity. TEACH them about guns. Teach them gun safety. Guns are not evil. They are inanimate objects that must be acted upon. They cannot act themselves. Following is a great blog about kids and guns, written by a Mom who is also a firearms instructor.
http://www.corneredcat.com/article/kids-and-guns/the-first-lesson/
The link will start you a couple blogs into the kids and guns articles but it has the info you’ll need. If you like it, please go back to the beginning and read them all.