Gun Safety and Children

Any parent with kids knows that there are several, often uncomfortable, talks that must be had with your kids.  There's the smoking talk, the drugs talk, the puberty talk, and the sex talk to just name a few.  The other day my wife and I had one of our first serious talks with our 6 year old.  The talk was on gun safety.  There's much talk about gun rights vs. gun control in the news lately, but that's not the reason we had the talk with her.  The son of a colleague of mine found his grandparents' gun and started walking around the house with it.  Fortunately the gun was not loaded and nothing serious happened.  But when I heard this it really made me think about what my daughter knows about guns.

So the next day my wife and I sat down with our 6 year old and asked her a few questions about guns.  We asked her if she knew what a gun was and what it does.  We then explained that although policeman and security guards have guns, guns can be very dangerous if not used correctly.  We showed her a couple of pictures of guns on the web, such as the one below, just to make sure she knows what a gun might look like.

We told her that if she sees a gun in a house or somewhere that she should leave it alone and immediately find Mommy or Daddy, or if we're not available, find a teacher at school and tell that person about the gun.  We told her that she should not touch the gun and just leave it where she sees it until she talks to someone.

She seemed to understand what we were saying, but it's an issue that we'll have to bring up with her again as she grows up.  

No matter if you are for more gun rights or for more gun control, I think that all parents can agree that teaching your kids about the effects of guns and about gun safety is very important.  If you haven't had this talk with your child, I highly recommend you consider doing it soon.