Project Much?

I normally don’t publish letters to the editor, because most of them don’t often have any particular insight, and are often factually challenged. Every once in a while though, I have to make an exception. Because this guy was apparently a raging sociopath of a four year old, apparently the rest of us aren’t responsible enough to teach gun safety to our children.

Five-year-olds today are no more mature than I was, and the NRA thinks that’s the ideal time to begin teaching children about guns.

You gotta be kidding me.

I’m pretty sure as a five year old I knew not to hurt other children. Also, no one is talking about handing guns, BB or otherwise, to five year olds and telling them to go to town. But five is not too soon to talk to kids about gun safety. In fact, if you have guns in the house, you have a responsibility to teach your kids to be safe around them.

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Really? This is a Controversy?
  2. The Anti-Gun Safety Groups
  3. The Horror: Eddie Eagle

19 thoughts on “Project Much?”

  1. Five-year-olds today are no more mature than I was am, and the NRA thinks that’s the ideal time to begin teaching children about guns.

    Fixed that for him.

  2. And I would argue that a lack of gun safety education at a young age is part of the problem we have today. That and crazies.

  3. If 5 is too young to teach gun safety, why does Maryland keep arresting 5 year olds for eating pastries into the shape of guns, and pointing fingers at other kids?

  4. In fact , if you have guns in the house, you have a responsibility to teach your kids to be safe around them.

    Fixed it for you… “Stop, don’t touch, leave the area, tell an adult” is pretty darn quick and simple to teach. All parents have the responsibility to teach their children about all of the dangers of the world. We should be teaching our kids that medicines aren’t candy and that fire burns and not to drink too much, also.

  5. Both of my nephews started hunting with my brother when they were 5 years old. They had fun, got some geese and were perfectly responsible.

  6. The four year old that was the author had no trouble succesfully shooting a bunch of kids with a BB gun *but* five year olds can’t walk and hold a glass of milk.

    Oh lord…

  7. My 5 year old almost has the 4 rules memorized. As soon as he does, we are going shooting.

    1. My 3 year old almost does, too. I’ve given him the same rule for medicine bottles, too.

      It’ll be a few years before I take him shooting, though.

  8. Looking at the rest of his ignorant articles, he’s your typical ‘Gun Owner Butt…”. He wants ‘gun control’ that doesn’t effect his ‘huntin’ guns’ or his Civil War Reenacting. Semi-auto bans,Registration, Ban private sales, No carry etc. are all good to go.

  9. If more guns were the answer to gun violence, and Chicago has one of the largest per capita rates of gun ownership in the nation, why isn’t Chicago one of the safest cities in the nation, hmm?

    Where the hell is this guy getting his figures from? Chicago has got to be near the absolute bottom in gun owners per capita.

  10. But 5 years old is apparently not too young to be teaching about homosexuality, diversity, or any of myriad other topics that liberals hold dear.

  11. FWIW, I got my first BB gun for Christmas, several weeks after I turned six. I.e., I wasn’t much more than five. I was in First Grade, and I remember having what I’ve since called my first “theological” debate with the other kids; everyone told me with theological dead-certainty that “Santa doesn’t bring BB guns,” and dammit I knew he had brought me one!

    The only thing that kept me from “running wild” with my Red Ryder BB gun was, that I was still not strong enough to cock it myself — at least for another six months or so. But then I immediately stepped up to the family .22, and was walking the fields with that, unescorted, when I was seven. Admittedly in that time and place there was a lot of open ground to absorb any mistakes I made, but anyway, I was doing it. (I remember the pull of the stock was so much longer than my arms that I had to tuck the buttstock under my armpit.)

    But my point is, no one should make any pronouncements about what kids “can’t” do. Most can do what is seriously expected of them, and won’t do anything where they know they’ll be cut a break. My dad had a little lecture that went approximately, “I want you to be a kid and have fun, but when you’re carrying a gun you can kill somebody, or yourself, so you can’t be a kid — you have to be a man.” He clearly meant it, and so it worked.

  12. Odd. For a couple of years now I’ve been teaching Lion Cubbies through Webelos the Eddie Eagle rules for off-range as well as the four rules for on range. Then I have them demonstrating their both their safety and firing skills by shooting BB guns on a BSA range. Can you imagine the fear this ‘man’ would have watching me teach a shooting line of 5 year old Lion cubs to hit the 10 ring with a BB rifle?

    Honestly by the end of a 30 minute session I have taught 10 small boys (and, if necessary, their parents) basic safety and they have spent 5-10 minutes shooting on the firing line. Almost every one starts getting 9 and 10 ring hits within minutes. We follow all the safety rules as outlined by the BSA. Mind you we keep it simple (fire prone only, first shot is stepped through by command and all on the line must demonstrate they can handle that before we allow free fire) but the boys can handle the rules.

    Then I rotate to the next set of 10. Rinse/repeat until all the scouts in the group get a chance to participate. What’s sorta sad is that I get requests from the parents if they can shoot too. If at all possible I give them time/instruction after the boys are done.

    My Scouts know guns are simply tools. They know if you handle them safely you can learn a valuable skill. I have run hundreds of boys through this and have yet to have one be unsafe and require ejection from the range.

    It’s generally a highlight for the boys during family camp. They love their time on the BB gun range and archery range.

  13. Rob K pretty much beat me to it: as soon as a child can understand language a number of issues of safety and concern for others should be addressed. This is probably even before the kid starts replying “NO!” to orders/instructions or “MINE” to possession of things.

    In re firearms specifically, five is not a bad time. I probably (there are doubtless exceptions) would not want unsupervised access quite so early, but informing and even training? Certainly.

    And yeah, I am “preaching to the choir,” even if I am not a member of the congregation (I do not own a firearm).

  14. We started our daughter on basic firearms safety when she was 3 years old as a precaution. 21 years later, she’s a Certified Pharmacy Technician (our “Resident Drug Dealer”), a Defense Training International graduate, and an Appleseed Rifleman & Instructor-In-Training. She is observant and knows when to leave an area before things get out of hand or defend herself if she can’t leave. She is reasonably well rounded and well adjusted. She has no tolerance for unsafe “Citidiots” and does not have accidents with weapons. We are proud of her and she has earned our respect, unlike the bozo in the article.

  15. It’s all part of the left’s campaign to delegitimize firearms: training kids from infancy onward to hate, shun, revile, and fear firearms. Then a few decades later the pathway is open to annulling the Second Amendment.

    It doesn’t even have to happen formally. Agents of influence in every field will work steadily and quietly to undermine your values (and the Constitution) among the upcoming generations. See http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=260.

Comments are closed.