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Health & Fitness

What about the kids?

That’s a big one for most people.  I hear a lot of; “We have small children and cant have a gun in the house now” or, “They get into everything and I’m terrified of an accident”.

 Those are both absolutely understandable concerns for any responsible parent.  Yet tens of millions of families with children enjoy shooting sports and own and keep firearms in their home with no problems. How do they do it and why?

“Just say NO!” doesn’t work: You might already be thinking, “Well I’m just never going to let my children touch a firearm anyway so they’ll be safe, so I don’t need to know any of this.” 

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Really?  Do you honestly think you can somehow insulate your child from any and all possible hazards out there?  When they are 15 or 16 and go to Summer Camp, are you banning them from using the rifle range?  Are you sure no one you know, or ever will know has a firearm in his or her home?  Nobody in your family hunts?

What does work?  The best and proven answer is a combination of responsible safe storage and basic age appropriate safety training. 

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Safe Storage:  Responsible storage can come in the form of a heavy duty, fireproof gun safe with infinite digital combinations in a closet or basement, bolted to the floor and professionally installed. 

Or it can be a relatively inexpensive (under $100) biometric safe that holds just a single handgun and some ammunition and only opens to your fingerprint.  If the firearm is for home protection you need to strike a balance between safety and accessibility.  Always err on the side of safety with children of any age involved.

Firearms should always be stored unloaded and, if children are in the house or may visit, a secondary lock, a trigger or bolt lock is a good idea.  Many modern handguns, from Smith & Wesson, Taurus, Kimber and others come with a lock already integrated into the design and a small key that you can store safely out of sight and away from little hands.

Safety Training:  For children, age appropriate safety training is designed to take some of the mystery (and attraction) out of firearms and at the same time equip them to safely deal with the chance of coming across one in their daily life.

Safety training needs to be age appropriate.  For smaller children through Pre-K, a basic “No” and a strong understanding that firearms are a “Don’t Touch” thing, no different from a hot stove or electrical socket for them.

By the time they are in Pre-K to 2nd or 3rd grade they may be visiting homes where safe storage might not be taken as seriously as it is in your own home. They need to have simple to follow guidelines t keep them safe.

Again, keep it simple and use easy to remember rules, if some friend wants to “show them Daddy’s gun” when they visit or they come across one outside the home:

1. Stop

2. Don’t Touch

3. Leave the Area

4. Tell a Grown Up Immediately

Starting Out with Children, when and how?  When children show their parents they have the maturity to understand basic safety rules, usually around 8 to 10 years old, (but it’s the your call on that since some aren’t very mature at 24!), it’s time to think about introducing them to guns the right way. 

One easy, fun and proven way to do that is in the form of the classic Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. Cheap (around $30), easy to use and handle for a youngster and gives you what you need to start teaching the basic safety rules for any gun.  Plus you can do it in your own back yard or basement. 

They usually comes with safety glasses a few hundred BBs and some targets to start.  But a few empty aluminum cans are more fun for most kids since they make a plinking noise and bounce when a bb hits them. Extra safety glasses are usually a $1 item at Harbor Freight and a lot of Dollar stores.

To Summarize:  There are over 90 million US households with firearms. The tragedies that sometimes show up on our front pages and the evening news are almost always the result of improper storage and no safety training for the adults or children involved.  Don't be "That Guy".



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