User Panel
Posted: 10/11/2005 11:14:13 AM EDT
Usual anti-gun pap, note the horrors of the AWB being expired...
Sunday, October 9, 2005 http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/SPNEWS05/110070199 Dear ParentLine: Our nine-year-old son has a best friend whose father has a gun collection. He says the collection is in the house in a locked glass case. Our son's friend is a nice little boy, and we don't want to ruin the friendship. But we really feel uncomfortable letting our son play over at the boy's house. Are there any suggestions on handling this diplomatically? — Gun shy, Cheshire County --------- Your concerns are valid, and yes, you do need to ask the parents of your child's friend about the guns. The following statistics taken from the Common Sense About Kids and Guns and the ASK websites, www.kidandguns.org and www.askingsaveskids.com websites explain why such a discussion is necessary to ensure child safety. q Every eight hours a child or teen is killed in a gun-related accident or suicide (2001). q More than 40 percent of American households with children have guns. - More American homes have guns (43 percent) than dogs (40 percent). - About 1.2 million elementary school-age, latch-key children have access to guns when they are home alone. - Almost 90 percent of accidental shootings involving children are linked to an easy-to-find, loaded gun in the house. - 88 percent of the children who are injured or killed in unintentional shootings are shot in their homes or in the homes of relatives or friends. - 2.6 million children live in homes where firearms are stored unlocked and loaded or with ammunition nearby. - More than 75 percent of kids in homes with guns say they know where the gun's hidden. Add to these statistics the fact that as of this year, the State of New Hampshire received a grade of "D-" from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (united with the Million Mom March) (www.bradycampaign.org). Though this grade was unchanged from last year, the state was awarded a "Sensible Safety Star" for blocking a gun lobby bill that would have further weakened the state's concealed handgun laws by letting people carry hidden handguns in public without obtaining a police permit. The report goes on to say that gun violence in NH could increase this year because Congress failed to renew the federal assault weapon ban, which expired last fall, and NH has no state law restricting assault weapons or rapid fire ammunition magazines. New Hampshire does not regulate the possession of guns for kids, does not require child-safety locks to be sold with guns, has no safety standards for handguns and lets concealed handgun permit holders carry hidden handguns into schools. On a positive note, New Hampshire does hold adults responsible for leaving loaded guns around children. Where the possession and use of firearms is a loaded political issue and one not likely to be solved over the back fence, your personal issue — your child's safety — must be. ASK offers these tips to make talking to your neighbors easier: - Ask with other questions. Include the question along with other things you might normally discuss, such as seat belts, animals or allergies, before sending your child to someone's house. - Use the facts. More than 40 percent of homes with children have a gun, and many of those guns are left unlocked and loaded. That's why you're asking the question — you just want to make sure your child is safe. - Don't be confrontational. Present your concerns in a respectful manner. You're simply trying to make sure your child is in a safe environment. - Ask if the guns are unloaded and locked. - Ask if ammunition is stored separately and locked up. - Ask if the gun case keys are hidden from children. Child and Family Services' family therapy experts add that before talking with the neighbors, you might find it helpful to jot down specific concerns about the guns and consider having the friend's parents to your home for the discussion. You may find yourself more or less at ease after their response. You may then decide that visits with your son and his friend are limited to your home or neutral territory, or that your son is safe at his friend's home. You may come to this decision after finding out the gun owner's awareness about safety. Trust your instincts about the gun owner's character. Your son's safety depends on you. With regard to your child's safety, talking about guns is not just a one-time conversation. Repetition is how kids learn. Revisit the topic of guns, including conversations about the dangers, safety factors, rights and responsibilities involved, as your child grows and is exposed to gun violence. Mothers Against Gun Violence, online at www.wagv.org/kidsafe.htm suggests some teaching tips for small children aged 3 to 10 years old. If you see a gun at a friend's house: - Tell a grown-up. - Tell your friend not to touch the gun. - Call your parent or go home. For children who are juniors or seniors in high school, if a friend carries a gun, tell them it puts them in danger. Avoid people and places where they suspect violence might flare up. Have willpower. If they become involved in a conflict, walk away from it. Help kids learn anger-management and conflict-resolution skills. ParentLine spoke with Laurel Redden, steering committee member of New Hampshire's Firearm Safety Coalition, about the issue of guns and kids. Redden became involved with the Million Mom March in 1999 when a first grader in Michigan was killed in an accidental shooting. "My own child was in kindergarten at the time," she said. "I saw this was an issue about which I needed to become more aware." Redden reports that the coalition is part of the Dartmouth Injury Prevention Center (based in Lebanon) and is engaged in projects to bring educational videos to middle and high school students to stress that guns are not toys. The coalition is comprised of members of the Gun Owners of New Hampshire, representatives of gun manufacturer Sturm Ruger, members of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, and several representatives of medical and public health entities; all of whom are committed to gun safety. "New Hampshire has a long heritage of sport shooting, but at the same time, a need exists to make kids aware that guns are not toys, and that they are to be taken seriously," she said. "The ultimate goal is to be sure a child doesn't come into contact with a gun in an unsupervised setting." For more information about this initiative, call Elaine Frank of the Dartmouth Injury Prevention Center at 653-1135 or e-mail her at Elaine.FrankDartmouth.edu. |
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This demonstrates once again that people love to express opinions on topics where they lack knowledge.
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Those sound cool! I've gots to get me some rapid-fire ammunition magazines!!! |
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that equates to about 1100 "children" and equals to an average of 3 per day - funny how i do not see this in the news each and every single day. |
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Crap after crap after crap. 100 percent of american homes with children have forks, knives, and electrical outlets. Big whoopty do. 99% have cars. I am sure 80+ percent have alchohol. How many have matches?
The deathrate for children is remarkably small these days, and any cause is going to show up on statistics. 4,000 people die a year from asthma. 20,000 or so a year from alchohol related incidents/homicides/accidents. 557,271 from the big "C", and this biatch is worried about 1100 deaths a year of children w/guns (which happens to be suidide/homicide/accident/whatever lumped together). |
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Make sure you all write [email protected] and let her know what you think.
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Then teach your child responsibility, instead of fear. |
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You paying for it? Enough of my money is going to dumbass projects already. TRG |
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It breaks down as 928 suicides and 182 accidents. If you check for kids up through age 10 you get 35 accidental deaths and no suicides. "Gunshy's" kid is nine. By comparison there were 69 fatal poisonings, 464 deaths by fire, 722 drownings, and 771 non-firearm homicides for that same group. (Parents deliberatly kill their kids far more often than anyone would care to admit.) I think "fear of guns" is vastly overblown by "gunshy" there. But then, you knew that. The paper didn't. |
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Well, in our society, not everyone like para-military firearms, and debates the pros and cons of the 5.56 with their friends every day in class instead of taking notes.
I thought this article was actually very reasonable, with only the boldened section slandering assault weapons being a bit slanted. But after, it's the Brady people talking, not the author of the article. Otherwise, I think it was a very fair article with very reasonable facts and suggestions. One SHOULD make sure the gun owning parents are responsible, one SHOULD make sure that they aren't retards with loaded guns lying around, etc. etc. The avg. ARF board member seems to be more responsible, but think of those sketchy looking scum bags you see in gun stores, and really wish they couldn't buy guns... would you want your kid going to play in their house? |
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for some reason the term "rapid fire ammunition magazines" still makes me roll on the floor laughing
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You honestly think it will be gun safety? Or will it be more along the line of "guns are evil. If you touch one, everyone you love will die. Only the police and military can harness their dark powers for good. If you know someone who owns a gun, call the ATF hotline..." |
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you mean like me??? scruffy, unshaven, and downright ugly |
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Oy vey kid, we still need to deprogram you. She singles out guns as things to be feared. My dad was a cop for 30 years. When he came on field trips with us he carried his gun. Other kids would say things to me like "whoaaahhh your dad has a GUN" It never entered on my radar screen - I saw guns all the time, so therefore it was about as spectacular as seeing a car. Guns were not made to be items of fear and mystery to me, so I knew not to touch my dad's stuff. |
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Gun safety should not be a standalone concept, but rather it should be melded into a familiarization course, with a marksmanship course for those students wanting it. |
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If it comes to this, then exactly WTH is the point? Awarness about safety? That's like asking the janitor to interview the physicist about his atomic bomb safety features and expecting the janitor to understand what the guy just said. |
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Let the guns be kept unlocked, unloaded, but unlocked. Don't teach kids to fear them, the lack of understanding of what is forbidden leads to curiosity and THAT is what is truly dangerous. People like this bitch are the reason why gun accidents occur. Someone has no experience with a gun picks it up and accidently pulls the trigger, expecting your finger to naturaly lay there! Picture an alternative, a child enters the room and sees a gun. They take the firearm, removes the mag and a chambered round, then give the ammo to responsible adult, while never even touching the trigger. Doesn't that work better? (If the child at all feels threatened by the prescence of the gun to begin with.) Kids need to be tought respect for guns, not fear. While it would be ideal if all kids could safely unload a gun, the system of thought that guns are Baaaaaaaaad... mkay........ will prevail even in the face of common sense.
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I don't have any kids, so no one has had much of a reason to ask me these questions.
Has anyone ever had there kids1 friends parents ask them this? How did you respond? |
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+1 When I was in high school, we had a kid die of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head, with an automatic pistol with the mag removed, because he had no concept of firearms safety or proper operations, and the one up the spout got him. As I understand it, he had the gun because he was holding it for some gang members that lived on his street. He wasn't part of the gang but had made peace with them by agreeing to store their contraband from time to time. After this happened, a bunch of his friends got together and asked the principal to organize a firearms safety class for everyone in the school, which was a great idea. The idiots in the parents' association shot it down, for whatever asinine reason it was they came up with. Probably a similar logic to the people who want "abstinence-only sex education." |
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Somebody's got to say it: "More thrusts per squeeze!" |
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Get on the bus, and start educating people then. People hate it when they discover they are ignorant about something. Take somebody shooting who has never gone before. It opens their eyes, that's for sure.
The author is a scared, gun-fearing liberal who merely found quotes which backed up her fears and added a tone of reasonableness so as not to piss off everybody or sound too strident.
Some of those "sketchy looking scum bags" are just as legit as you and I. And a lot of ARF board members don't exactly look like the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit either. Is there a sartorial and personal hygiene section to the Bill of Rights that I missed? Who decides who gets guns, and who doesn't? What happens when the government says you SHOULDN'T have guns? |
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OOOO!!!! OOOOOO!!!! OOOOOOO!!!
Where can I get a "Sensible Safety Star" for my very own?!?!.......... ........ to poop on. |
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Im very proud to say...
Florida now has an F rating by the bradies |
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Blood running in the streets, baby! Blood running in the streets. |
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95thfoot:
I do in fact do my part to educate and undemonize firearms as much as I can. Every time I go to the range i bring someone new (who is usually female and hot, yay!), but the truth is that firearms ARE scary to some people that it's almost irrational.... and their irrationality is based on good reason. Guns do kill people... but so do cars, especially when soccer moms are driving. People should respect firearms, and you should make sure that parents at the house in this example are responsible enough to respect firearms. You are giving people the benefit of the doubt just because they share hobbies with you... This is the same country where mothers hold drinking parties for their teenage kids and then fuck drunk teen friends of their son/daughter, because they wanted to be "cool moms". Yeah. Nothing wrong with being doubly sure. And about the freaks at gun stores, i'm much more likely to respect a man who shows up in a suit, driving a mercedes, then a guy who drives in with a nasty goth girlfriend, hasn't showered, is wearing a tattered punisher t-shirt and looks like a down syndrome version of ted bundy. I'm superficial and i don't like fat chicks, and I judge people by how they look. It's worked pretty well for me so far... and funny thing, at my local gun store you do get social dynamics like that, with the insanely rich pursuing shooting as a hobby, and the weird getting guns because they can. |
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I have a new goal! |
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Shouldn't be hard, Goth girls usually have low self esteem. Just tell them they are beautiful, oops, i meant ugly |
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Mrs gorilla would kill me for that one. I'll take the rest though. |
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You just gave me an aneurysm. Reason and logic will never lead to irrationality - the two are counterintuitive. Reason: rational Irrational: not rational You see my point? These people react out of fear and social programming, not a thought out response. |
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The basic premise of the article seems to be "go talk to the gun owner and ask how the guns are stored", which is pretty much exactly what I'd do if my own kid told me there were a bunch of guns at his friends house. There ARE morons out there who leave guns out accessible to kids. I'm not too worried about my own kids picking up a gun, since they'll be well educated, but I can't speak for any other kids that might be present.
Of course, I'd have similar (if not greater) concerns if my 5 year old wanted to go play at a friends house who had a pool... |
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Correct. It's a semi-correct article, but still written from the standpoint of someone who fears those "icky guns." |
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Agreed, it went way too far in the anti gun crap, from the AWB expiring, which I highlighted in bold, to spouting D- ratings, rapid fire magazines, etc etc. |
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Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Let's count how many crimes have been carried out in NH in the past year involving anything even remotely related to the items outlined in the AWB ... <crickets chirping> |
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Isn't this a twist at what Eddie Eagle...of the NRA teaches kids? |
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My Son has a friend whose Father is a "recovering" crack & smack addict. We will not let our Son play at that house! Since Dad has squandered the family resources on dope and is now unemployable, finances are a bit tough for this family. My Wife, out of kindness and charity, has offered to help watch their kid a few hours a week without charge. My Wife told me the other Mom was asking these questions (that Rosie and Oprah told her to ask) about guns in our home. My Wife told her to worry more about child safety conditions in her own household and if she feels uncomfortable with the FREE childcare my Wife offers her then to please take her child elsewhere!
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