I'll put it this way:
1. The men in my family have been a bunch of gun toters and avid hunters for at least 100 years (that I can confirm).
2. I practically grew up in a gun store (My dad owned one for the first 8 years of my life).
3. I've been around, and had access to, just about any type of gun you can think of all of my life--from black powder longrifles to so-called "assault rifles." I was well educated--I knew how to safely handle these guns at a very early age.
4. There has never been a situation in my family where anyone has been even close to being shot, whether intentionally or accidentally.
5. My one ND was in my house, while I was alone, and I put a nice hole in the floor right in front of me. My 1911 was safely pointed at the ground--not the wall, or the TV, or the door, or my neighbor's house, or my leg.
In my opinion, what it all boils down to, in regards to firearms in the home, is education. If someone doesn't take the time to educate their kids (or anyone for that matter), and they think they might gain access to your guns, keep them locked up (the guns, that is). That should be a personal judgement call.
The education goes for adults as well as kids. For example, my 70-something grandmother wanted something for the house "just in case." So my dad gets her a j-frame .38. Well, one night she think she hears something, so she decides to cock the gun. When she discovers that all is well, she doesn't know how to safely drop the hammer. So she takes it in the back yard and fires into the ground. Now if my dad (the former gun dealer and my instructor) had taken the time to educate his own mother as to the proper handling of her new Smith, she wouldn't have the problem. (Now that I'm thinking about it, I may just have to have a little talk with him.)
I think that a common problem nowadays is that people think that, because we live in a violent society, they should go right out and buy the first gun they see. Many don't bother to get educated. They think that the gun is just another home appliance that can be left laying about the house. I can just see it--an uneducated gun owner has some friends over and shows off the new Jennings .25 he/she just bought at the corner pawn shop. He/she passes it around, and everyone "ooohh"s and "ahhh"s over it, and then they set it back on the coffee table. Then little 4 year-old Johnny is sitting down watching the late-late movie as his parents are out front saying farewell to their friends. Johnny decides he wants to be like mommy and daddy and picks up the gun--"Gee, I've always seen these things on the late-late movies. I wonder how they work."---BANG--he shoots his little sister in the head.
EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION!!!
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I thought I'd just put in my $.02.
[This message has been edited by Bulldog (edited May 22, 1999).]
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