I like to check and see what lies the competition tries to spread around, so I was poking around HCI's site the other day and came across one of their "Is Your Family Safe?" quizzes. Okay. I'm game. I used the home I grew up in as a model and took the test...
My parents really failed miserably...
It's a wonder my brother and I are still alive! It's a wonder anyone in my hometown is alive!
Here are some of the questions they ask:
Is there a gun in your home?
"A" gun? more like five guns... and two bows. Three of the guns and one of the bows were Mom's.
Do children know where the guns are?
Yeah... pretty hard to miss. They were in a built-in hutch right by the TV.
Is the ammunition stored separately and locked?
Not exactly, unless you count the built-in drawer right below the hutch as "separate", and no, it wasn't locked, either.
Are your guns locked in either a safe or with an approved trigger lock?
There wasn't even a glass covering on the hutch, oh, my!
Does your family ever have arguments?
Oh, heck. German-Italian-French mixes never argue. <g>
Are your children ever home by themselves?
My parents did have a life, ya know.
Are you certain you could tell the difference between a family member and an intruder?
What kind of question is this? People who own guns shoot anything that moves in the dark? Hey, HCI, ever hear of being "certain of your target and beyond"?
Could there be guns in the homes where your children play?
In fact, I'd be surprised if one of my friends' families didn't have a gun in the house. I grew up in a hunting/fishing community in northern Minnesota. The paper factory nearly shuts down every year with the deer hunting opener!
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HCI painted a picture for me that gun owners are irresponsible maniacs who are willing to kill family members over any little disagreement or accidentally kill their families when they hear something go bump in the night.
Ridiculous.
The same rules we had for firearms applied to anything else that might be dangerous in the home, like power tools: You don't dare touch anything Mom and Dad said is dangerous unless they have taught you how to use it first... and you don't use it unsupervised until they have seen you act responsibly.
My brother and I knew that our parents had enough respect for us that they could entrust us with certain responsibilities. We had enough respect for our parents to obey them and to know that what they said was best for us.
But this is what really irks me: Isn't this notion of hiding things from kids even more dangerous? Isn't that only going to make a child even more curious (the forbidden fruit syndrome)? Isn't it safer for everyone around when parents take the time to go through some very basic training?
I see kids at the range with their moms and dads all the time and it's very encouraging. I'm a lot less afraid that those kids are going to hurt themselves than some other kid who hasn't ever seen a gun and knows nothing about gun safety.
But then, I've got a 10-year-old cousin who made state shooting champion last year. HCI must think I'm nuts, but instead of being scared of him, I'm proud!
I'm more afraid of ignorance of guns than I am of guns themselves!
Any thoughts? What was it like for other members of this forum growing up?
=Q=
------------------
"Oh, grow up, 007."
[This message has been edited by Q (edited February 16, 1999).]
My parents really failed miserably...
It's a wonder my brother and I are still alive! It's a wonder anyone in my hometown is alive!
Here are some of the questions they ask:
Is there a gun in your home?
"A" gun? more like five guns... and two bows. Three of the guns and one of the bows were Mom's.
Do children know where the guns are?
Yeah... pretty hard to miss. They were in a built-in hutch right by the TV.
Is the ammunition stored separately and locked?
Not exactly, unless you count the built-in drawer right below the hutch as "separate", and no, it wasn't locked, either.
Are your guns locked in either a safe or with an approved trigger lock?
There wasn't even a glass covering on the hutch, oh, my!
Does your family ever have arguments?
Oh, heck. German-Italian-French mixes never argue. <g>
Are your children ever home by themselves?
My parents did have a life, ya know.
Are you certain you could tell the difference between a family member and an intruder?
What kind of question is this? People who own guns shoot anything that moves in the dark? Hey, HCI, ever hear of being "certain of your target and beyond"?
Could there be guns in the homes where your children play?
In fact, I'd be surprised if one of my friends' families didn't have a gun in the house. I grew up in a hunting/fishing community in northern Minnesota. The paper factory nearly shuts down every year with the deer hunting opener!
----------
HCI painted a picture for me that gun owners are irresponsible maniacs who are willing to kill family members over any little disagreement or accidentally kill their families when they hear something go bump in the night.
Ridiculous.
The same rules we had for firearms applied to anything else that might be dangerous in the home, like power tools: You don't dare touch anything Mom and Dad said is dangerous unless they have taught you how to use it first... and you don't use it unsupervised until they have seen you act responsibly.
My brother and I knew that our parents had enough respect for us that they could entrust us with certain responsibilities. We had enough respect for our parents to obey them and to know that what they said was best for us.
But this is what really irks me: Isn't this notion of hiding things from kids even more dangerous? Isn't that only going to make a child even more curious (the forbidden fruit syndrome)? Isn't it safer for everyone around when parents take the time to go through some very basic training?
I see kids at the range with their moms and dads all the time and it's very encouraging. I'm a lot less afraid that those kids are going to hurt themselves than some other kid who hasn't ever seen a gun and knows nothing about gun safety.
But then, I've got a 10-year-old cousin who made state shooting champion last year. HCI must think I'm nuts, but instead of being scared of him, I'm proud!
I'm more afraid of ignorance of guns than I am of guns themselves!
Any thoughts? What was it like for other members of this forum growing up?
=Q=
------------------
"Oh, grow up, 007."
[This message has been edited by Q (edited February 16, 1999).]