Would you be offended if someone asked you?

[Jeff Thomas]

Blue Jays, I agree 100% - we don't leave guns lying around, and we kid-proof as well.

As far as mongrel, I don't share your confidence.

Take care. Regards from AZ

 

[Mike H]

Listen guys, I know this won't go down very well with you family shooters. But forget Eddie the Trigger Happy Eagle, I just don't think that kids and guns mix.

A kid is by definition, someone who has not yet reached maturity, does not have the life skills necessary for such things as driving a car, drinking alcohol, forming sexual relationships or owning a firearm. But of course kids do drive cars, drink alcohol, have sex and shoot, but not own guns, and hey surprise, surprise, terrible things happen as a result. Oh I'm sure you all had a closet full of .22's when you were barely out of diapers and never had anything but good safe fun with them, but a lot didn't and they can't contribute here because they are either dead or emotionally scarred for life because they killed their best buddy when showing him their new squirrel gun. I knew a LOT of kids from my childhood who were perfectly normal happy children but they were involved in some terrible firearms related accidents. My wife lost 2 barely teenage relatives to accidental shootings and one school friend to suicide by rifle, then there's her brother who is now a lawyer (ironic, I know) who put a .303 Brit round through his bedroom window at the age of 10 when showing his best friend his dads new rifle, to this day there is a bullet hole somewhere in Connellsville, Pennsylvania that belongs to him. I'm sure all your little Johnnies and Jimmies exhibit impeccable gun safety, but experience has shown me that most children don't, and if I have to deny my children the right to shoot as a minor so that they can still enjoy the shooting arts as an adult I consider it a price worth paying.

Now, don asbestos suit and await flames from Outraged of Kentucky.

------------------
A Person Is Smart
But People Are Stupid

Mike H

 

[sbryce]

Mrs. sbryce here.

As to the original question, my opinion would be that as the homeowner/gun owner I would welcome inquiries.

As a mom visiting a home with an unattended and presumeably loaded gun out and available to children, I should ask the homeowner/gun owner about it. Communication often clarifies many things.

I was quite surprised the other day by a new piano student's belief that the 'pretties' on my piano were ok for her to touch. In the presence of her mom (a longtime friend of mine), this 8 yo girl (with whom I've never been impressed) started handling the things on my piano. Then the girl was most sad when I asked her not to touch. Tough.

Conclusion: assume = ass/u/me. (I can't believe I wrote that!) Don't assume a homeowner/gun owner really is as responsible as they should be. Don't asume a visitor to your home knows gun safety (if the gun is operable) or, conversely, that the visitor knows your gun is a display piece. And don't assume that children have the training to keep their hands to themselves. My children aged 3 and up do, I think. That piano student didn't.

--Denise