A Hospital Offers a Grisly Lesson on Gun Violence

[thucythucy]

14. Well then, you need to clarify.

You started out by saying children had to be taught gun safety so that, in the event they found a weapon left untended by a negligent owner, or discarded by a criminal, they'd know how to unload it safely.

If you've re-thought that notion, and now disown it, fine. Everyone makes mistakes or floats a fail on the internet from time to time. I myself am not immune--I've floated some howlers in my time. It happens.

But I need to see you spell that out for me, for my own peace of mind. If you are a gun owner (and I suspect you are) and if you're ever around children, I need to know you're not going to be teaching eighth graders how to "safely" unload a discarded weapon without an adult being present. It's just that important to me.

So I'll say it again: the first rule of gun safety for children is to never handle a gun unless a responsible adult is present. From there you can progress onto other matters, such as the second rule: ALWAYS treat a gun as if it's loaded, ALWAYS. Even if you know or think you know it isn't. That means NEVER pointing a weapon at anyone, EVER. And from there we can go on to other rules.

Sorry to be so dogmatic about this, and lecturing and hectoring you, but mixing children with guns allows for no mistakes, no grey areas, no misunderstandings. The results can be far too tragic.