My 5 yr old climbed up on a chair and assembled my ex's shotgun

[Breeze54]

and almost had it all together, assembled, when I found him!! It's very odd that he even KNEW the shotgun was on the top shelf of my closet, as I had hidden it there when the kids were asleep BUT he found it!! YIKES!! I had the shotgun ammo stashed in another place, away from the disassembled shotgun. How he knew it was there, is beyond me but I'm sooo glad I caught the mischievous and curious child in time!! THAT could have been a real disaster.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Your 5 year old can assemble a shotgun?

Hell, I'm 58 and I still have trouble putting my shotgun back together after cleaning it. Your kid must be a genius.

[Breeze54]

3. It was appalling to me but yes, he apparently knew how. Or figured it out.

Freaked me out! And yes, he is smart but he isn't 5 anymore. ;)

[Breeze54]

5. Why do you think that's unusual? 5 yr olds are smart and very curious.

Maybe you didn't know that. They're not all dummies.

[MrSlayer]

2. Nice.

You should have let him go, he may have come back with meat for the winter and some nice skins for clothing.

[Breeze54]

4. I doubt it but he may have shot a loved one. Who knows?

Kids are very curious. He always was from the time he could walk and before that.

[amyrose2712]

7. That is very scary. Kids are curious and smart. Lock that thing up...

I know defeats the purpose. I guess that is why I'm not really one for having guns in the house. But thats just me, I live with a bipolar maniacal man. Anyway, how do you make that little smiley? Coolness!

[Breeze54]

8. He's all grown up now and I sold the shotguns that week...as for the smiley?

just right click it and then click 'SAVE AS' to to your computer picture file folder
and then you can upload it to www.Photobucket.com for FREE and then use it on DU by
using the DIRECT link Photobucket creates for you! ;)

[amyrose2712]

10. Cool. Did you create it though?

[Breeze54]

12. Me? Write HTML code?! Hell no!! LOL!!

:P

I just copy and paste! ;)

[Breeze54]

6. BTW? I sold the Winchester and the other 'antique' too.

That week.

[fasttense]

9. You have a mechanical genius on your hands.

In the military I learned to take weapons apart to clean and preserve them. Putting them together again is not an easy or obvious procedure. If your 5 yr old is capable of getting fairly far along in the process, he sounds like a mechanical genius.

Parents are use to thinking of very smart children in terms of written and verbal skills. But, there are those among us who are naturally capable of working out elaborate mechanical complexities with little or no training. Give them a broken bike, and they will fix it with minimal training. They tend to be the best car mechanics but they also do well in many other fields from surgery to physics.

My older brother is one of those. He works with nuclear reactors.

You should look into how to expand on his natural mechanical abilities.

[Breeze54]

11. As I stated above, he's all grown up now and is a musician. 8 instruments at last count and a 50 Cal

machine gun under his belt but he likes the guitar and the cello the best!!

They got him scholarships to college, unlike the military fairy tails. ;)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. That .50 Cal is a great asset

to the rhythm section. Stacatto with attitude. 1812 Overture got nothin' on this!

(and if spelled "stacatto" wrong, well, my Italian is very weak)

:rofl:

But, more series, hiding stuff is no way to protect the kids. Locks and education work better. If it's dangerous (guns, knives, poisons, acids), kids will find it. If they're not educated about it, they'll experiment. Glad to see he survived childhood!

:hi:

[Breeze54]

15. lmao! I prefer the music of the Cello over the sound of the .50 Cal, myself. Call me crazy!!

:crazy: :P

"hiding stuff is no way to protect the kids."

What makes you think I was protecting the kids when I hid the weapons?!

As far as I knew, they and their Dad didn't know where the shotguns were stashed!

I didn't want the friggin' weapons in the house at all to begin with!!

We had just split up and he got an "invitation to vacate" from the police.

It all happened in a very short time and a LONG time ago.

Locking up the weapons wasn't my concern as i had nowhere to lock them up. So, I hid them!

My concern was disposing of them asap and I did that, as fast as possible! ;)

We moved on, after that, to the Cello and Art! ;)

--------

Glad to see he survived childhood!

Now that's a bullshit statement!! Gheesh!!

[mwb970]

14. Kids will find anything you hide. Anything. Anywhere.

I'm glad you didn't have to learn this the hard way!

[Vickers]

16. "It's very odd that he even KNEW the shotgun was on the top shelf of my closet"

Indeed.

[Breeze54]

17. What? You think I said it outloud, in front of him, "by accident"?

That NEVER happened. I lived alone, worked full time and they went to day care and pre-school all day long. It was just me and the 2 kids and I was very careful what I did and didn't say in front of them. I was living alone when that happened and I know I wasn't having a discussion about hiding weapons BY MYSELF, TO MYSELF!!! :P It was a real mystery. Period. If you think I'm lying, then you're the loser.

[Vickers]

18. You should check your blood pressure.

You certainly inferred a lot from my one-word post.

:rofl:

[Breeze54]

19. Don't 'infer' that i'm a liar. INDEED!

:(

[Vickers]

20. Yup...yer spiking.

Cut out the salt.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Vickers]

22. Yip, I reckon I am.

:crazy:

BTW, name-calling is against the rules.

Hope this helps.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Vickers]

27. lol

I'm sure that, other than this one instance, you were a wonderful parent.

Patient, eloquent, and understanding.

:rofl:

[Breeze54]

28. Ba-Bye!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

You might want to hide out the week before though.

Just sayin'. ;)

[Vickers]

29. I don't hide, babe.

:crazy:

Enjoy your crow!

[Breeze54]

30. Don't become someone's Turkey dinner, 'babe'!

:crazy:

[Vickers]

31. Hey, I'd rather be called "babe" than that foul language you

were using up-thread (since deleted).

I think it's a good thing that a person with anger control issues no longer has a shotgun in the house. :thumbsup:

[Marrah_G]

23. And yet he grew up to be a very nice young man!

:pals:

[Breeze54]

25. Yes, he did. -- Hi there, Marrah_G !

:hi:

I was thinking of you all day yesterday.

I hope all is well with you and yours!

:pals:

[lame54]

26. Now what?

[anonymous171]

32. The gun must have used its mystical powers to corrupt your child.

[LeftHander]

33. Locked Cabinet....for crissake kids in the house.

firearms should ALWAYS be locked up if children are present in the house.

[noonwitch]

34. Are you proud or scared? Or a little of both?

that is a smart kid, who can figure it out like that.

[rvablue]

35. I hope you have learned your lesson

and will now remove the shotgun from your home.

You never taught your little guy how to assemble it.
You hid the gun.
And you put the ammo in a different hiding spot.

And yet he was minutes from assembling, loading and possibly shooting the gun as he is way too young to understand the consequences of what could result from that.

You are the parent and the adult. We read too many nightmare stories on here of horrible things happening with guns and very young children.

You have a responsibility to make sure it doesn't happen again, because, help us god!, if your kid figures all of this out again by himself -- he's obviously highly intelligent and that isn't going to change -- and something worse happens, you will not only be responsible for the person who is shot accidently but for ruining your son's life, as he will have to live with it...