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Children with guns: the answer is Education

Written by Jeff Garvas

Thursday, 17 February 2005

Two recent incidences (in Columbus and Dayton) of children misusing firearms have people asking questions. Shouldn't the law mandate that guns be locked up in homes where children live? Shouldn't we just outlaw guns so they can never be left lying around by irresponsible adults?

Since the host of existing gun control laws that made what these children did illegal did nothing to prevent these incidences, there is no reason to suspect new ones would.

What Ohioans should be asking is: Why didn't the parents and school system offer a gun safety course (Stop! Don't Touch! Leave the area! Tell an adult!) to these children, such as the NRA's Eddie Eagle program?

The Ohio legislature has set aside money for school systems to offer this excellent gun safety course to students. But too few schools have taken advantage of it, perhaps having been scared by gun ban extremists who claim that because the NRA is involved, the program encourages gun use by children.

In the Columbus incident, where a kindergartner brought a gun he found under his mother's pillow to school, there was, apparently, at least one educated child present when he pulled the gun out to show a friend on a school bus after class. That child yelled to the bus driver, "They have a gun!"

Unfortunately for the children in the Dayton incident, there was no such child present, and in the absence of adult supervision or education, a 4-year-old child was killed.

It is time to start asking school administrators why they aren't utilizing these funds. Even if your child has been educated on what to do if they find a gun, they are put at risk when other children are not so educated.

Click on the "Read More…" link below for part of an essay which addresses the questions of "How Old Should My Children Be Before I Teach Them to Shoot a Gun?" and "How Do I Keep Them Safe from Guns?"

How Old Should My Children Be Before I Teach Them to Shoot a Gun? How Do I Keep Them Safe from Guns?

by Philip Shiflett, NRA Training Counselor

There are two extreme viewpoints on this issue. They go something like this...

Never allow your children to be exposed to guns or violence. Make sure their friends' parents don't own guns! This will keep them safe and they will grow up to be non-violent.

Take your child shooting as soon as they can toddle. Show them what a bullet does to a watermelon! This will put the fear of God into them and they will respect and love guns.
Both of these views are untrue and reflect a desire to promote an agenda, not to protect children.

You must evaluate your child's ability to deal with potentially lethal devices, especially powered machines, based on their physical ability and intellectual maturity (you may not own guns, but you may want your children to learn to operate a table saw or riding lawn mower). If your children shoot themselves, cut off their hands with a table saw, or upset the mower, the result could be that they would bleed to death before they get any help.

Lock up your guns when they are too immature to recognize the hazards*. As soon as they are mature enough, you must educate them to understand the importance of respecting ALL machinery, regardless of its purpose or use. Teach your children to get the aid of an experienced person whenever they want to use a piece of machinery they are not familiar with. Teach them to read the manuals!!!

Fact : Gun accidents compose just over 2% of the total number of accidental deaths in the 0-14 age group. To provide some context for the number of children that die from guns, just consider that while 2,566 kids died from motor vehicle accidents, 1,003 accidentally drown, 661 accidentally suffocated to death, and 608 died from accidental burns, only 121 died in accidents involving guns. In fact, unintentional fallings among 0-14 year olds resulted in 120 deaths a year. Centers For Disease Control, 1997

The End of Innocence

The attainment of maturity will occur at different ages for different children. Some persons are mature and serious at an early age. Some people never grow up.

Anne Oakley, arguably the best shot that ever lived, was 15 years old when she made enough money shooting game to pay off her family's mortgage.

In her autobiography she notes, "Oh, how my heart leaped with joy as I handed the money to mother and told her that I had saved enough to pay it off!"

It is believed Anne started shooting at about 10 years of age. Anne is a good example of how environmental pressure, poverty, if you will, may lead to a child being more mature than her years.

Private Phineas Nevins was killed in action, at age 17, in the fighting at Bunker Hill. His fellow, Private Peter Cummins, 13, fought there and survived, along with Private Noah Worcester, 16. The youngest age listed in the Continental Army was a fiffer at 10 years.

Remember, agendas are a peculiar feature of humans. A gun or a lawn mower or a saw has no agenda and no sense of remorse when it destroys your baby.

You must learn how child development proceeds, that is, the age you should expect certain abilities. Then you must evaluate your child's INDIVIDUAL ability in using a variety of harmless machines and tools before you decide to let them learn to use any high energy tool.

Above all BE CONSISTENT!!! Don't teach kids that guns are 'special' or 'bad' or any different than other machinery. THEY ARE NOT!

It is the child that is special! The way the child learns to use the gun and their attitude towards it that will keep them safe.

More kids drown in pools and are poisoned than die from accidental gunfire. Be aware of ALL safety hazards your child will be exposed to.

You won't feel any better if your child dies in a pool instead of in front of a gun.

(Shiflett's entire essay can be reviewed by clicking here.)

*OFCC NOTE: While voluntarily choosing to lock firearms should certainly be among the safe storage options parents of small children consider, efforts by the state to mandate such a practice are dangerous and ineffective. According to analysis by Dr. John R. Lott Jr. and as published in his book The Bias Against Guns:

Safe storage laws have no impact on accidental gun deaths… The only consistent impact of safe storage laws is to raise rape, robbery and burglary rates, and the effects are very large. My most conservative estimates show that safe storage laws resulted in 3,738 more rapes, 21,000 more robberies, and 49,733 more burglaries annually in the fifteen states with these laws. More realistic estimates indicate across-the-board increases in violent and property crimes. During the five full years after the passage of the safe storage laws, the fifteen states face an annual average increase of 309 more murders, 3860 more rapes, 24650 more robberies, and over 25,000 more aggravated assaults.

The impact of safe storage laws is consistent with existing research indicating that the guns most likely to be used in accidental shootings are owned by the least law-abiding citizens and thus are the guns least likely to be locked up after passage of the law. The safe storage laws thus increase crime, yet fail to produce any significant change in accidental deaths or suicides.
The answer truly is education, and Ohio schools should be called upon to ensure that all children are being taught as to what to do if they find a gun.

Written by Jeff Garvas
Thursday, 17 February 2005
Two recent incidences (in Columbus and Dayton) of children misusing firearms have people asking questions. Shouldn't the law mandate that guns be locked up in homes where children live? Shouldn't we just outlaw guns so they can never be left lying around by irresponsible adults? Since the host of existing gun control laws that made what these children did illegal did nothing to prevent these incidences, there is no reason to suspect new ones would. What Ohioans should be asking is: Why didn't the parents and school system offer a gun safety course (Stop! Don't Touch! Leave the area! Tell an adult!) to these children, such as the NRA's Eddie Eagle program? The Ohio legislature has set aside money for school systems to offer this excellent gun safety course to students. But too few schools have taken advantage of it, perhaps having been scared by gun ban extremists who claim that because the NRA is involved, the program encourages gun use by children. In the Columbus incident, where a kindergartner brought a gun he found under his mother's pillow to school, there was, apparently, at least one educated child present when he pulled the gun out to show a friend on a school bus after class. That child yelled to the bus driver, "They have a gun!" Unfortunately for the children in the Dayton incident, there was no such child present, and in the absence of adult supervision or education, a 4-year-old child was killed. It is time to start asking school administrators why they aren't utilizing these funds. Even if your child has been educated on what to do if they find a gun, they are put at risk when other children are not so educated. Click on the "Read More…" link below for part of an essay which addresses the questions of "How Old Should My Children Be Before I Teach Them to Shoot a Gun?" and "How Do I Keep Them Safe from Guns?" How Old Should My Children Be Before I Teach Them to Shoot a Gun? How Do I Keep Them Safe from Guns? by Philip Shiflett, NRA Training Counselor There are two extreme viewpoints on this issue. They go something like this... Never allow your children to be exposed to guns or violence. Make sure their friends' parents don't own guns! This will keep them safe and they will grow up to be non-violent. Take your child shooting as soon as they can toddle. Show them what a bullet does to a watermelon! This will put the fear of God into them and they will respect and love guns. Both of these views are untrue and reflect a desire to promote an agenda, not to protect children. You must evaluate your child's ability to deal with potentially lethal devices, especially powered machines, based on their physical ability and intellectual maturity (you may not own guns, but you may want your children to learn to operate a table saw or riding lawn mower). If your children shoot themselves, cut off their hands with a table saw, or upset the mower, the result could be that they would bleed to death before they get any help. Lock up your guns when they are too immature to recognize the hazards. As soon as they are mature enough, you must educate them to understand the importance of respecting ALL machinery, regardless of its purpose or use. Teach your children to get the aid of an experienced person whenever they want to use a piece of machinery they are not familiar with. Teach them to read the manuals!!! Fact : Gun accidents compose just over 2% of the total number of accidental deaths in the 0-14 age group. To provide some context for the number of children that die from guns, just consider that while 2,566 kids died from motor vehicle accidents, 1,003 accidentally drown, 661 accidentally suffocated to death, and 608 died from accidental burns, only 121 died in accidents involving guns. In fact, unintentional fallings among 0-14 year olds resulted in 120 deaths a year. Centers For Disease Control, 1997 The End of Innocence* The attainment of maturity will occur at different ages for different children. Some persons are mature and serious at an early age. Some people never grow up. Anne Oakley, arguably the best shot that ever lived, was 15 years old when she made enough money shooting game to pay off her family's mortgage. In her autobiography she notes, "Oh, how my heart leaped with joy as I handed the money to mother and told her that I had saved enough to pay it off!" It is believed Anne started shooting at about 10 years of age. Anne is a good example of how environmental pressure, poverty, if you will, may lead to a child being more mature than her years. Private Phineas Nevins was killed in action, at age 17, in the fighting at Bunker Hill. His fellow, Private Peter Cummins, 13, fought there and survived, along with Private Noah Worcester, 16. The youngest age listed in the Continental Army was a fiffer at 10 years. Remember, agendas are a peculiar feature of humans. A gun or a lawn mower or a saw has no agenda and no sense of remorse when it destroys your baby. You must learn how child development proceeds, that is, the age you should expect certain abilities. Then you must evaluate your child's INDIVIDUAL ability in using a variety of harmless machines and tools before you decide to let them learn to use any high energy tool. Above all BE CONSISTENT!!! Don't teach kids that guns are 'special' or 'bad' or any different than other machinery. THEY ARE NOT! It is the child that is special! The way the child learns to use the gun and their attitude towards it that will keep them safe. More kids drown in pools and are poisoned than die from accidental gunfire. Be aware of ALL safety hazards your child will be exposed to. You won't feel any better if your child dies in a pool instead of in front of a gun. (Shiflett's entire essay can be reviewed by clicking here.) OFCC NOTE: While voluntarily choosing to lock firearms should certainly be among the safe storage options parents of small children consider, efforts by the state to mandate such a practice are dangerous and ineffective. According to analysis by Dr. John R. Lott Jr. and as published in his book The Bias Against Guns*: Safe storage laws have no impact on accidental gun deaths… The only consistent impact of safe storage laws is to raise rape, robbery and burglary rates, and the effects are very large. My most conservative estimates show that safe storage laws resulted in 3,738 more rapes, 21,000 more robberies, and 49,733 more burglaries annually in the fifteen states with these laws. More realistic estimates indicate across-the-board increases in violent and property crimes. During the five full years after the passage of the safe storage laws, the fifteen states face an annual average increase of 309 more murders, 3860 more rapes, 24650 more robberies, and over 25,000 more aggravated assaults. The impact of safe storage laws is consistent with existing research indicating that the guns most likely to be used in accidental shootings are owned by the least law-abiding citizens and thus are the guns least likely to be locked up after passage of the law. The safe storage laws thus increase crime, yet fail to produce any significant change in accidental deaths or suicides. The answer truly is education, and Ohio schools should be called upon to ensure that all children are being taught as to what to do if they find a gun.

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