Loaded Handguns And Children.

[jdmidwest]

Ness brought this up in a totally unrelated thread, so I thought I would start a new one. Having raised one litter and starting on the grandkid thing, I feel I have a little to share with folks.

First of all, be open with your kids of any age, show and teach them about the guns you own and the danger they can create. Don't just hide them, sneak them around, this just ups the curiousity factor that could lead to an accident. Instill in them that there are play guns and real, big boy guns. As they get older, shoot with them, teach them safe gun handling methods. Take a hunter's ed course with them and practice the words they preach every day, Treat every gun like it is loaded and never point it at anything you don't want to shoot. The rest of the Ten Comandments of Gun Safety are important also, but that is the most important.

As far as storage, I try to keep ammo and guns in different places. I have several open gun racks in my house with guns in them. The ammo is all tucked away in a protected location. There is always a hot gun that I carry on a daily basis. It is in my control at all times. All others are unloaded or mags loaded and locked in a safe with a key in the safe place.

Same goes when outdoors or in the car with the kids, the hot gun (loaded with one in the chamber) is in my control. If I leave it, it goes in a lock box in the car, a tamperproof security safe, the key on my keyring.

I have never really believed in trigger locks, I think spending the time raising your kids and teaching them about firearms goes alot farther than locking them up and telling them to stay away. It was the way I was raised. I had my own guns since I was 11. My daughter started at 13. The grandkid will probably start even younger, probably around 5 or 6 with air rifles. Knock on wood, non of my family has ever suffered from a firearms incident and all were raised with the same drill, all guns are loaded and don't point unless you want to shoot.

[ness]

That post is right on the money. Teach, teach, teach, and still take the precautions. The risk is so great that it requires extraordinary caution. We differ in that I just keep them locked up, and I don't feel the need to carry one. But we're on the same page: every gun is treated as if it's loaded, and I drill that into my kids heads every time. I'll unload a shotgun, rack the chamber a few times, let them look down the barrel and hand it off saying 'here, this gun's unloaded, right?' Or while hunting birds I'll ask about every 5 minutes or more, 'where's your muzzle?' When you've got it in your hands, you gotta be on your toes 100% of the time.

[RSBreth]

As soon as my son got big enough to wander around every firearm is in some kind of locked storage. One is an instantly available safe - so I'm not really hindered by them being locked up. When he's bigger and well-trained (well regulated?) I may be able to relax the current status.

[Feathers and Fins]

I grew up around guns, its funny my dad always kept them locked up not for my safety but for other kids that might be over, I had a key to the gun cabinet always. Even as a young kid as it was where my pellet gun was at and i liked shooting it. But I knew the rules. #1 no shooting with others around without my dad being present. #2 All guns are always loaded even if broke apart on a cleaning bench. #3 Guns are not toys they are tool no diffrent then a hammer or saw.

Being brought up around them and no mystery to them I just had no desire to play with guns. If i wanted to shoot I knew the rule. If we were going hunting I knew the safety rules. I think and this is just me, that parents who hide guns create a mystery that kids just want to solve and know about. I raised my son the same way I was and never had a problem at all.

[jdmidwest]

I have not applied for my CCW for 2 reasons. Some seem to assume that if one carries a firearm daily, they are carrying it concealed.

One, most of the areas that persons should be armed in are marked on the door with a "Criminal Protection Zone" sign, aka "No Weapons Allowed". In MO, you can't carry in public assemblies, State government areas, Federal government areas, schools, or any business that posts a sign prohibiting it, typically places that groups of people assemble and nut jobs would take advantage of the fact they are unarmed. And my day job would prohibit it, MODOT licensed vehicle, Class 3 CDL, entry into most factories, and crossing the stupid ditch into IL on a weekly basis would require me to leave it at home.

Two, I feel it is another tax that I would have to pay for my rights granted by the constitution. My personal property and real estate is taxed. My motor vehicles are taxed. My right to drive is a tax. My right to carry a firearm concealed would be taxed. I will never own any of the above free and clear. But, contrary to popular opinion, I have no affiation to the Tea Party.

I do carry in my vehicle according to state law. I carry openly when I am outdoors and allowed to do so. It is my opinion that open carry is actually a deterrent to violence, who really knows what crimes have been prevented by the criminal seeing an openly carried firearm. I rarely feel the need to carry on a street in the towns I visit.

Above all, safety is the most important thing. I do believe in the training portion of the requirement to carry a weapon concealed in this state. I think every firearm owner should have to go through the basic course, either Hunter's Ed or the NRA firearms course. Both stress firearm safety to the max. It makes up for the things you might have not learned in life experiences.

[Feathers and Fins]

JD, I carry concealed but its due to large amounts of money I can pick up on occassion and on occasion i go into bad areas. Even when not at work i still carry. I also know alot of people who do not pay attention one bit to the signs on business's, as they say ( Better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6 ). CC is unfortunately something im seeing as becomming the new "IN THING".

Ive sat in on a few courses recently and they are a joke absolute joke. The people are told how to fill out the paperwork and the firearms part of it is standing 12 feet from a target and shoot it. Safety is not really taught at the. I would love to see anyone buying a gun to be mandated to take a hunters education course. Those are heavy into safety. Im all for gun rights but im also for people at least knowing how to safely handle them.

Owning a gun is a right! but with that comes the responsibility to keep you and others safe. I love seeing people with their CC stuck in a waiste of their pants or in a pocket and even sadder is the ones i see chamber a round with no safety on. I swear i dont know how more people dont blow off parts of their bodies. It scares me to see it. But what is funny is I can spot a CCW across a room most have way to big a gun for where they are carrying.

Ido agree with you on the Tax issue. but its the country we live in TAX everything but call it a license.. Seriously we have the 2nd ammendment yet we have to have licenses and permits to use it? oh well im getting off the box now.

[jdmidwest]

I had the priveledge to sit in on a CCW class when my dad went thru the course recently. It was by the book and NRA approved instructor. Safety and what is legal was the main directive. The field course required the full amount of rounds shot and included several situations. I stepped in and shot a few myself as it was held on the family farm. The instructor was a deputy sheriff and was well trained.

I know there are several instructors that just push the meat thru the grinder for a few bucks. I would not suggest anyone go thru the course with them.

[Gatorjet]

It is my opinion that open carry is actually a deterrent to violence, who really knows what crimes have been prevented by the criminal seeing an openly carried firearm.

Quite often the opposite. You are putting a target on your back for the bad guys. I prefer NOBODY knows what I have. Also in a more metropolitian area, even in a comunity with no laws forbidding open cary, you will always have the calls to the police of an armed man at such, and such location.. Nobody needs the added hassle of the police showing up to investigate the armed person. Even if it is perfectly legal.

As to the OP. My son has groen up with guns from the beginning. My daughter also, but she hasn't taken as much of an interest. She still knew to respect them from a very early age, and there has never been a problem. I remember my son shooting my M1 Garand when he was about 7. I had to hold the muzzle end up for him. He's now my hunting, shooting, fishing, 4-wheelin' and about everything else buddy.

Everything I have is locked in a safe, in a locked room. Ammunition is a separate locked closet in the same locked room. Except what ever i have in my personal possession. At night my carry gun gets put in the night stand, but put away if not carried the next morning.

[jdmidwest]

All manner of plain clothes law enforcement carry daily without the display of a badge in plain sight, nobody calls the law on them. I really don't think open carry makes you a target or draws any questions. Most CCW I know tend to stick to mini 380's which I really don't consider much of a self defense weapon, even with the best of ammo. I would rather open carry a full size handgun and feel like it would get the job done instead of an underpowered one hiding on my person. Open carry gives you better access to your weapon also.

On the other hand, I tend to be discrete when carrying guns in and out of the house. And I really don't make a point to let others know that I have anything other than the one I carry. I don't wish to be the target of a thief when I am away.

[Jack Jones]

I do not own any guns, nor would I keep any in my house with my children in it. I wouldn'd vote to restrict anyone's right to do so, but I am in favor of mandatory trigger locks if the house contains children, and the prosecution of parents whose children end up getting their hands on the guns and injuring themselves or others. Education is a positive thing, but even with the best of it, children sometimes just disregard it. After watching a school friend struggle through several operations to repair his intestines after his buddy was playing with Mom's shotgun (no one was home but them), I just can't abide guns in a household with children that aren't fully secure.

As far as concealed carry goes, personally, I just don't see the point. I wouldn't restrict it, but there's just never been a situation in my life that I've been in (even in some of the roughest cities in the Northeast), that I felt my safety would be improved by having a gun on me. I've heard that the classes are simplistic as well. Ask any law enforcement officer that you know, it's not the using of the weapon, but the dealing with the aftermath. I'm not sure that all of these people that have rushed out to get a weapon are truly aware of what it means to take a human life. They don't know what it looks like, smells like, and feels like. So many of the young people I know who have gotten them have done so just because they can or because they want to be badass. Wrong approach.

Remember, a quiet approach or even a bum rush and a tire iron to head beats an open or concealed carrier every time.