Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Why teach kids how to shoot?
I'm often asked by folks who are not "gun people" why I teach kids to shoot. Sometimes the questions have to do with the physical ability to handle a firearm safely (which I will address later), sometimes the questions center around the maturity level required for "that kind" of activity (also to be addressed later), but usually the question is phrased in such a way as to make it sound like I'm teaching them to be killers.
This is where the soapbox comes out.
The biggest, most important reason to teach kids to shoot is safety. Television, movies, video games, and even music are filled with depictions of guns being used in an unsafe, violent, and often illegal manner. Villians use them with impunity, heroes use them irresponsibly, and everybody has them. Contrast this with zero tolerance policies in our public schools, mainstream media outlets that delight in only reporting the bad things that happen involving firearms, and a concerted effort by anti-gun political groups to paint guns as the root of all evil. What do these opposing viewpoints leave our children with?
Curiosity and misconception.
The curiosity aspect should be obvious to any parent who has ever tried to keep their children out of the closet at Christmas time. If you don't tell the kids that there are presents in the closet they will never look there, but as soon as they find out where the presents are they must go look. If guns are omnipresent in every form of entertainment, yet are taboo in "real life" the curiosity factor goes through the roof. All of their heroes have them, all of the villians have them, the characters they play in their video games have them.......and the kid who lives down the street says that his Dad has one too. If kids are never allowed to touch them, never allowed to learn how to handle them safely, never taught the responsibility associated with posessing a firearm, what do you suppose will happen the first time they encounter one in an unsupervised environment?
Teaching kids how to use guns safely and responsibly takes away the mystery.
My kids have known that I have guns since they were old enough to understand what they were. Even before they were taught to shoot, they were allowed to see and touch them in a safe, supervised environment. The rule at our house was (and still is) that the kids are allowed to look at and touch any firearm in the house at any time - if they ask. Dire consequences await them if they do not ask, but the "open door" policy on the safe has always prevented that. No matter what else is going on, if the kids ask to see one they get to see it. Any time they want. What does this accomplish? It satisfies their curiosity and removes the mystery. The guns change from something to whisper about to just another thing around the house......just like the can opener. There is nothing special about the can opener because they get to see it any time they want. Firearms should be the same. These show and tell sessions are the perfect time to introduce the kids to safe gun handling. Don't just take it out of the safe and hold it in front of them......show them how to make sure it's unloaded and let them hold it. Teach them to keep their finger off the trigger (unlike their favorite actor) and to point the muzzle in a safe direction. After a few minutes they'll lose interest and go back to what they were doing. And they won't be trying to sneak a peak when you're not around.
At this point my critics will say "That's fine around the house, but what about teaching them to actually use a gun? Won't that make them want to shoot people?" My response is that if your child wants to shoot people you should be seeking professional help for the child. If your child does not know right from wrong, then you have failed as a parent. I have a neighbor who absolutely refuses to allow her son to go shooting because she thinks that if he learns how to use a gun he will use one to commit suicide. Of course, this same woman still has steak knives in her kitchen, rope in the garage, razors in the bathroom, and her son is not in therapy. Is she really concerned about him committing suicide or is that just an excuse to keep him from going?
"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."
[...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
—(Lucius Annaeus) Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD),
Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales,
[Letters to Lucilius on Morals,]
Letter 87, c.63-65 AD
I don't generally speak Latin to the kids I teach, but this idea is part of the first lesson. All first time shooters are taught that the gun itself is simply an inanimate object. Alone, it is not capable of doing anything at all. It must be acted upon by on outside force......a person. The person is in control - not the gun. My job as an instructor is to make sure they control the gun responsibly and safely. The first lesson also includes a visual demonstration (when possible) of what guns are capable of doing. Usually this is accomplished by shooting a watermelon with a 12 gauge shotgun. A big mess and a vivid memory.
Un-teaching (is that a word?) all of the gun handling "skills" that are shown on TV and in the movies is another of the first lessons. With a few notable exceptions, actors never seem to worry about keeping their finger off the trigger, muzzle control, overpenetration, or any other real world concerns. I feel that a safety lecture and a watermelon demonstration should be mandatory for every school age child, if for no other reason than to counter the images shown to them in the media.
Even if the kids don't enjoy shooting, I guarantee that after an afternoon at the range they will leave with a healthy respect for firearms and an understanding of how to handle them safely. That is the number one reason.
More to follow tomorrow............for now, spend some time here.
This is where the soapbox comes out.
The biggest, most important reason to teach kids to shoot is safety. Television, movies, video games, and even music are filled with depictions of guns being used in an unsafe, violent, and often illegal manner. Villians use them with impunity, heroes use them irresponsibly, and everybody has them. Contrast this with zero tolerance policies in our public schools, mainstream media outlets that delight in only reporting the bad things that happen involving firearms, and a concerted effort by anti-gun political groups to paint guns as the root of all evil. What do these opposing viewpoints leave our children with?
Curiosity and misconception.
The curiosity aspect should be obvious to any parent who has ever tried to keep their children out of the closet at Christmas time. If you don't tell the kids that there are presents in the closet they will never look there, but as soon as they find out where the presents are they must go look. If guns are omnipresent in every form of entertainment, yet are taboo in "real life" the curiosity factor goes through the roof. All of their heroes have them, all of the villians have them, the characters they play in their video games have them.......and the kid who lives down the street says that his Dad has one too. If kids are never allowed to touch them, never allowed to learn how to handle them safely, never taught the responsibility associated with posessing a firearm, what do you suppose will happen the first time they encounter one in an unsupervised environment?
Teaching kids how to use guns safely and responsibly takes away the mystery.
My kids have known that I have guns since they were old enough to understand what they were. Even before they were taught to shoot, they were allowed to see and touch them in a safe, supervised environment. The rule at our house was (and still is) that the kids are allowed to look at and touch any firearm in the house at any time - if they ask. Dire consequences await them if they do not ask, but the "open door" policy on the safe has always prevented that. No matter what else is going on, if the kids ask to see one they get to see it. Any time they want. What does this accomplish? It satisfies their curiosity and removes the mystery. The guns change from something to whisper about to just another thing around the house......just like the can opener. There is nothing special about the can opener because they get to see it any time they want. Firearms should be the same. These show and tell sessions are the perfect time to introduce the kids to safe gun handling. Don't just take it out of the safe and hold it in front of them......show them how to make sure it's unloaded and let them hold it. Teach them to keep their finger off the trigger (unlike their favorite actor) and to point the muzzle in a safe direction. After a few minutes they'll lose interest and go back to what they were doing. And they won't be trying to sneak a peak when you're not around.
At this point my critics will say "That's fine around the house, but what about teaching them to actually use a gun? Won't that make them want to shoot people?" My response is that if your child wants to shoot people you should be seeking professional help for the child. If your child does not know right from wrong, then you have failed as a parent. I have a neighbor who absolutely refuses to allow her son to go shooting because she thinks that if he learns how to use a gun he will use one to commit suicide. Of course, this same woman still has steak knives in her kitchen, rope in the garage, razors in the bathroom, and her son is not in therapy. Is she really concerned about him committing suicide or is that just an excuse to keep him from going?
"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."
[...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
—(Lucius Annaeus) Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD),
Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales,
[Letters to Lucilius on Morals,]
Letter 87, c.63-65 AD
I don't generally speak Latin to the kids I teach, but this idea is part of the first lesson. All first time shooters are taught that the gun itself is simply an inanimate object. Alone, it is not capable of doing anything at all. It must be acted upon by on outside force......a person. The person is in control - not the gun. My job as an instructor is to make sure they control the gun responsibly and safely. The first lesson also includes a visual demonstration (when possible) of what guns are capable of doing. Usually this is accomplished by shooting a watermelon with a 12 gauge shotgun. A big mess and a vivid memory.
Un-teaching (is that a word?) all of the gun handling "skills" that are shown on TV and in the movies is another of the first lessons. With a few notable exceptions, actors never seem to worry about keeping their finger off the trigger, muzzle control, overpenetration, or any other real world concerns. I feel that a safety lecture and a watermelon demonstration should be mandatory for every school age child, if for no other reason than to counter the images shown to them in the media.
Even if the kids don't enjoy shooting, I guarantee that after an afternoon at the range they will leave with a healthy respect for firearms and an understanding of how to handle them safely. That is the number one reason.
More to follow tomorrow............for now, spend some time here.
