availability of guns and other dangers
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In a message dated 5/24/02 9:01:16 AM, fetteroll@... writes:
<< I think the possibilities of a 4 yo seeing how attractive guns on video
games and movies are and picking up and using a real one are vanishingly
small. *But* again, that's where common sense comes in. If you live in the
middle of PA where every other person has a gun rack on the back of his or
her truck and you routinely allow your 4 yo child to play unsupervised at
other people's homes is it common sense *not* to think that there's a
possibility of him running into a gun just become someone you don't know
never suggested that possibility? >>
One lesson to be learned from Sleeping Beauty is that you cannot hide all the
spindles in the world. Had the princess in that story been warned, and
taught to use a spindle safely, and maybe warned to just stay away from them
when she was sixteen, just in case, it would have been MUCH better than
attempting to destroy them all. Because all it took was one, and her total
ignorance, fascination and curiosity did her and her whole family in.
If you're in a state or city with NO gunracks, strict gun laws, kid never
likely to see one, that might be an even more dangerous scenario than one
like New Mexico where guns are common, and even toddlers know they're not
toys, not to play with. But the same way we DID give our kids toy saws and
toy hammers and toy drills, they had toy guns and water guns (REAL water
guns, as they really shoot water), and none of them ever even had the urge
for a BB gun because they weren't exotic desireables. They were just common
tools.
We have one rifle here. My dad had a gun collection and I turned down taking
one. I wish now I had. And Marty said the other daday...
About rarity and discussion, too...
When my friend Jerome Nelson was abused by a priest (long deceased) when he
was seven and eight years old (the youngest altar boy ever at Our Lady of
Fatima), he had no words whatsoever, no concepts, with which to even imagine
reporting this to his parents. He had been told emphatically to do what the
priest told him. He had been told repeatedly, at home and at school, to do
what grownups say, ESPECIALLY priests and nuns and your mom and dad.
When parents are unwilling to talk about issues as they come up, to prepare
kids (in kid terms, not gory detail and horrible warnings) to make decisions
and use their own judgment and to know where to go for help, the parents are
literally turning them over to abuse and danger.
Sandra
<< I think the possibilities of a 4 yo seeing how attractive guns on video
games and movies are and picking up and using a real one are vanishingly
small. *But* again, that's where common sense comes in. If you live in the
middle of PA where every other person has a gun rack on the back of his or
her truck and you routinely allow your 4 yo child to play unsupervised at
other people's homes is it common sense *not* to think that there's a
possibility of him running into a gun just become someone you don't know
never suggested that possibility? >>
One lesson to be learned from Sleeping Beauty is that you cannot hide all the
spindles in the world. Had the princess in that story been warned, and
taught to use a spindle safely, and maybe warned to just stay away from them
when she was sixteen, just in case, it would have been MUCH better than
attempting to destroy them all. Because all it took was one, and her total
ignorance, fascination and curiosity did her and her whole family in.
If you're in a state or city with NO gunracks, strict gun laws, kid never
likely to see one, that might be an even more dangerous scenario than one
like New Mexico where guns are common, and even toddlers know they're not
toys, not to play with. But the same way we DID give our kids toy saws and
toy hammers and toy drills, they had toy guns and water guns (REAL water
guns, as they really shoot water), and none of them ever even had the urge
for a BB gun because they weren't exotic desireables. They were just common
tools.
We have one rifle here. My dad had a gun collection and I turned down taking
one. I wish now I had. And Marty said the other daday...
About rarity and discussion, too...
When my friend Jerome Nelson was abused by a priest (long deceased) when he
was seven and eight years old (the youngest altar boy ever at Our Lady of
Fatima), he had no words whatsoever, no concepts, with which to even imagine
reporting this to his parents. He had been told emphatically to do what the
priest told him. He had been told repeatedly, at home and at school, to do
what grownups say, ESPECIALLY priests and nuns and your mom and dad.
When parents are unwilling to talk about issues as they come up, to prepare
kids (in kid terms, not gory detail and horrible warnings) to make decisions
and use their own judgment and to know where to go for help, the parents are
literally turning them over to abuse and danger.
Sandra
zenmomma *
>>But the same way we DID give our kids toy saws and toy hammers and toytools.>>
>>drills, they had toy guns and water guns (REAL water guns, as they really
>>shoot water), and none of them ever even had the urge for a BB gun because
>>they weren't exotic desireables. They were just common
We handled it all pretty much the same way. But Conor *has* asked for a BB
gun and a paintball gun and time at a shooting range to try out real target
shooting.
Life is good.
~Mary
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