Recently in San Francisco (where I live) a six-year-old boy was caught with a gun in his backpack at school. The boy brought the gun to his first grade class thinking that it was a toy and that it was safe. When teachers learned about the gun, the authorities were called in to handle the situation. And in an even more shocking twist of fate, this wasn’t the first incident this week of a child bringing a gun to school in San Francisco. As you can imagine, a massive media frenzy has surrounded these stories and an even more massive amount of fear has hit the parenting community.
Kids bringing weapons to school is not an uncommon occurrence, but it is an extremely alarming one. Thoughts of Columbine and other tragedies spring to mind when the words gun and school are mentioned in the same sentence. To call it horrifying would be an understatement.
What are parents to do when they send their kids to school thinking their child is safe only to learn that a classmate has brought a gun to the school grounds? How can parents keep their children safe in these types of scenarios? The most important thing is for parents to talk to their kids about guns and to explain that they are not toys and not to touch them, ever.
Gun Safety Tips
• It is not recommended that guns be stored in a home where children live.
• If guns are in the home, they should be disassembled, locked and stored in a locked compartment that is out of reach of children. Ammunition should be stored separately from guns, in a locked place, also out of reach of children.
• If guns are present in the home, parents should explain to all children in that residence that guns are not toys, that they can seriously hurt people and that they are off limits to children.
• Parents should explain to children that if they see a child playing with a gun (whether they think it is real or fake) to tell an adult immediately.
• Kids need to understand that guns are dangerous for children and guns should never be touched or played with. Parents and teachers should address this topic with children by the age of 4.
• Parents should talk about guns and other weapons with kids and explain that if a child sees a weapon in a school setting, he or she should tell a teacher, counselor or other safe adult about the gun immediately. Weapons do not belong on school grounds, period.
• Adults should communicate with the parents of their child’s friends about guns being in the home. When your child goes over to a friend’s house to play, ask a parent if there is a gun in the home and if so, where and how it is stored. If you do not feel comfortable with your child playing in a home where there is a gun, have the children play at your home.
Unfortunately guns, drugs and other dangers will never go away, so it is important for parents to follow the best safety practices and to never assume that everyone else is. To decrease the likelihood of guns being a threat to our children, parents can share helpful information, resources and safety practices with each other.
Schools can be safe places if parents, teachers and the community work together to stay informed about the dangers and safety precautions involved with guns. It is up to gun owners to be responsible for their weapons and to take the necessary steps to ensure that these objects stay out of children’s hands, but it is also up to parents to teach their children that guns are dangerous. In a world of unlimited possibilities, parents will feel much more at ease knowing their child is safe if they regularly communicate with the parents of their child’s friends, take preventative measures to increase their child’s safety and take the time to talk about the dangers of guns with their own children.
Gun Safety Resources
For more information about gun safety visit :
www.kidsandguns.org
www.paxusa.org
www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/safety6.htm
By Britt on 05/17/08 in Parents, Columns, Responsible Family
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May 23rd, 2008 at 3:24 am
Although I agree that a gun in the school is alarming, the suggestions you give for gun safety don’t keep a child safe, they make the gun more interesting by making it the “forbidden fruit”. The best way to keep a child safe around guns is to give them the proper education about them. Teach them that a gun is not a toy, and is extremely dangerous if you do not treat it with respect. Teach them to always assume a gun is loaded, until you check it an know for sure.
My sons were never around guns until we recently moved in with my long time boyfriend. He has several guns. The first thing that we all did was go to the local gun club and take an extensive gun safety class. Not only did it teach my sons the proper and safe handling of guns, but taught us exactly why it’s the person, not the gun that is dangerous.
Education and knowledge are always the best safety measures, not fear and trying to hide a gun. Guns in the household are generally there for protection, disassembling them renders them useless and doesn’t prevent accidents.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Christine,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, educating children about the fact that guns are dangerous and communicating gun safety with kids is exactly what I recommend as stated in tips #3 and #5.
It takes multiple streams of prevention to make sure that adults are doing everything possible to protect kids from guns. Keeping guns locked, off-limits and out of site does not make them the forbidden fruit if parents are educating their children about gun safety. Placing guns in a secured place takes them out of the child’s everyday environment, which will decrease the likelihood of an injury when coupled with gun safety communication.
The more measures a parent can take to keep their child out of dangers way, the better. However, this is not fear based as much as it is preventative. Teaching children to treat a gun as if is loaded is a great idea, but for children under 5 this tends to be an abstract concept that they cannot comprehend. The child who cannot conceive of a loaded gun versus a toy is a perfect example of where the person is dangerous, not the gun and validates the rule of having guns in the home disassembled and put into a locked cabinet.
Taking a gun safety class was a GREAT thing for you to do for your kids! Good for you! Thanks so much for contributing your thoughts to this very important topic. It is something that has become increasingly relevant in today’s society.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
“If guns are in the home, they should be disassembled, locked and stored in a locked compartment that is out of reach of children. Ammunition should be stored separately from guns, in a locked place, also out of reach of children.”
Hah-If you cannot use it to defend your home and your family, then what’s the point of having a gun in the first place?
July 25th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I tend to agree on the side of exposure and education.
When my mom married a cop, we went from having a few hunting rifles in the house to having a dozen different guns in the house from revolvers to shotguns to semi-automotic handguns.
My parents took the approach of “Hide and seek” with us. But as boys are curious and need to touch all things “hidden and forbidden” - we were constantly on the lookout for the new hiding place.
We knew from tv the basic mechanics of the gun (we were 6 and 8 years old). There were a few close calls where my brother was playing with a gun with a friend and I went to school with a pocket full of bullets to show my friends.
My dad finally abandoned the “hidden and forbidden” approach (staunch democrat by the way). He took us out to the range and taght us about each of the guns. We each got to shoot a small caliber handgun and that scared us wet. We got to stand there while the other cops were shooting their 9mm, 40cal and my dad brought out his 44 magnum. I thought my heart had exploded when he fired that weapon.
Gund were no longer cool and interesting, they were tools of death and destruction. He showed us pictures of people who had been shot and told us about kids our age who had killed their brothers and sisters by accident.
He promised to take us out and teach us about guns, but we had to agree that we were only allowed to use these tools in his presence. We never broke that rule again.
I have two children. I have two loaded guns in my house. I will take the same approach to gun education as my dad took with me.
It was incredibly effective and likely saved our lives.
Hiding and making guns mysterious only makes them more thrilling and interesting. It makes you a dangerous parent and if you are going to take this approach, you should not have anything dangerous in the house at all.
Good luck.