Children growing up in the poverty and crime stricken portions of our cities are constantly exposed to guns. guns in the hands of people who are often intoxicated and violent. Guns are also constantly being stashed in public areas. The drug dealer doesn't want to have the gun on their person, in case the cops come along to arrest him or her. They know that the firearm possession charges are being used by prosecuters to put them in jail for long periods of time, far longer than the drug dealing charges. But they do want the gun to be readily at hand, in case another criminal comes along to attack him. So the guns are stuck into all sorts of hideaways. One of the parks in Boston that is near the nightclubs, the police have made it a habit to go look through it every friday and saturday night. they often find guns stashed in the bushes. Because the criminals know there is a metal detector at the doors to clubs that are popular with the criminals. Kids playing in the park the next day find guns the cops missed and the criminal was too drunk or stoned to remember where they hid it.
Guns also find their way out into the affluent suburbs. Many say they are against guns in the hands of ordinary people, but don't practice what they preach, and arm themselves, or if wealthy enough, hire armed guards to protect them. Sarah Brady had a concealed handgun license, back when Virginia only issued them to police and very few others. Yes, they are less common, but they are out there too.
So just like kids in health class are taught to recognize what a hypodermic syringe looks like, and to not touch it and call an adult to take care of it, kids should be taught to recognize what a gun looks like and to call an adult to take care of it. But there is that pesky curiosity trait that humans have, and kids even more so. If a kid finds something new, they pick it up and start playing with it to see what happens. If this happens to be a loaded gun or a used syringe, lethal results can happen with both. So by teaching the kids what it is, telling them the correct thing to do, and reducing the temptation to play with it since it is a known thing, you save more lives of children. Child development folks have done the research. Kids will home in on any new object first. They have specifically done the research with what kids will do when they are put into an apparently unsupervised environment that contains among other things, a firearm. Kids who have not had any kind of teaching on guns, except what they see on TV, go and play with it. and they copy what they saw on TV, they point it at their playmates and pull the trigger. Kids who have had one of the gun safety training programs in their school, or had a parent who taught them about responsible gun ownership. They don't touch it, and they call an adult to deal with it safely. Any adult that the child calls to deal with a gun, they should know enough to handle it and unload it safely, and remove it or remove the kids from the area while they call for appropriate assistance.
I've probably gone over the comment length limit again.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-10-28 02:44 am (UTC)Children growing up in the poverty and crime stricken portions of our cities are constantly exposed to guns. guns in the hands of people who are often intoxicated and violent. Guns are also constantly being stashed in public areas. The drug dealer doesn't want to have the gun on their person, in case the cops come along to arrest him or her. They know that the firearm possession charges are being used by prosecuters to put them in jail for long periods of time, far longer than the drug dealing charges. But they do want the gun to be readily at hand, in case another criminal comes along to attack him. So the guns are stuck into all sorts of hideaways. One of the parks in Boston that is near the nightclubs, the police have made it a habit to go look through it every friday and saturday night. they often find guns stashed in the bushes. Because the criminals know there is a metal detector at the doors to clubs that are popular with the criminals. Kids playing in the park the next day find guns the cops missed and the criminal was too drunk or stoned to remember where they hid it.
Guns also find their way out into the affluent suburbs. Many say they are against guns in the hands of ordinary people, but don't practice what they preach, and arm themselves, or if wealthy enough, hire armed guards to protect them. Sarah Brady had a concealed handgun license, back when Virginia only issued them to police and very few others. Yes, they are less common, but they are out there too.
So just like kids in health class are taught to recognize what a hypodermic syringe looks like, and to not touch it and call an adult to take care of it, kids should be taught to recognize what a gun looks like and to call an adult to take care of it. But there is that pesky curiosity trait that humans have, and kids even more so. If a kid finds something new, they pick it up and start playing with it to see what happens. If this happens to be a loaded gun or a used syringe, lethal results can happen with both. So by teaching the kids what it is, telling them the correct thing to do, and reducing the temptation to play with it since it is a known thing, you save more lives of children. Child development folks have done the research. Kids will home in on any new object first. They have specifically done the research with what kids will do when they are put into an apparently unsupervised environment that contains among other things, a firearm. Kids who have not had any kind of teaching on guns, except what they see on TV, go and play with it. and they copy what they saw on TV, they point it at their playmates and pull the trigger. Kids who have had one of the gun safety training programs in their school, or had a parent who taught them about responsible gun ownership. They don't touch it, and they call an adult to deal with it safely. Any adult that the child calls to deal with a gun, they should know enough to handle it and unload it safely, and remove it or remove the kids from the area while they call for appropriate assistance.
I've probably gone over the comment length limit again.