Growing up with guns

[Super Jag]

An interesting but questionable statement came up the other day by a couple of gun enthusiasts. I'll try and quote them as best as possible...

 

"No one who grew up learning how to handle a gun/rifle has committed a violent crime with a gun/rifle."

 

The emphasis, as it was later explained, is that children who grow up around guns and LEARN TO RESPECT their potential DO NOT go around using them on other people. Supposedly the violent crimes with guns are being committed by people who DID NOT grow up with proper gun education.

 

While it makes sense, it does make me raise an eyebrow of speculation. I will likely research it a bit... but for now am curious if anyone has any background on this discussion.

[airhead]

Grew up hunting and fishing. Guns in the house all of the time and in the pickup most of the time. Never wanted to carry one into a store or shoot an exGF or anything like that.

 

When I was 20 and indestructable, the government paid me to hunt people (military). That was not near as enjoyable as hunting quail. Quail don't shoot back. But range time was not bad. Shoot a box of shells and get paid for it.

 

I still have a few around the house and go shooting once a month or so. I find that I am not near as good now as when I was shooting a box a day at the range. I don't hunt as much as I used to either. Mostly because I don't live in the same state as the rest of my family and cannot just go over to one of my uncles' farms and go hunting. Still fish quite a bit.

[Gabe]

While I think it is a bit broad to say that NOONE has commited a crime that grew up around guns, I'm sure the crime rates by those poeple is much lower.

 

It makes perfect sense to me. If we teach our children what a gun can do, and why they should stay away from it, they will learn not to go near them.

 

When I was younger I had a fascination with fire... one day my mom took some hair, cloth and paper and put it in a pile and lit it... it was small, but went up in flames quickly. Sometimes a kid needs to see what something can do, instead of just hearing "No! bad!" and getting a slap on the wrist. Needless to say, I stayed away from fire after that until I was older and knew how to use it responsibly and correctly

 

Take the kid out to a firing range, set up a watermelon and shoot it. The sound alone, even with hearing protection, should be enough to discourage him, and the exploding melon should further it.

 

Just my opinion, of cos'.

[Enchantra]

I find that interesting as:

 

A) I did not grow up with Guns in the house, My Parents saw them as unsafe to have around kids even if they were locked away.

 

B) I never had the desire to use guns or to misuse them.

 

C) I was taught that guns were to only be used by hunters, the police, the Armed Forces, and in protecting yourself. Otherwise leave them alone.

 

Personally I think I turned out just fine.

[Darkstar]

I agree about the statement being very broad...broad to the point of being false. Even though it's based in truth, it can't be completely accurate, I've watched enough "Court TV" to know that!

 

I grew up around firearms my entire life as well. I was taught gun safety before being allowed to even touch a gun. I was given a gun for a birthday present at a young age, but never had the desire to do anything with it. I took it out once or twice to shoot junk for fun, but mostly it sat in my bedroom.

 

Living in an Inner City most of my adult life, I've never felt the need to own a firearm. Growing up around them in mostly rural areas, I know what they can do and there's no mystery or "cool factor" to them. I choose not to own one because there's no point in having one unless you hunt or need one for home security.

Even living in a city with such a relatively high crime rate I wouldn't own one. That's what alarms and the Police are for.

 

My advice is to teach the kids about it the right way from the get-go and then there is no misconceptions about them in later life when they might be tempted to attain one.

 

My 2 cents.

[vejlin]

I didn't grow up with guns (only police. military and registered hunters are allowed guns in Denmark). Learned about guns when I was in the military. I'm not sure what to think about kids growing up with guns. I am however sure that if you are to be around guns you should know about gun safety. If you're not to be around guns then it doesn't really matter.

 

Kim

 

P.S. I know things are a lot different when guns are concerned in the US.

[Hexxenhammer]

A broad statement like that is stupid. 10 minutes with Google and you could proabably find many examples to counter it.

 

Case in point, off the top of my head, Gordon Kahl. North Dakota farmer and tax evader turned murderer when he killed 2 US Marshalls and wounded 3 others when they came to arrest him in 1983. He went on the run and was killed in a shootout in Arkansas where a Sheriff was also killed.

[Vinny]

I always though young kids living around guns and watching violent movies was a bad mix...

 

"Hey daddy, I'm the Terminator! Watch this!"

 

*grabs real gun*

 

"Son, don-..."

 

*BANG*

 

Might not happen to all of them, but then again. A kid is a kid, and a gun (toy or real) to them is a gun...

 

 

Then again, something else comes up.

 

Teaching a kid how to use a gun is like teaching a kid how to fight (karate, boxing). Both might be for sport, but when life's bad things get in the way, the line that sepparates sport/hobby from violence is quite thin...

 

A kid that knows karate goes to school and is picked on. He defends himself and he beats up the bully. He might get into trouble for fighting...

 

 

A kid that knows how to properly use a gun goes to school and is picked on. Next day, he might bring in a gun. This can result in him being expelled or arrested for possesion of a firearm. If he shoots and kills the bully, he gets arrested for murder.

 

I don't think guns are safe for kids, or even for adults. Intentional violence might occur, but then there's always accidents too. There's an LAPD weapon expert a few years agp who was fixing a machine gun. Ended up getting sprayed full of lead when the safety wasn't locked properly...

[Orsino]

"No one who grew up learning how to handle a gun/rifle has committed a violent crime with a gun/rifle."

There may be some truth to that opinion, but a childhood friend of mine died earlier this year in a hunting accident, the circumstances of which disprove the statement. Edit: no, strike that. An accident is not the same thing as a crime!

 

While I believe that people raised with respect for the responsibility of gun ownership might generally be more careful, the simple fact is that those people by definition own guns longer, and have more opportunities for accidents. Perhaps their accidents, though, are less likely to cause casualties?

 

The army trained me to be an expert marksman, but I am still ambivalent about owning a gun, and a bit more so since my old friend's death.

[Hexxenhammer]

I grew up with guns and I own guns now. My dad was a very good teacher and safety was hardwired into my brain. I loved shooting tournaments when I was kid, and I look forward to shooting when I go to my parents house now.

 

Safety is the key. My dad's guns were locked in a special room and the ammo was locked in a case in another room. He had the keys to both.

 

A kid is a kid, and a gun (toy or real) to them is a gun...

 

This isn't true. My siblings and I never thought of real guns as toys. And we were shooting from kindergarten on. Once again, training and education are the key here.

[Froy The Orc]

"No One" is to broad of a statement when referring to Humans as a whole.

 

As far as guns go, education does help.

 

 

 

Froy

[Froggy the Great]

I'd say that the sheer number of humans alive today and in the past means that every currently possible way to die has been experienced at least once.

[Nathaniel]

If it said "almost no one" instead of "no one" I'd agree. Grew up in the middle or nowhere in Canada. Guns were needed because of hungry bears, cougers, etc. that would wander by. I remember a dozen or more instances where either my family or a neighbours had to shoot a dangerous animal and No instances of any human shooting another. The one murder i remember from the area was a stabbing.

[Bill_Adcock]

We've got guns in the house. Dad used to take me shooting. He put a rifle in my hands (I was about eight at the time), pointed me in the right direction, and told me to pull the trigger. I did. The recoil drove the scope right into my eye, giving me a heck of a shiner. Dad hadn't counted on the recoil. Taught me a whole lot of respect for firearms though. To me, a gun is a tool, just like a hammer or a screwdriver. If I wanted to kill someone, a hammer works just as well.

 

Along similar lines, I saw Michael Moore's documentary 'Bowling for Columbine' recently and I think it's terrible. It's so much sensationalism versus so little honest-to-Bob facts. Implying that the KKK, once banned, recreated itself as the NRA, that Charleton Heston is an evil, racist person (he marched on Washington with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for equality between races)...ouch. That hurts me. Former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a lifelong member of the NRA. And let's see here...what leaders have seen guns as evil and banned them? Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Mao Tse-tung...hmmmm. The second amendment is there for a reason. I'm sorry I took this thread off topic like that, but gun ownership is something I feel very strongly about.

[deflagratio]

I grew up in scouts. I believe I got my first BB gun when I was in about 3rd or 4th grade so my parents did not let me shoot early. I still enjoy shooting shotguns which I learned about in boyscouts. I think that most people who are brought up right around guns do not commit very many gun related crimes. As for kids grabbing gun and using it for a toy. The gun should be stored in a better location.