Kids and guns – local ad campaign
I’m all for gun safety. I’m all for educating kids about guns and educating parents too. A recent $40K ad campaign has kicked off in Knoxville advising parents to lock up their guns:
The first of many billboards went up Tuesday morning, announcing the gun safety campaign. The signs say “Put ’em up for children’s sake, lock up guns.”
Lamar Advertising donated billboard space for the $40,000 campaign. The agency is teaming up with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office for the campaign.
“This is a very important reminder for parents and anyone with children in the house,” Sheriff Tim Hutchison in a press release.
Of course, if you lock up your guns so that your child cannot access them, then you’ve defeated the point of having a gun in the first place because you can’t access them. If they’re in your safe, they’re not going to be real accessible in the event you need one. I have a gun safe for most of my guns but I keep one at the ready in case I need it. Fiddling with a lock is not something I want to be doing in the event I need a gun.
That said, I recommend people explore options such as quick access gun cabinets or storage boxes. They can be accessed by typing in a code or other measures. Junior isn’t walking around yet so, for now, my at the ready gun is in the nightstand. Once she’s mobile, I guess I’ll have to come up with something else. And, more importantly, when she’s of age, we’ll talk about guns and gun safety. Unfortunately, many parents don’t address guns and gun safety with their kids and act like they don’t exist. It’s a pity.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:05 am
I no longer have an under the mattress shotgun or a nightstand handgun. Instead, I’ve put the handgun on the top shelf in my closet – higher than he can reach right now – and keep the closet locked while I am away during the day.
I can retrieve the gun from there before any perp makes it to the stairs (dogs are great for warning you of intruders).
Don’t know what I am going to do next year though, as he will be old enough to figure out how to get to it. Perhaps an instant access under the bed safe or something will have to suffice.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:29 am
My Jr. is a couple months older than yours (and a boy, too…maybe we should get them together in about, say, 16 years) and he’s toddling around now (watching him do it is quite cool.) I’m getting a Ft Knox pistol box for the nightstand. I’ll be getting another one for my wife’s nightstand gun eventually as well.
I also have a ready shotgun-tube loaded, no round in the chmaber, safety on. When I move back to WA this summer, I’ll be putting a pair of bike hooks over the closet door and hanging the shottie there.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:30 am
16 years? More like 30 😛
March 30th, 2005 at 11:41 am
Another option: lock the gun up, but keep a machete next to the safe. If you can’t get the safe open before someone knocks down the bedroom door, the machete will do the job at close range. I kid not. Most people completely underestimate what a big blade can do in a defensive situation.
March 30th, 2005 at 12:04 pm
What Les said. I have a 5 D-cell Maglite flashlight and a full katana in my immediate field of reach from my bed.
That’s so I can reach the SW99 .40S&W in the top drawer my bureau and enter the magazine (stored in a separate location), grab the box of 00 buckshot and get to the closet where Mr. 12 gauge lives…
Sword to get to pistol, pistol to get to shotgun… All within 20 feet of each other, all kept kid-safe. My son’s four and I’ve already started drilling him about gun safety – he’s lost dart gun priviledges for pointing them at his sister… He’s seen some of daddy’s guns, and he’s been to the gun store with me (note: Don’t ever buy a gun with a hyperactive four year old with you. Just don’t.)
March 30th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
My solution is to keep the chamber empty in the bedside Beretta. It goes back in the closet in the morning. My munchkins are 1 and 4, and it is physically impossible for them to chamber a round. I also triple check the chamber and dry-fire once before it goes in the drawer.
When they get a little older (probably next year) I’ll get one of those gunvault quick opening safes.
March 30th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Just don’t underestimate a toddler’s climbing abilities. At least in my family, soon after 18 months they start regarding a set of shelves as a ladder.
March 30th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
Silly confusatives. The Second Amendment doesn’t matter anymore. Most gun owners are conservative (amerinazi/confusative). The only time you’d take up armed resistance is if the farleft waged a military takeover. But that will never happen now because the far right beat them to it. You won’t realize how similar nazism and communism really are until we’re in the throes of military dictatorship. Silly confusatives.
In Jesus’ Glorious and Holy name,
Dean Berry — REAL American
March 30th, 2005 at 4:17 pm
Anyone care to translate dumbass into English?
March 30th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Sorry, BabelFish doesn’t have Moron to English translation…
March 31st, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Apparently this guy has posted this same comment, or nearly the same, on a bunch of other blogs.
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:17 pm
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