Sun, Jul 24, 2005, 2:32pm (Upscale)
Not completely sure I agree with the early teaching of safe gun
handling. By all means, if there's a gun on the premises, show it to
them snip

I go along with the other guys. Never too early to start. Teach
them to never point a gun at anyone, or anywhere it could be dangerous
for a bullet to traven in, if it were to go off by accident. Of course,
teach them not to pick up and handle a gun they find. But, also teach
them how to poperly handle, and clear, a weapon, and to treat any, and
all, weapons as if they are loaded, whether they know they are or not.
AND, possibly most important, if they are at a friend's house, and the
friend brings out a gun, or starts to handle one they found, to leave,
immediately; because chances are their friend has never been told how to
properly treat a gun. I've read too many cases of a kid accesing a gun
in the home (and I'm not neccesarily talking about one in easy acces, or
even loaded), and killing a friend, because they "didn't know it was
loaded". If they'd been taught from an early age to treat guns with
respect, they'd have never touched the weapon in the first place, and
second, would have at least kown to treat it as if it was loaded.

Around here, some years back, a couple of 18 year olds were going
fishing. One had his father's .38 revolver. He was at his friend's
house, before they went. The friend wanted to see it. So, the one
unloaded the revolver and handed it over. He looked it over, and handed
it back. The revolver was then reloaded, and reholstered. The second
friend's girlfriend came in, and to "impress her", or for some other
stupid reason, he grabbed the revolver out of the holster, put it to his
head, and pulled the trigger. Died from stupidity. He hadn't seen the
revolver being reloaded, and didn't realize it had been. If he'd been
taught from an early age, he should have treated it as if it was loaded,
regardless if he'd seen it unloaded, or not. I even recheck weapons I
have personally just unloaded, and certainly recheck any weapon someone
else unloaded and hands to me.

Many years back I handed a new revolver, unloaded of course, to a
neighbor to look at. The revolver was immediately pointed at the
ceiling, with a loud "yahoo", and the trigger pulled several times.
Needless to say, I snatched the revolver back, and fairly politely asked
what they thought they were doing.



JOAT
Blessed are the flexible; for they shall never be bent out of shape.
- Unknown