Should Children Be Taught Gun Safety?

(pro)
I believe that children should be taught gun safety for their own protection and the
protection of others. Children have a natural curiosity about many things including guns. If you
watch children playing, you will see many turn sticks, pencils, hands and many other objects
their imaginations can think up into guns. Parents often buy their children play guns, like
handguns, rifles, Nerf guns, water guns, and many more.

In order to protect children from thinking that a real gun is a toy, I believe it is the
parents responsibility to teach children about gun safety. Children are exposed to guns
everywhere in our society. They become desensitized to violence. They see guns and shootings
on TV programs, in video games, TV news, and hear stories about children getting shot with real
guns in schools and malls and other places. Every year, about 100 children die from an
accidental shooting, and in about 85% of those cases the shooters were other children.

People in the United States are deeply divided about the rise of guns in our culture.
Four months after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, lawmakers in Connecticut
banned 115 types of semiautomatic firearms. Four months after the shooting of a
congresswoman and federal judge in Tucson, lawmakers in Arizona declared the Colt Single
Action Army revolver the official state gun. This strengthens my belief that children need to
be taught about gun safety.

Especially when a child is growing up in a home where there are guns, it is up to the parents to
teach their child what guns really do, and how they must be handled. I believe that very young
children need to be educated properly for their age group about gun safety. Parents should
always have strict safety rules in their own homes, by all adults, such as always keeping all
firearms in locked safes, keeping the safety mechanism in locked position, keeping every
firearm unloaded and ammunition in a separate place.

In teaching children about gun safety there are many different examples for age appropriate
discussions. For example, parents would have a simple conversation with a three
year old, saying something like, Never touch this. It is a gun and it is not safe for you. It also is
not a toy. They should also never have the gun within reach of a young child. As a child grows
older, other discussions can include classes in gun safety, and teaching your child how to
properly handle any firearm in your home.

Children often come across guns in others homes, that their parents may not know about.
Children should be warned about the risks of picking up or touching firearms in friends or
others homes. Having your child aware and involved in gun safety will help them to be
prepared for unknown situations.

Enrolling your child in gun safety classes is one way to promote gun safety. The Boy
Scouts of America, Department of Natural Resources and the National Rifle Association have
excellent programs for teaching gun safety to people of all ages. Each parent should chose a
class and instructor that fits their needs.
There are three basic rules to gun safety:
1.

Handle all guns as if they are loaded;

2.

Point guns in a safe direction away from people;

3.

Keep fingers off the trigger until you are ready to fire.

There are federal laws that prohibit children under 18 from having a firearm, but no law that
prevents childrens access to guns. During a gun safety instruction for a nine year old girl, a
fatal accident shows the importance of proper teaching for children using guns. During her
instruction in Arizona, this child killed her instructor who was teaching her how to use a fully
automatic Uzi. Certainly, this was not the correct firearm for this age child.
Those involved were quoted by saying, "It was clear that she was a beginner, and you don't
start a beginner in that type of firearm," said Jensen, who watched a widely circulated video of
the fatal lesson. "If you want to learn how to run Indy cars, you don't start at Indy."
Again, I want to state my belief that teaching gun safety to children is extremely important.

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ProQuest Staff. "At Issue: Gun Safety." ProQuest LLC. 2014: n.pag. SIRS Issues Researcher.
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Carcamo, Cindy. "Gun Ranges Debate Child Safety." Los Angeles Times. 29 Aug. 2014: p. A.10.
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