Remember the 3 Cs: Children, Criminals, Clueless. from THE CORNERED CAT by Kathy Jackson.
Another nanny statist that thinks guns are just for hunting or target shooting.
An unloaded gun locked away somewhere is worthless for self defense or controlling animal pests.
I’ll unload and lock up my guns when cops start unloading and locking theirs in the trunk of their car!
Hundreds of funerals? Really. Prove it.
Back in 1989 during the big gun scare of that yet, they then Attorney General of California said that he was tired of going to funerals of police officers killed with AK-47's. So, I called his office and asked when was the last funeral he went to of an officer killed with an AK-47. They couldn't and wouldn't say.
So, I did some research in those pre-internet days and found that in the previuos 20 years, there'd been two incidents of cops shot at with an AK-47. If I remember correctly, once during a drug raid in a motel room and once a squad car got shot at. No deaths.
Since that experience, I've learned that gun-grabbers lie all the time. And someone, who throws out a statistic apparently coming out of of his butt with gas, will be attacked. Bob Owens is surprised he's called a gun-grabber? He sounds just like one.
You need your gun available in an instant, when you need it. Locking it up all the time defeats the purpose of having the gun. Now, when you're away, lock it up.
I find it hard to believe that gun owners were arguing that children won't touch a gun, once they are exposed to it, since the mystery is gone. You need to train the kids in the use of guns, and demonstrate their destructive power. I trust trained kids as much as I trust cops with guns.
And Bob Owens ought to know that he'll be attacked when he attacks responsible gunowners. That's right in line with the gun grabbers.
I’m missing why this is a controversy. If a firearm isn’t on your person, which is where it should be, then of course it should be locked up. I don’t see anything in what this guy has said that runs contrary to that. A gun that is hidden a floor away from you is useless to you if you need it. But it is a potential risk to kids, idiots, and criminals.
I used to siphon's out all the gas so it would be “unloaded” but the stores did not like me carrying in the 5 gallon cans of ammunition.
What are the details on the unintentional deaths? No idea. Were they accidental due to trained children coming upon unsecured guns and then shooting up the family or neibhborhood? Doubtful.
And is this really the priority, to get people to lock up their guns all the time? That's the gun grabber agenda. "Yeah, well, ok, you can have your d*mn guns, but you must keep their locked up, so you can't use them. Because you're morons and we know better. Because, ... children."
Bob Owens is surprised when he gets a negative reaction from gun owners. Really.
I’ve got a 12 gauge, 7mm mag, 2 45’s, a 357 and a 22 semi auto loaded at all times and scattered around the house, truck and garage. The others are tucked away in the gun locker.
What am I afraid of? Not a damned thing.
Oddly enough, keeping guns away from children doesn’t work, but what does work is “familiarity”. Tools are a superb comparison.
Start with a knotty, dry 2x4, a box of long nails and a claw hammer, on an uneven patch of dry ground. Tell them to pound in nails until they can get 10 in a row to go in straight, without bending. At some point, hopefully the board with split a bit. But by the time they get 10 in a row, they will *know* how to hammer nails the right way, and they will be familiar with the process.
And then they need to use the claw side of the hammer to get the nails out.
The same technique applies to guns. Firing a rifle prone, kneeling, and standing. Hitting that bulls eye consistently. Shooting a bunch of different things to see what bullets can do. Following all the safety rules.
And cleaning the gun afterwards. And cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning.
Most of the fundamentals they learn with BB’s, .22 shorts and .22LR, so it is not too expensive. If you are a sharpshooter with a BB gun, you are most of the way there.
And the bottom line to all of this should be that they have absolutely no desire to hold their hands like a gun and go “pew pew pew”, any more than pretending to hammer in nails.
Been there, done that.
Understand the increasing incidence of the ‘home invasion’ style crime—not just in the big drug cities anymore.
ALSO note that the unloaded firearm makes a poor club for a defensive weapon at the very best. (Bayonets are now illegal.)
Nobody wants to get shot. With ANY caliber weapon.
Problem with this article is he thinks about it all wrong. The way to prevent kids from doing something stupid with guns is educations, not locks. Eventually they can always beat locks, or mistakes happen, but if you’ve taught them then they know. I was raised around guns, my wife and her brothers were raised around guns, none of us have ever done anything stupid with a gun, because we were taught.
As for thieves, unless it’s a MASSIVE gun safe they’ll just take the safe and get the guns later (that hold true really for all safes, if they see one they can take they’ll take it and find out what you thought was important at their convenience). You need to secure the HOME, if they can’t get in the home how the guns are stored doesn’t matter.
This crap is on Townhall? WTF?
A locked gun might as well be 1000 miles away if you are in a life and death situation.