Why is it that when boys play, they play at killing each other?
The age old question mothers around the world ask while watching their sons and their friends, turn spoons, sticks, tv remotes, and whatever else they have in their hands at the time, into a weapon, usually a gun.
I was reading the latest post over at GNMParents, about just this subject, and before I even finished the first paragraph, I said in my head, "It's in their nature."
You can nurture all you want. You can never let them have a toy gun. You can drill into their heads over and over, that you don't want them playing with toy guns, to tell an adult if they see a real one, never touch it, but you are more than likely going to fail.
Studies have been done on this subject time and again, and most boys who find a gun, real or fake, will hold it, handle it, and pull the trigger.
The doctors just know that boys, by nature, are very curious and interested in guns. Even if they don't have toy guns at their disposal, they'll pick up sticks or something, and pretend it's a gun. It seems to be an innate part of their nature. Even if they haven't been previously exposed to guns, they seem very interested in them.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has come out publicly with the recommendation that the best way to avoid gun-related deaths and injuries is the absence of firearms from homes and communities.So you can not have a gun in your home, but you cannot prevent others from doing so. It's our second amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. This isn't about our second amendment right, but it should be noted why we have it.
It's not so we can go around shooting people at whim, it's to protect us against our own government.
Our forefathers fought a governing party, they over threw them by force, to be free. They knew that in the future the people might once again have to fight for their freedom from an oppressive government.
The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed, where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.
Justice Alex Kozinski, US 9th Circuit Court, 2003
But back to boys and guns.
It is in their nature to play with them and be curious about them.
For years, I tried really hard with my own two sons, to not let them play with any type of weapon. I didn't allow anyone to buy them plastic guns or knives, no water pistols, nothing.
But their nature over rode my plans.
Wooden spoons from the utensil drawer in my kitchen, became swords, anything that could be held in their tiny little hands, could be made to be a pretend gun.
I gave up trying to stop them from pretending and eventually caved into water pistols and even plastic guns.
Then, knowing that this issue would never go away no matter how old they became, I taught them gun safety.
I allowed them to have airsoft pistols, and I taught them all about how to hold a gun, load it, take the bullets out, how to carry, how to lock it, to never aim a gun at anyone unless their life was in extreme danger.
My boys have great respect for guns, they know what those weapons are capable of, and they know they have the right to keep and carry a gun when they get older, for protection of themselves and their loved ones.
In the state of Florida, home owners and even renters, have the right to shoot and kill an intruder, if their life and family, or property is in danger.
I myself have plans to buy a gun and and get my CCW (concealed weapons permit).
I also plan to take the boys to a range and have them taught proper "real" gun safety.
They are allowed by law at their ages, to go to gun ranges and be taught gun safety, and I'm going to take them.
They are even allowed to have a CCW.
Parents can do every thing they can think of to avoid their sons playing with, or being interested in guns, but it's not going to help. It is in their nature to be curious about them and want to touch them.
So instead of trying to stop nature, parents should be respectful of the weapon, and teach gun safety. I'm not saying all parents have to take their sons to a range like I plan to, but parents should have their kids taught gun safety.
You can hide them from guns all you want, but it is one of our rights to have them, they are every where.
Teach safety in case they come across one instead of trying to stop them from their own natural curiosity.
Gun Safety
Comments
My boy is just now turning into "that typical boy". I want to smack the shit out of him most days!! lol He's 6 and all things burb-likey and sword-like and high enough to jump off of are his only loves in life. It's going to get much worse isn't it?
Posted by: Jenn | April 4, 2007 9:30 PM
Yes it is. :(
Posted by: kat | April 4, 2007 9:35 PM
***APPLAUSE!!!***
Mike is a lifetime member of the NRA. He does not own a gun now, but when we move to Maine, where it is easier to have one, he probably will, probably so he can go hunting. I'll probably learn how to shoot, too.
But anyway, the NRA, contrary to what the gun control people want you to believe, is all about proper education about gun use. You are COMPLETELY on the right track here with the boys.
People really need to pull their heads out of their asses on this issue.
Posted by: Christine | April 4, 2007 10:45 PM
Oh, and BTW, you're lucky that you have the right to shoot and kill an intruder. We don't...we're expected to abandon our home (and our cats) and escape, rather than shoot the poor widdle cwimimal.
Masschusetts sucks.
Posted by: Christine | April 4, 2007 10:47 PM
It's just really a shame that so many parents blame the gun for bad things, when it's the person who uses the gun that causes the problem.
Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
Posted by: kat | April 4, 2007 11:55 PM