Brought my daughter turkey hunting today (we coupled it with
a little Mother's Day shopping). It was
a great day to be in the woods. After the rain yesterday, it suddenly got
really green... Beautiful! Unfortunately the birds weren't cooperating.
I've been bringing both my kids hunting with me for as long
as they can remember. My boy is a teen now, so his priorities are elsewhere
this springtime and that's fine. He can deer hunt this fall, actually take
one! I'm stoked...!
I've always exposed them to hunting. Their mother and I
teach them respect for the law, respect for the outdoors and yes, firearms safety. I won't cover the
safety rules here. There are plenty of courses offered by the (GASP) NRA and other 'gun groups' where people can get that.
What I will say is education is a major key to further
reducing gun violence and unintended tragedy such as what happened in Kentucky
recently.
People, kids in particular, need to be shown how to behave
around firearms. They need to be taught respect and the rules, just like with
cars or any other tool. They also need to be shown what happens when those
rules are ignored. What's equally important is adults can NEVER become complacent regarding firearms in their charge.
How many kids in inner cities have been taught these
lessons? Not many I bet, and THAT is a tragedy. None of this is the 'silver bullet'
to end firearms abuse. Tragedy is, sadly, a part of life and all the mindless, emotion based legislation presented by elected officials demanded by society will never change that.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Fire away, you will not offend me. Just be prepared for an honest response.