Mom A: "Oh, I do need to ask before I bring the kids over, do you have guns in the house?"
Mom B: "Why, no!"
Mom A: "Hm. So if something bad were to happen, you'd be helpless to protect my children until the police got there? I'm sorry, I really think I need to cancel..."
Although I don't think that's exactly what the grass-eating pants-wetters at ABC meant when they said 'Before Arranging Playdates, Ask About Guns'.
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19 comments:
L. Neil Smith would be proud! :-)
That's pretty much - verbatim - the conversation I had with another dad once.
He asked if we had guns in the house. Naturally, I couldn't resist the flip response:
"Hell yeah. Whaddya need?"
The look of unabashed horror on his face told me more than I wanted to know.
The situation just went downhill from there.
(WOW. word verification: "vitimal" - one letter off from the modus operadi of these anti-gun sheep...)
Not only did I inform my neighbors that I had guns, I offered to take their whole family shooting. Their 3 kids play with my daughter. They are Indian immigrants. When it gets warmer, I’m taking them out with a .22 and a 9mm. Should be fun. I also introduced their oldest son to tomahawk throwing in my backyard.
hahahahahaha I definitely want to ask parents that in the future. NO guns? No play date. hee hee I love it. I know my hubby will teach our little peanut to shoot and (hopefully) be responsible. :)
"But daaaaad, I wanna go to Timmy's house! He has a Wii!"
"I'm sorry, buddy, but you and Timmy can't be friends anymore. You just can't be around those people."
"You're not fair! What's wrong with Timmy's family?
"Well, I didn't want to tell you this, son, but I asked about guns in their house. And it turns out they don't have any . . . . only GLOCKS."
"They . . . . they what?"
"I'm sorry you had to find out there are people like that before you were a little older, buddy, but you're almost a man now.
Her: "Do you guys have any ... you know [lowers voice] guns ... in your house?"
Me: "Yes, we do have a few guns around, and keeping my kids safe was one of my big concerns when we first got them. Here's what we do -- we keep the guns locked up when they are not being used.* But I don't think that's good enough. My kids get into everything, don't yours? I don't trust those locks. So I have also taken steps to teach my kids how to be safe around guns -- how destructive firearms can be when not used properly, what they should do if they find one lying around in a friend's house, and what to say if a friend wants to show them one when there are no adults around. It seemed like a good idea to teach them rather than just hoping they'd never stumble across one."
Her: "Wow. I never thought of that. I guess I always just figured I could keep the kids away from guns if I was careful."
Me: "Not in this county you can't. Do you know that one out of every four houses has guns in it? Probably even more out here! Plus for us, some of our relatives have guns and we're just not going to keep the kids away from their grandparents or cousins just because there are guns in the house. We want to keep them safe, not turn them into little hermits. So we really think it's better to teach 'em."
Her: "It just seems so ... I don't even know where we'd start with that. But it seems like a good idea. I've been worried about this for awhile."
Me: "Do you want to come to the range with us for a safety day sometime?"
Instead of alienating the kids' parents -- convert 'em.
pax
* Any gun being carried for personal defense is being used -- hah!
Holy shit.....I think this is my buddy's kid. Nice how they didn't ask Jan how he stores his guns. This guys is a straight up reponsible gun owner....ex-Marine, the only time Robbie ever sees a gun (even his bb gun) is when Dad is there to instruct/supervise him.
ABC has been parading this bullshit a bit too much recently. I think they need to get a nice email spam campaign to clog their accounts.
LOL!
Excellent, Pax! Just Excellent.
I'd probably say, "Guns in my house? Shit, woman -- I have guns on my person!"
Just to see the ensuing drama.
But I'm a bitch like that.
It should come as little surprise that the spokesman from PAX is, how shall I put this...lying.
"...[E]very day eight children die from guns," he says.
Nope. The CDC's WISQARS says that there were 1490 gunshot deaths for persons aged 0 to 17. That's four per day.
Since this article is about play dates and accidents, let's look at some REAL numbers: take away the gang-bangers shooting each other, the 17-year-old suicides, etc., and you get this:
Kids 0-13 killed by accidental gunshot wounds: 65. That's one every four days.
So Mr. Gross is, um, exaggerating by a factor of 32.
My email to ABC: I'm sure they'll issue a correction right away.
----
Mr. Gross from PAX is lying, and as a journalist, it's your job to call him on it.
He said that 8 US children a day are killed by gunfire. That's easy to check: go to the CDC's web site: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html
Fatal gunshot wounds, 2005, age 0-17: 1490, about 4 a day. Of course, that includes teenage gang members shooting each other. Since we're talking about "children" and "play dates," how about some realistic numbers? Kids aged 0-13, accidental gunshots, 65. That's 1 every 4 days -- 1/32nd of Gross's number. More kids, by far, are killed by each of drowning, fire, poison, and bike accidents.
The only time I don't have a gun on me is when I'm in bed or in Church. I'd carry in church as well except it's agin the law here in Missouri (but there is one within 30 feet if necessary.) I'm and Elder and a Deacon also has a CCW too.
When I'm in bed, there's a pistol on the night stand.
Tam, your writing really is a delight. A veritable beacon of common sense in a sea of insanity. (The legacy media in particular.)
Jim
Uh, that is my buddy's kid and it was a total setup under false pretenses....it was supposed to be a story about the Boys and Girls Club of America.....stay tuned for his side of the story.
Are there enough of us to make a meaningful stab at finding out which of ABC's national advertisers signed up for controversy?
As a gun-loving daddy, I do find myself compelled to find out whether they are responsible about their gun storage, and how their kids are trained. I don't want their kid to be so excited about my kid coming over that she says: "Lemme show you my daddy's gun...whoops!" Bang. :(
Brilliant comments. I've spent a great deal of time researching children and guns in America and have found that the statistics have been seriously skewed. Eight times as many children die from non-gun violence acts than from gun crimes - such as drowning in five gallon buckets. Do parents need to be concerned five gallon buckets in the house now? http://tinyurl.com/czrebj
My next door neighbor, when asked to watch my house while we were on vacation, asked where to bury the bodies in the yard, if he had to shoot anyone.
His kids are welcome in my house anytime.
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