For a moment I need to get on a soapbox because I am a firm believe that guns are bad – period. While there are plenty of arguments on both sides of this issue, my argument is going to focus far more astringently on the household with a child in it. You’ve seen the headline – we’ve all seen it – the one where it says “Tot shoots baby” or “Tot shoots play friend”.
Tragedies involving small children and guns happen with a deplorable regularity. The idea of it happening at all is enough to make any rational person sick. When you have a gun in your home, you are inviting this type of disaster. Yes, there are precautions you can take. Yes, there are places you can hide it. Yes, you can lock it up in a secure cabinet. Yes, you can even teach your children not to touch it.
But the only true preventative is to keep the gun out of the house and reach entirely. It only takes once to forget to secure the door or to leave it out and toddlers do not have a well-developed sense of right or wrong. Considering there are adults who cannot control their own impulses – it should hardly be surprising that a toddler would have the same problem.
Toddlers Are Creatures of Impulse
You have to remember this if you remember nothing else. A toddler is a creature of impulse. They are guided by their needs and their desires and their curiosity. They are still learning how to control themselves, but they are terrifically inquisitive and they want to know all about their world. And before you think that they can’t pull the trigger, remember – toddlers are a curious bunch and they don’t have to pull a trigger for a gun to go off accidentally.
If you have to have a gun in the house then you need to not only keep it up and out of reach as well as locked up. You should always store it unloaded, with a gun lock over the trigger and you should keep the bullets locked up in a separate location. If you think this is overkill – consider for just one moment how horrible it would be to be responsible for the death of your child or the death of another child because you didn’t take precautions with your weapon.
The best solution though is the most obvious – don’t have a gun at all. Then you don’t have to worry about taking these precautions or worse – forgetting to take these precautions because you think it couldn’t happen to you.
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