Charlton Heston would be pleased
Okay Okay so I try to leave my political beliefs out of my blogging, mostly because I feel there are enough blogs out there that express them for me, but I absolutely feel the need right now to profess my leftist stand on guns. No I did not just recently see Bowling for Columbine for the 15th time. My need to address this issue comes from a more "people are stupid approach." It also comes purely from a rant on my account so forgive me if I miss some details or fail to mention others. Just getting it off my chest.
exhibit a.
Read an article on CNN this morning about an 8 year old boy who shot a 7 year old girl in the arm at a daycare after bringing his father's gun to school. The girl is fine, thankfully. But I can't help but pose the age old question "what was an 8 year old doing with a gun?" Lets pretend, just for one moment, that the 8 year old is free of blame, that he lacks the complete common sense neccesary to make the decision that it is unwise to bring a gun to daycare for show and tell. Lets pretend the 8 year old assumes the gun is a toy and knows not what he does. What kind of father leaves a weapon in wide open spaces for his kid to do with as he pleases? Um, well, probably a father with "an extensive criminal record dating to the 1960s, according to court documents. It includes several convictions of assault with intent to maim and gun charges." Wow, healthy. Alright, my right wing friends may argue that this may be a case of illegal weapon attainment on the father's part, which yes is probably the case. It is probably also the case that both father and son are psychologically devoid in some area and require more help than the state can offer. But an 8 year old still had a gun and that leads me to...
exhibit b.
State legislaters in Wisconsin are now launching a bill to allow 8 year olds to use guns to hunt. My LIBERAL leaning home state is proposing it a good idea to let 8 year olds handle a weapon that propels bullets at high speeds into other living creatures. The biggest argument against this: safety. NO KIDDING. The biggest argument for it: hunting licenses have been down this year. What?! Well, let me explain...hunting and fishing licenses pay for conservation programs. And these are programs we need so dearly in our rustic state as people are moving into more urban environments and don't appreciate what rustic is. Okay, fine. But does the money have to come from allowing 8 year olds to shoot guns? Yeah, it doesn't sound so great when you phrase it like that. Might I also add that it was in Wisconsin in 2004 where 5 hunters were killed ON PURPOSE over an argument about a deer stand. Case in point: people are stupid. And giving stupid people guns makes no sense.
Yes lets allow 8 year olds to handle guns. At least that way we can anticipate them having them in daycare centers and schools and take proper precautions a head of time.
posted by ~mandakay @ 10:13 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
The problem here still isn't the gun or the age which children can hunt. The issue here is bad parenting. As an owner of several guns, I know enough to lock them up to prevent the wrong people (children included) from handling them.
That's parent mistake number one. Obviously the father is not a responsible gun owner. On top of that, he obviously never taught his child anything about guns or gun safety (like "don't take this to school and shoot anyone").
Guns don't kill people - morons do. These are probably the same type of parents who leave the kid in the car while it's running (thus allowing the kid to drive off) or lock their pets in the car on hot days and wonder why they die. Stupid people will cause themselves or people around them hard regardless of what tools they have available to them.
oh i completely agree with you. and in my line of work i definitely see my fair share of bad parenting. which is why my post resulted. i have learned that i, nor society can control what parents do if the law allows it. My thoughts were precisely this: by legally allowing an 8 year old to handle a gun we make it that much easier for stupid parents to overlook their stupid childrens behavior. but i must thank you for being smart about your gun (as are my friends who also own guns) and providing it with the propper protection from univited people :)
My only hope is that by letting kids hunt, they can learn gun safety. You can't get a hunting license in the state of PA without taking the hunter's saftey course (or at least it used to be that way). Maybe the class will teach the kids some firearms safety that the parents obviously neglected.
PA Hunter Safety Course
unfortunately gun safety in wisconsin would not be learned via safety class until the child is 12.
from the article linked in my post:
"However, a mentor would not have to have taken a hunter safety course in some circumstances. For instance, a 65-year-old grandfather could take his grandson out hunting though he never had to take a safety course because he started hunting before it was required in 1973, he explained.
An 8-year-old would not have to take a hunter safety course, but they would have to when they turn 12, he said."
Great, the elderly and very young armed together in the wild. If that's not a recipe for disaster, I don't know what is...
I think the answer is just to make everyone who wants a hunting license take the class. I don't see how limiting it to those 12 and over is helping (when they're lowering the hunting age to 8).
Stupid. Just plain stupid.
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