NCHornet

By the time my kids were 10 years old I was able to leave my loaded handguns out on nightstands at night. My kids started shooting a 4-5 years old and grew up with guns. They are safer with firearms than most adults I have shot with. It all depends on your children though. There are many lock boxes available that will keep your children away from the firearms yet allow quick access. Good luck and congrats on getting your CC permit.

NCH

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NCHornet

cphilip

The biggest risk left that you have no control over is your Kids Friends coming over. You have to take some account for that in any plan you make. Your not always going to know when they come over and not going to have control over what they might do if they found the gun. And they do snoop around. Without your own kids supervision sometimes. So, you cannot control everything, all the time, even in your own home. I agree with the teaching part, but the access part is sort of a risk unless they are locked up.

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MMABC

It's a complicated decision. You have to judge the responsibility and maturity of a child against your ability to actually have the gun available for self defense. As my children have grown up, I didn't like the idea of having an operable gun in the house. Now, on the other hand, I think the risks have swung the other way.

There are consequences in Texas just for the child gaining access. For example, it's illegal for a 12 year old to go rabbit hunting without an adult. I disagree. I could be held criminally negligent for misjudging the maturity and irresponsibility of a minor. If the law applied to children under 12, I might agree with it more.

That's not a good analogy. I'm not getting a speeding ticket. I'm talking about a Class C misdemeanor and not for me speeding, but for misjudging the maturity and responsibility of a 16 year old driver and giving him the keys to the Corvette. The state licensed the kid to drive, he gets a ticket, and I get a Class C misdemeanor. If he wrecks, and injures someone, even if it's not his fault, I get a Class A misdemeanor. Only not if I'm a farmer. In that case, I get off scott free. Outside of this analogy, I can put a 16 y.o. kid behind the wheel of a 500hp Corvette for real, and I don't think there's any laws on the books to hold me criminally negligent no matter what he does.

MMABC

I feel like it's safe for my 11 and 16 y.o. children to understand the rules of gun safety. I like the idea of knowing that if I leave my 16 y.o. at home with my girls, that he has access to the shotgun for self-defense.

For other children, in my home, I don't think there's much risk there. Guns are in the master bedroom, out of sight, and kids are supervised enough where snooping around in my bedroom isn't allowed.

If I'm not home, I trust that they will follow the rules that other kids aren't allowed, with or without the gun access issue. To me, both parents being gone, the kids inviting over friends, my kids allowing the other kids to get access to what they know is a loaded gun, and then having an accident seems pretty damn remote.

On the other hand, across the street, my neighbor's 16 y.o. had a ND with a very high powered hunting rifle when he was home alone. He was playing with it, and it went off. I don't know if it was loaded to start with, but obviously it wasn't "secured." Fortunately, it fired into the concrete slab, and no one was hurt. He had a difficult time explaining a hole in the carpet and a fine dust over the whole room though! Bottom line, they misjudged his maturity and responsibility. I'm not sure I would have trusted him, but they did. I don't think it was a case of criminal negligence on their part.

I don't know how to predict the future. Will something bad happen? A bad guy, or an irresponsible kid, which is more likely?

MMABC

I appreciate all the responses. I do understand folks recommending securing all the guns. I am interested though in how other folks feel about it in their homes.

MMABC

I appreciate that. That's pretty much what I'm doing now. I don't have a safe, but I'm thinking cable locks for a few cases where I might get worried with other kids being over.

libertarian5

I congratulae you on your success. I grew up around guns, and I personally remember a few times when I messed around with my dad's guns and I should not have. Nothing bad happened.

However, when I raised my children I thouht it prudent to lock all my guns away except the one I carried. My kids had friends that will probably be priests some day and others who will probably spend time in prison. Since I had no way of knowing which would become which, I kept the guns locked up.


I also insisted on making my kids wear bike helmets. I know someone around here who has permanent brain damage because he didn't He was destroyed by his medical bills and now he is a ward of the state. If he had worn a helmet he would be fine, and the rest of us wouldn't be paying his medical bills for the next 40 years or so.

MMABC

I don't have a problem with the decisions you make for your kids or yourself. However, I don't like the government to dictate to me how I should make those decisions. Is it criminally negligent if I let my kid ride a bike without a bike helmet? In the city of Houston, they made it criminally negligent, which I think is ridiculous. Why don't they outlaw bikes altogether? How about outlawing access to swimming pools? How about making it criminally negligent to not secure household chemicals. Should I get a safe to keep my chemicals too? Way more kids die of drowning, poisoning, and falls than they do from firearms. Why aren't the parents of all those children considered criminally negligent?

JimThomas

Dad?????




Agreed, even though I would personally keep things locked up pretty tightly regardless of law. I worry about kids friends, etc, for the most part. I prefer social pressure to law in many, many circumstances.

mrtwice99

I was taught gun safety by an uncle since I was young. I could recite the three rules of safety he taught me easily. But I was fascinated by guns and also irresponsible with them (no one seemed to notice). At age 12, I accidentally shot one of my friends with a .38 my mom kept in her dresser. Many in my family were shocked and devastated.

The moral of the story: keep your guns locked up at home! Teach your kids how to use them, to respect them, and to use them safely (I do). Watch for signs of carelessness or negligence in the way your kids talk about or use guns. But at the end of the day, you can never take that shot back. Never!!!

I use a GunVault to keep my weapon accessible but also secure and away from my kids. I would encourage you and everyone else to do something similar.