House of Five+1

I had a dear friend visit the other day and was struck with the realization that I needed to implement a gun safety list for my children and others who might come over.  

You see, Gabe has an arsenal of toy guns and weapons big enough to arm a small army.

My friend had never introduced her children to toy weapons, but when I asked before she arrived if they were okay she assured me that it should be fine.  She said that her children pretend with their hockey sticks and other things so it shouldn’t be a big problem.  Au contraire mon frair.  The ”real” thing is always better than the hockey stick.  There is a trigger mechanism, some have a nice audible clicking sound, or, if battery operated, have a real shooting sound.  Some are long and resemble the real thing so much that aside from the big orange tip on the front, one would think it was a real Civil War Musket.  My friend has all boys and she did a good job of concealing her terror in watching them handle these weapons so “violently.”   I told my friend that she may possibly never want to come back to our house again, and to redeem some of my dignity, I informed her later that we indeed do have some guidelines for handling toy guns and weapons in our home.  

The following is part of the email I sent her, I hope it might be useful to some of you out there.  I wished I had a list to look at when we first introduced our son to toy weapons, but as time has passed, we have come up with some rules of our own. 

There are certainly deviations in some of these.  And not all of them have been strictly enforced here, but make the cut for proper handling of weapons in our home.

Also, my son has a police officer bent.  He doesn’t go “hunting” much, which I know that is what some parents only allow with there toy guns.   So these guidelines are geared more toward our little cop.  (I’m sure having close relatives as police officers and my previous training as a military cop helps feed this interest).

1. First and foremost, if you ever see a gun or weapon that is real or even looks real.  STOP, don’t touch it, run and find Mommy or Daddy or another adult.  ( We have shown Gabe what a real gun looks like.  His Grandaddy, Uncle, and  a close Cousin are armed everyday, so we felt it important to show him and explain to him how dangerous weapons can be. We might tell him something like this,  ”Guns are meant for good in the right hands, but you should never, ever touch or hold a gun, you are a child, and children don’t use real weapons.”  We just stress that real guns are to be taken VERY seriously).  Much, much later, I’m sure the topic will come up of him owning his own hunting gun or something, but that’s not till much, much later, right?!

2.  When playing with toy guns and weapons we never shoot to kill unless hunting for animals.  When shooting a bad guy (we play cops and robbers a lot around here, that’s where my cop training comes in handy!) we don’t shoot to kill.  We only have weapons to protect ourselves and those around us.  If the bad guy has a weapon and tries to use it, we shoot to mame.  This means that we shoot only to stop him from harming ourselves or anybody else.  Aim for his leg or arm, never aim at the head or body.  (These rules are actual rules that were ingrained in me as a military cop, I think it might be different as a street cop, but they are good for around here).

4.  Gabe is allowed to spar with Daddy.  The girls are really not interested in this sport and because of their age we try not to allow sparring with children anyway (unless closely supervised).  Only a knowing a adult.

5.  I think that the last one is that we just really have tried to help Gabe understand that weapons are for his protection and for the protection of those around him.  When you are protecting yourself you don’t go shooting everything.  You have to THINK with a weapon.    And never shoot in anger (with his first gun he said that he was going to shoot Chloe for doing something that made him angry.  We talked to him about it and said that if he ever did that he would get a spanking and the gun would be taken away for a long time.)  He got out of that phase pretty quickly. 

For the most part we’ve tried to teach him and show him that guns have a purpose and they need to be handled with care.  (Not that he exhibits this entirely, but there is effort). 

I would venture to say that Gabe handles himself pretty honorably with his weapons.  There are still times, however, when they need to be confiscated for awhile.  There is a big temptation to use his weaponry as torture for his little sisters. :{

Happy Hunting.