Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
And to be clear, accidental discharges, theft, etc.....can all be addressed via better training & education around firearms.
Why is not mandatory to train gun safety in school?
I had that conversation with an anti-gun friend lately, and he thought I was crazy. I think all kids should know how to safety and properly use the commonly available firearms, including how they should be stored.
But hey, that would be breeding more pro-gun sentiment, right? And we can't have that.  |
I say this as a gun owner/user (I would wager on a # of guns basis, I'm near the top for CP users), but that is not a reasonable idea.
There are a huge number of hobbies that require special safety instruction (motorcycles, anything to do with outdoors/bears, water safety), why single out guns to spend a whole bunch of money on?
It's our hobby, we should be the ones bearing the cost of passing it along, and reducing it's impact on society.
The fact of the matter is, if we do our part to safely/properly store our guns, people that shouldn't be coming into contact with them (children for example) shouldn't ever come into contact with them. When I go shooting with someone for the first time, I treat them like a child that has never held a gun before. I take responsibility for making sure, I, and they are safe.
No one that enters my house needs to be versed in gun safety, because they aren't ever going to get to the guns unless I'm the one opening the safe.
If we want to make a compelling argument about why we should be able to own something, we need to do better ourselves, and provide a solution that demonstrates our own responsibility, not say things like "The government should take responsibility for our inability to use these things safely."