At 01:33 PM 3/9/01 -0800 Joshua Bell wrote:
>"John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>>I'm watching _Primetime_ on ABC right now. They conducted an experiment
>>by placing hidden cameras and disabled handguns in a room where teenagers
>>will discover them. The reaction of the kids is appallling.
>
>Dateline (?) did the same thing last year with 5-year-olds. Same results.
>Whether or not the kids had been shown an NRA gun safety video just minutes
>before, the kids would almost invariably pick up the guns and play
>Cops&Robbers.
That was Primetime also.
>The one that sticks in my mind is the child that rooted around in the
>classroom until they found bullets (which I can only assume were dummies) in
>the teacher's desk and started to load the revolver.
The bullets were real. The police had disabled the guns, however, so that
they could not fire.
What was amazing, however, was teenagers taking a gun, *not* verifying that
it was unloaded, and pulling the trigger with the gun pointed in the
direction of a peer.
>I resented my parents never letting me play with toy guns, but it seems to
>have been somewhat successful.
Same here. My mother had a rule against "reality" violence. For
example, toy guns and toy soldiers were bad, whereas Star Wars and
Transformers were o.k.
As I eventually grew older, my newer circle of friends often liked to play
war games. By that time, I was so thoroughly conditioned that I would
always volunteer to be the "medic."
I'd also point out that as a Boy Scout, when I turned 12, I was immediately
encouraged to participate in target shooting at an outdoor rifle range at a
Boy Scout camp. We had safety strongly drilled into us, while at the same
time getting the full rifle shooting experience.
I have no basis for this, but I can't help but feel that this experience
would be a much more effective brand of gun safety than a mere video.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"The point of living in a Republic after all, is that we do not live by
majority rule. We live by laws and a variety of isntitutions designed
to check each other." -Andrew Sullivan 01/29/01
