Kevin Tarr wrote:
>And I'm all for dogs and security systems and the notion that guns should be
>properly stored but like somebody else had for a tag line from Heinlein, An
>armed society is a polite society.
America is an armed society. Hienlein has been proved wrong.
And, yes, my father also had several guns in the house (he's a farmer,
farmers *must* have guns), and, no, I never played with them; but then
again, I was never much exposed to the idea that guns were for killing
people. Guns were for scaring off some idiot's chow dogs or putting down
sick animals.
If a gun is being kept in the house for *the express purpose of killing
people*- for "personal safety" in other words- I think the situation is
quite different, particularly when the child, as I believe Marvin
remarked, believes that guns are what heroes use for dealing with the bad
guys. In that case the child is far more likely to regard the gun as a
fascinating thing, something to be investigated or used as a prop for a
game... and that is where the danger starts.
Kat Feete
-------------------------------
"I know about people who talk about suffering for
the common good. It's never bloody them! When you
hear a man shouting "Forward, brave comrades!"
you'll see he's the one behind the bloody big rock
and the one wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!"
-Rincewind the Wizzard
Terry Pratchett
