This last week I had an awesome time taking my youngest son out for his first deer hunt! That awesome time soon left me when I read an article posted on the CVS Pharmacy’s website! The title was: “Children’s Health, Kids and Guns“.
What is a pharmacy chain doing editorializing about guns. What do they know about guns? Isn’t their expertise in pharmaceuticals? They state that guns are completely safe until a bullet enters the chamber and a hand nears the trigger, then they become a serious hazard to children. They state that 2852 children and teenagers died due to gunshot wounds in 2004 in the U.S. How many of these shootings were gang related or driveby shootings? I would venture to say most of them are! They didn’t mention that statistics show that children who are taught hunter’s safety are less likely to be involved in a gun incident than most adults! Their safety record is impeccable.
“According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns used in school-related homicides and student suicides most often come from the child’s own home or from a friend or relative.” The problem isn’t the guns, it is the parents of these children are not paying attention to their children! With this line of reasoning we should keep presciption medication out of the home that kids use to kill themselves. How would CVS like that? These kids are crying out for help and no one is giving it to them, their parents don’t see what is happening in their lives. If we spent more time with our kids, such as hunting, we would better know what is going on in their lives.
“If you still want to have a gun, invest in a trigger lock. Also, keep your gun unloaded and locked away in a gun cabinet, a safe, or another secure place. (Find a different place to lock up the ammunition.) Don’t simply hide the gun in a sock drawer or a dark corner of your closet. Kids have an amazing ability to sniff out hiding spots.” Keep it locked away in a gun cabinet? Give me a break! That isn’t going to stop a kid! If you want it kept away from someone invest in a gun safe! This is just bad information! It goes to show you that someone wrote this that knows nothing about firearm safety and just wrote an article with some facts thrown in to support someone’s emotional political agenda!
“What should I tell my child about guns? Never touch a gun for any reason. When is a child old enough to use a gun responsibly? Never, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is what the distinguished organization has to say about children and guns: Never allow your child access to your gun(s). No matter how much instruction you may give him or her, a youngster in the middle years is not mature and responsible enough to handle a potentially lethal weapon. Certainly the recent wave of school massacres give ample evidence of that. If you still want your child to know how to hunt or shoot, wait until the teenage years to begin instruction. Your child may be intelligent and emotionally mature, and he may know the book on gun safety, but you simply can’t trust him with a hunting rifle until he’s at least 13 years old — and not even then unless you are absolutely certain he is mature enough to be responsible. If you decide to let him use a gun, make it a rule that he must be accompanied by an adult.” Never? No child is ever responsible enough to use a firearm? If they are accompanied by an adult with the right supervision there is no reason a youth shouldn’t be able to participate in the shooting sports. Some of these kids are world class shooters! You can’t tell me that they are not responsible enough to handle a firearm! According to this idiot no child is capable of handling a firearm no matter how much instruction he or she has! Tell that to the world class trap, skeet, and target shooters. Don’t we allow people as young as 16 to enter the Olympics? This mind set would keep these competitors out of the competitions. His last statement that it should be a rule for them to be accompanied by an adult if you let them use one. Duh! It is the law that your responsible for your firearms, you are responsible for your youngster getting a hold of your firearms. There’s a rule all right, it’s the LAW!
I just have to scratch my head and wonder where people like this get their information. They spew facts and figures with not knowing what they mean or where they came from. Common sense goes a long ways. Take the time to show your kids what guns are about and better yet take the time to spend with your kids period! It is amazing what you find out about your kids when you spend time with them!
Last point, write CVS Pharmacy and let them know that you won’t tolerate this mis-information and will no longer do business there until they pull this article from their website! We must stand up to the anti gun rhetoric and the liberal media that tries to take our second amendment freedoms from us. Remember the words of Thomas Jefferson: “Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not!”
