Gun Play: Responsible Gun Ownership for Parents

Your life just changed for the better. After years of dreaming about it, you are now a parent. That initial high of “baby love” quickly fades as your mind spins out over the awesome responsibilities you have just assumed.  Besides providing the basics of food, shelter and love to your little one, you are now a role model and protector for your new expanded family. One of the ways you’ve chosen to uphold that responsibility is to own a firearm. But is your pre-child, arms-bearing life incompatible with your new babe in arms? Or, let’s say you already have a family and want to purchase a gun for personal protection, but then you end up rethinking your decision out of concerns for your child’s safety.

The “gun debate” is obviously a serious one for parents. Everyone must make a personal choice about gun ownership in their own household.  But at the same time, you might be surprised to learn that this “choice” has essentially been made for you. The fact of the matter is, you need to educate you children about guns regardless of whether you choose to own one or not.  Here’s why.

You are morally against guns. You have never owned one and you don’t ever want your children exposed even to toy handguns or rifles. In reality, this stance is the equivalent of saying you don’t want your teenage daughter to ever listen to Rihanna or watch a Jersey Shore episode. Good luck with that. The reality of our society is that guns are as ubiquitous as pop culture - maybe even more so. It is estimated 45% of American households own guns. There are presently believed to be 355,029,250 million guns in the USA - and that’s just counting the ones owned legally.  Over 400 guns are sold in this country per minute. When you consider there is one gun for every 1.17 of us, there is a high probability that someone you know owns a firearm. And that someone could be a friend of the family. That household could even be place where you send your child for play dates. So not owning a gun does not relieve you of any responsibility for your child’s safety.  Chances are, someone you know, or someone your child knows, owns a firearm.

Of course, this may seem like common sense to most of us. It is hoped that responsible owners store their gun in a child safe area and stow the ammunition and weapon separately. But as any parent will tell you, children are enterprising and crafty. You may think they don’t know where that key to your gun safe is, but what if they find it? It’s definitely possible. The safest way to approach the issue is to  assume children are going to find that gun. Now what?

If you don’t educate your kids about firearms, that first problem that arises is that they could easily confuse a real gun for a toy. But even toy guns -say BB/pellet guns- are dangerous. Air guns, when pumped up to maximum pressure can hurl a projectile at nearly the velocity of a bullet. That’s not the kind of “toy” you want your child to handle unless they understand how to use it safely.

The NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe is a good starting point for child firearm safety. The program instructs children: “stop, don’t touch, and immediately alert an adult” if they find a gun.  That’s a wonderful idea if your child follows directions, but many don’t. It is also irresponsible to underestimate the tactile allure of a gun for children. As adults, most of us are drawn to the powerful look and feel of a handgun.  Why should we assume kids are any different?

Understanding that kids will often not be able to resist touching a handgun, there are a few available safety options. A gun lock will certainly throw up a road block against any curious child.  Project ChildSafe, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies and gun enthusiast organizations, offers a gun safety kit that includes a steel cable-type lock with instructions and a safety tips booklet. While this is an admirable service, gun enthusiasts warn that these locks are ultimately ineffective. Security expert Mark Weber Tobias has written an extensive critique of cable and trigger locks (read it here) and argues that a determined child can easily breach any such deterrent device.

Today, technology is probably your best weapon against youthful curiosity. Biometric technology is an excellent choice for responsible parents wanting to keep a gun in the house with children. Biometrics is a method of security authentication that relies on traits unique to a particular individual. You’ve probably seen retinal scans and such in sci-fi movies; but this technology is nolonger the stuff of fiction. Companies have developed (with mixed success) firearms whose trigger and butt are outfitted with RFID chips or Dynamic Grip Recognition technology that can detect unique hand and finger characteristics. The weapon is only operational when used by a single, imprinted individual. But some gun enthusiast organizations oppose such technology, citing it as an insidious form of gun control. Also, biometric weapons are not readily available for consumer applications, and will no doubt be prohibitively expensive for “the 99%” once they are.

However, biometric gun safes are available from several manufacturers at affordable prices right now. These devices use an individual’s unique fingerprint to access the weapon and ammunition inside. They cannot be opened by even the most determined child. The other advantage of biometric safes is that they offer the option of storing a weapon and ammunition together so that a gun is ready to use at a moment’s notice.

For the same reason you probably don’t drive one of those tissue box-sized “Smart” cars (i.e., because you share the road with Land Rovers and Chevy Tahoes), your responsibility does not end with gun safety in your own home.  Once you assume your child will get his/her hands on a gun outside of your supervision (and you should), then the best way to ensure situational safety is to directly address the potential danger instead of ignoring it. Educate your children about guns. Period. Even if you don’t believe in owning one. It’s the responsible thing to do. Then, as a parent, take a deep breath and realize: you can control your child’s interaction with a potentially dangerous firearm. It’s all up to you.