Shooting Gun Taboos

I think you made a very good point with this blog, and I wanted to say Kudo's!

Thanks for the complement. I wish more parents, whether they own a gun or not, would look at things like the NRA's Eddie the Eagle program, exposed their kids to firearms, and BE PARENTS (ie know and filter what their kids watch etc).

I guess that appears to be a 'big wish'...

...I think you are half right....the other half being the number of children raised in households without Dads.

Jimmy,

I understand your point, and had thought of it when I wrote the commentary. I decided not to address it for the sake of brevity.

I had a friend who had lost his father (only had mom). She was assertive enough to get him involved in sports and made sure he would go out with friends and their fathers (ie she made sure he had adult male contacts). I know it's not the same as a father, but it was the best she could do.

Anyway, I will admit that women are less apt to teach their kids about guns (men typically do so). The fact of the matter, however, if they want to protect their kids, gun safety and exposure remains important. Even if they don't have a gun at home, chances are that their kid's friends do.

There are many programs available to teach gun safety etc. and a lot of excellent programs geared to teaching women about guns. Single moms can choose to take their kids to the range themselves and/or have them go shooting with a friend's father.

In this day and age, women need not feel out of place going to a gun range as there are a lot more women involved in shooting sports and it is not out of the ordinary to see women at the range anymore.

Finally, even folks who don't like guns can help their kids. My friend's uncle doesn't like guns but found his son was very intrigued by them. As a result, he asked by friend to take his son shooting and hunting. The boy drove my buddy crazy with questions/comments about the guns at first but that has subsided as has his 'hyper-interest' in firearms. It ended up being a great experience for both.