Community Corner

Moms Talk: Gun Safety & Children

Do guns in the house keep kids safe or put them in danger?

Each week the Mentor Patch Moms Council answers a question on parenthood posed to them by readers or another member of council.

Our Moms Topic this week is pretty simple: It's a discussion about keeping guns in a home in which kids reside.

There are two sides to every story, as they say. So if you look at the issue of having guns in homes, we expect to hear that guns can be used for ill intent, while guns also can be used to protect.

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Now throw kids into the mix. Does having a gun in a home where children are growing up put them in danger, or keep them from danger?

Jill Korsok:

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I don’t begrudge anyone’s right to have a gun in their home; it is certainly their own individual preference.

We don’t keep guns in our home and have settled on other ways to keep our family safe.

We talk regularly with our kids about the dangers of guns in the hands of young people and have given them very specific directions on what to do if a friend has access to a gun in their home while our children are visiting.

Deborah Lynn:

In general terms, I'm an anti-gun person.

Yes, I do realize that guns can be used to protect. Hunting brings its own topic. I do realize that many people hunt for a good amount of their food. In that case, I would strongly hope they have a gun safe whether they have children in the home or not.

I'm an anti-gun-in-the-home person because people with guns can effect a change that can't be erased. In a moment of anger, fear or simple mishandling, a person can be maimed or die. That far outweighs any positive thing that can be said about having a gun.

Devone Lansing:

In a reversal of what you might normally assume, I am pro-gun but my husband is anti-gun. We have had many discussions about whether or not to have one, and if we do, where and how to safely store it.

I grew up around firearms, and I know how to treat them and use them responsibly. I think as my children get older I would like to teach them the same respect for (and knowledge of) weapons for their own safety.

However, if I choose to have a gun IN my home, I would definitely make sure it is inaccessible to my kids, with ammo locked up separately. 

That said, I don't let my kids watch shows with guns or let them play like they are "shooting people." They know that guns are for hunting, targets and police officers. 

Melanie Majikas:

Statistically, guns in the home absolutely put children into danger. Children are far more likely to be killed by a gun in their own home, whether by accident or through suicide, than by an intruder.

Mary Jo Stack:

We have only an airsoft gun in our house. I was even against buying that, but my husband bought it for our son. I despise guns. I think a gun in a house puts children in more danger.

Wish that I could expound on the issue, but plain and simple, I don't like guns.


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