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Old 05-18-2017, 01:47 PM
Double-O-Dave Double-O-Dave is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Central Texas
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As an ER nurse with many years of service, I have unfortunately seen more than one or two self inflicted gun shot wounds - usually fatal - by young children, and usually with a revolver. I think that if a semiauto pistol has a frame and/or slide mounted safety, and the safety has been properly applied, most young children won't be able to fire the piece. With revolvers, unfortunately, the youngsters seek a mechanical advantage, and coupled with their curiosity, leads them to look down the barrel and depress the trigger with their thumbs while gripping the butt of the revolver.

When my children were old enough to start walking, I had the gun safety talk with them - frequently. I went over what I expected them to do if they found any firearm that was unsecured, and we would go over scenarios such as what to do if they were by themselves, or with one another, or at someone else's house, etc. Next, I would leave unloaded handguns and realistic looking toy guns laying about where they could find them and wait to see what would happen. My kids did exactly what they were taught to do, and received both recognition and reward for same.

Once while in a large store, one of my kids came and told me there was ammunition in the toy aisle. Thinking it was toy ammo for a toy gun, I still went with my kid to verify (my other child was staying by the ammo and "guarding it" so others wouldn't get hurt by it). I was very surprised to find live .22LR ammo laying loose on the floor in the toy aisle - just as my kids had said. We summoned the manager, and he said that this was impossible as he had the only keys to the ammo display, and he hadn't sold any ammo that day. Well, he was soon eating his words when we showed him the loose ammo, and my kids found more loose ammo further up the aisle. He immediately called staff to search the entire store for any other loose ammo, and he thanked and praised my kids for their prompt and correct actions.

We have acquaintances who thought what I did bordered on child abuse, but then later asked if I would teach their children as I had taught mine.

Regards,

Dave
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