Ask anyone who with a little boy around the house if their son ever picked up a stick and turned it into an imaginary sword. Or used his thumb and forefinger to emulate a gun to "shoot" one of his siblings. Watch young boys playing and you'll usually find them emulating a super-hero, a swashbuckling pirate or even a lion or tiger. According to most experts, this is normal as young boys seem hardwired to project their power over each other and even the natural world around them.
Does this mean little boys are somehow born as rampaging mass killers? Of course not. Watch boys playing and they will build a sand castle just to drive their Tonka® trucks into it and destroy it. Boys seem to learn from this cycle of building and destruction to make their structures more elaborate, bigger or stronger.
Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates
of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less
delinquent than non-owners of guns."
Today we hear from "experts" -- usually those with a hatred of firearms -- that "kids and guns don't mix" or "keep guns away from children". They claim a child who gets near a firearm is "a tragedy waiting to happen". I'll be one of the first to admit that if you have very small children around the house, keeping your firearms behind lock & key is a wise move. Parents know you can't watch them every moment. But those in the anti-gun movement (or the far left) react in horror at parents who teach their children to shoot safely.
The anti-gun lobby makes comments like "Teaching a child to kill is not parenting" or "Letting your child touch a gun disqualifies you as a parent". On YouTube videos showing a child shooting a .22 rifle, one comment was that "Parents who let their kids play with guns should be executed!" So much for their preaching tolerance and diversity.
In 1995, a study[¹] by the NIJ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency prevention revealed that gun ownership was actually beneficial, stating "Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than non-owners of guns."[²]
| Activity | Illegal Gun | No Gun | Legal Gun |
|---|---|---|---|
| Street Crimes | 74% | 24% | 14% |
| Drug Use | 41% | 15% | 13% |
| Gun Crimes | 21% | 1% | 0% |
Relationship between type of gun owned and percent
committing street, drug and gun crimes.
Teaching our kids gun safety should be as common as teaching them to ride a bike safely or go hand in hand with kitchen safety around hot and sharp things. Yet, the left only considers it as "training for killers". If we took their myopic vision to other areas, our children would be ignorant about germs and personal hygiene. Instead, look what happens when kids are taught to shoot and compete in a controlled and safe environment.
And lest you think this pasttime is just for "older" students in their teens, take a look at the youngest shooter in practical shooting competition;
Miko Andres, six years, competes in the AustralAsia
competion shooting a .45 ACP pistol!
Certainly it takes time, patience and a very focused child to begin shooting at such an early age. This shows that even children as young as six and seven can shot responsibly enough when properly trained and supervised.
Once again, facts contradict the claims of the anti-gun lobby that children and guns are not a good combination. I believe these self-proclaimed protectors of "the children" sell children short on their mental abilities. Children need to be children, however at the same time history shows us that children benefit when they are challenged through self-discipline (with parental assistance of course). The statistics from the NIJ study show the benefit of legal gun ownership and shooting sports - parents involved in their children's lives, spending quality time together sharing a sport, instilling discipline and focus that will help them in the future.
¹ Source: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, NCJ-143454, "Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse," August 1995.
² "The socialization into gun ownership is also vastly different for legal and illegal gun owners. Those who own legal guns have fathers who own guns for sport and hunting. On the other hand, those who own illegal guns have friends who own illegal guns and are far more likely to be gang members. For legal gun owners, socialization appears to take place in the family; for illegal gun owners, it appears to take place 'on the street.'"
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