Child Shootings: Locking Up Guns & Defense In Depth

Perfectly safe, unless you pull the trigger.

There is no fail-safe way to keep children from accidentally shooting themselves, but a responsible parent and gun owner can practically eliminate the threat. First, educate a child about the dangers of guns and that they are not toys. Second, teach children age-appropriate firearm safety. Third, lock your guns up when you are not actively controlling them. No method alone or combined is foolproof, but something is better than nothing. Assuming that a safety briefing alone or strong words never to touch daddy’s gun isn’t going to keep kids safe.

NSFW language warning: I’m not going to mince words in the rest of this article.

Childhood gun accidents happen because of two main reasons; loaded guns are left accessible to children and parents misjudge their children. If combined into one cause, parents failed to imagine that the worst was possible and that it was their duty to prevent it. Anyone who leaves a loaded gun where a child can get at it is negligent and irresponsible. All firearms should be kept holstered, under the direct and immediate control of an adult, or locked away when kids are in the home.

Even teenagers shouldn’t have access to a firearm unsupervised. As you will see below, even “trained” children can still kill each other with guns. There are too many unknowns to rely on a child’s training or integrity to leave a loaded gun unsecured. As you will see below, some parents did teach their kids about guns and shooting, yet tragedies happen.

No, we are not discussing the one-offs where a teen successfully uses a gun in a legitimate defensive situation. We’re talking about the bad parents here, not the decent ones, so please spare me the links and angry comments about how your child is great, blah blah blah. Make your own decisions, but do so intelligently, not blindly assuming you’re some great expert and it won’t happen to you. Relying on “trust” is a bad plan.

Frankly, most of the children who die or are injured in gun accidents have irresponsible parents that are probably too stupid or negligent to own firearms (or have children). By now, the danger of a loaded gun should be obvious, but sadly, some morons think a gun in a drawer or on the top shelf where a kid can’t see it is safe. I’d venture a guess these people have never been educated about gun safety, lack much formal education, are generally unintelligent, and are more concerned with themselves than their children. We’re talking about the people who are the reasons for warning labels on things.

Unsecured Guns

Casey Mercer of Louisiana left his gun on the sofa after cleaning his guns because he had to go to work. He did text his girlfriend to put the gun away, but while his girlfriend found it more important to put the dog outside rather than keep the gun out of children’s reach, Mercer’s toddler shot herself in the head with the pistol. Congratulations dumbass, you killed your daughter because you left a loaded gun on the couch. On the couch! What the fuck?

The negligence of leaving a loaded handgun on the couch is mind boggling. I question how anyone can be so stupid, lazy, and irresponsible. Unloaded guns left out with the ammunition put away? Missed one because you were in a hurry? Dropped out of your pants and you forgot it somehow? Understandable, if not excusable. But no, he was late for work and didn’t want to risk getting into trouble, so he took a chance and lost.

Think you can set a gun down somewhere and it will be safe? A four-year old was shot with a gun left in a purse. A grandmother’s pistol, kept under a pillow, “went off” in the middle of the night and killed her grandchild. Kids do inconceivable destructive things that take only the imagination of a child to think of. Your common sense and logic not to fiddle with guns does not apply to a kittle kid.

Amy Pittman of North Carolina and her boyfriend kept firearms all over their home. Social workers were called when her boys were seen chasing each other through the neighborhood with guns. During the investigation, unsecured firearms were found around the home. Pittman blamed her boyfriend and that she didn’t know the guns were there, including the shotgun hidden behind a refrigerator. This was the gun that her 12-year-old shot her 9-year-old in the back with. The elder boy assumed that the gun was unloaded after shaking it.

Pittman, a real winner of a human being, was charged while her boyfriend went free. Only the mom had a duty to keep her kids from shooting each other. Apparently, a boyfriend who has his girlfriend’s children in the house has no responsibility. She blamed him because she claimed she had no idea there were guns in the house. Right…surely you didn’t notice the ammo in the sock drawer. Pittman even told a social worker who offered to buy them a gun safe to buzz off. Wonder if the boyfriend visited Amy in jail?

Cause 1: Parental Irresponsibility

In the above examples, the parents could have kept their children safe. Mercer was too lazy to put his guns away or properly manage his time so he could put the guns away without being late. Or maybe if his girlfriend had worried less about having to clean up dog poop/pee she wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning up the gore of that sweet little girl. It’s better to be fired than to kill your child.

Pittman made practically every wrong decision at just about every point in her life. The possibilities are endless. If she was a better mother, perhaps her kids wouldn’t have been so unruly. Maybe if she had made better life decisions, she would have been supervising her kids or not dating a scumbag. She could have bought a safe or taken up the social worker’s offer. At the very least, she should have taught her kids not to play with guns or that you don’t shake a gun to check if it is loaded or not.

The off-body carry folks, especially the pillow grandmother, never imagined that a gun essentially under their control would become a danger. Purse carry around young children is reckless precisely because kids look through and play with everything (remember the dildo gun safety commercial?). Off-body carry is dangerous for just this reason, especially given the case of the child who shot and killed a mother in Walmart with her own purse gun. She gets half a pass as attended purse carry seems reasonable; this is why concealed carry instructors had better be damn clear off-body carry is a terrible idea around kids and idiots.

These others were likely poorly educated (about guns is all I’m willing to speculate here) and careless to the n-th degree. While mandating gun safety education and making it a felony for stupid people to own guns would be ideal, it would be as unconstitutional as prohibiting morons from sharing their verbal diarrhea in public or online. Or breeding. As it is, all you can do is try and impress gun safety across the board any way you can.

Maturity Misjudgment

Brooklyn Mohler of Henderson was shot and killed when her 14-year-old friend tried to show off her dad’s handgun that he left accessible for his daughter’s protection. The 14-year-old was trying to “disarm” the gun somehow when Brooklyn got shot. The gun owner was not charged, apparently after the DA’s office claimed no law had been violated. Someone is lying, because NRS 202.300, though complicated, does prohibit generally leaving loaded guns around.

A child 14 or older may have access to a handgun if, they have written permission from a parent for possession at their residence; however, that section (7) is negated by section (8), which prohibits a minor from handling a loaded firearm within any residence, including his or her own residence, unless, possession of the firearm is necessary for immediate self-defense. Immediate self-defense does not include the theoretical need for self-defense; the exemption is a protection to prevent prosecution of a child who uses a gun solely to defend themselves. The gun owner certainly could be charged, but it appears the decision fell under prosecutorial discretion and no one looked at the statute hard enough to challenge the call or publicly disclaim it.

14-year-old Kenzo Dix died in an incident similar to Brooklyn. A friend who was overconfident with his father’s handgun removed the magazine but didn’t clear the chamber. Instead of blaming the imbecile of a friend and his equally irresponsible father, Dix decided it was the gun’s fault. He championed loaded chamber indicators for California handguns (you know, “loaded when up”). Mr. Dix feels that many firearms are unsafe by design and “the gun industry is a threat to many American families.”

Right. A little tab poking up is going to suddenly make children of all ages realize the chamber is loaded and clear the pistol. Sort of like those warning labels on cigarettes keep kids from smoking. Someone who is so unfamiliar with firearms that they do not know to verify the chamber is empty or keep your finger off the trigger while pulling back the slide is probably not going to understand what the little thing protruding from the slide means (at least until Ruger makes a gun with an audio warning and flashing lights).

Mr. Dix can’t blame the friend (that’s too mean) and getting mad at the dad won’t solve the problem, but he can get mad at the gun industry and blame them. Why place the guilt where it belongs when you can demonize a faceless group of corporations? Like how victims of drunk drivers all blame the car industry…never mind. Instead, Mr. Dix gets to tell his sob story and get legislation passed to add yet more crap to a gun that won’t do a damn to save lives. All because it isn’t about saving lives, it’s about feelings.

Cause 2: Parental Hubris

These two died because of parental hubris; that their kid knew about guns and wasn’t going to play around with them when mom and dad are home. Sadly, this kind of attitude is all too common around gun owners. A lot of parents probably thought that. Hopefully, your kids are the rare ones who are mature and respectful enough not to go playing with guns.

But what if a friend comes over and finds it? Do you truly have a special child who is entirely trustworthy, or are you assuming that your child would never do anything like that? The last thing you want is your weekend getaway interrupted by a call from the police because the teen party broke up because Jimmy Stoner found your bedside gun and blew off his girlfriend head during some sex game in your bed.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but far too often we see clueless parents believing their children are blameless and who continue to deny reality crying “he dindu nuffin!” Don’t believe that other people’s kids go through your stuff when you aren’t around? A promising high school football star died when just that happened. Just because you are middle-class and shoot regularly doesn’t mean that you are magically exempt from instances of teenage dumbassery. 

Teens think they know everything and consequently find themselves in deep precisely because of overconfidence. Kenzo and Brooklyn died because they did not have enough maturity or discipline to leave the gun alone and overestimated their firearms proficiency. Because development of the brain is not complete, teens often act on impulse, engage in risky behavior, and act without thinking or considering the consequences of their actions. If they can access the gun, they can’t do anything reckless with it.

Education and heart-to-heart talks can only do so much. Despite modern sex-ed and easily obtainable birth control, teen girls still get pregnant, but it is much easier to put guns in a safe than it is to lock one’s boys and girls in their closets until their hormones stop raging. If you won’t trust them with booze, a computer in their bedroom, or staying out late, why are you trusting them with your guns?

Cause 3: Insufficient Training and Experience

“I’ve trained my kids about gun safety and they would never touch a gun if I wasn’t around. And if they did, then they would know how to safely use it.” Perhaps your kid is that one in a thousand who is trustworthy and had the benefit of years of range trips with you, but hope is not a plan. Not very many gun owners raise their children in a culture of gun safety and as a consequence, mistake limited experience for competence.

Both stories above say that “the gun went” off, as if the gun fired of its own accord. No, the trigger was pulled because of poor trigger discipline, failure to clear the gun, and total disregard for basic firearm safety. Failure to instill trigger discipline is a result of poor training and a lack of experience with firearms. No knowledge that leads to inaction is better than partial knowledge that leads to doing something unsafe. I would bet that the children’s experience with guns was rudimentary and focused little on safety.

Too many young people are exposed to guns the same way porn exposes them to sex; they’re stimulated, but lack command of the fundamentals to avoid getting themselves into trouble. If shooting is regarded as a rare treat, rather than a serious activity like driving practice, a teen is likely not to come away with good habits. Learning to drive isn’t a trip around the block and then driving to the DMV. Mom and Dad being lazy is not the whole reason why you had to drive them around when you were 15. Just like driving takes practice, so does firearm handling proficiency.

A 19 year old high school student (wait…) died on prom night in a Corvette his mother rented for him. Apparently, it is a tradition in that area to rent high-end cars for prom night. I doubt that these kids have access to these kinds of cars or experience driving anything with that kind of power, as this video seems to show from the teen’s and his friends’ reactions. A family friend told me of his nephew’s death here in Las Vegas many years ago in a brand-new Mustang that his mother mistakenly bought him. Despite being begged not to race the car, the teen did just that after high school one day and crashed and died. Neither of the dead boys had any prior experience with muscle cars or any respect for their power.

A teen who knows how to clear a firearm, but does not have the experience and discipline to keep his finger firmly off the trigger can fire the gun when attempting to retain it against the force of the recoil spring as he retracts the slide. Just enough knowledge to be dangerous. Spend some time on a public range or in a beginner’s class and look at all the people the RSO has to yell at to stop flagging others. Few of these shooters have the experience, the interest, or take guns as seriously, as we do and as a result treat guns as more of a lark. This embarrassing habit goes away when safety is eventually beaten into their head.

Had many of these “knowledgeable” teens kept the gun pointed away from themselves or friends, when their finger slipped and hit the trigger the gun would have fired in a safer direction, hurting no one. Sadly, no one instilled them with that rule.

Solutions

There is no perfect solution for careless parents and gun owners. We can’t make people be smarter. We can’t make them stop and consider if putting a gun on the top shelf is really making it safe. We can’t force parents to critically appraise their own training skills. We can’t force parents to admit their kids aren’t as smart and perfect as they want them to be. We can’t make people care more about their children than themselves. We can’t make everyone as adept as we are.

Defense in depth is the way to go. Teach young kids to stay the hell away from guns. Allow the older ones to learn respect for firearms and to develop good gun habits. Lastly, keep them locked away whenever possible to reduce the chances of a random variable happening to you. Each one of these steps can prevent one specific mechanism of gun accident, but only by securing guns can anything but deliberate action be avoided.

All we can do is teach and warn. As long as dangerous things exist, children will die in accidents that could have been prevented by better parenting. By following these simple suggestions, we can help reduce accidental firearm deaths. Remember, no one is exempt from shit happens.

Don’t Touch, Run Away

An instructor friend of mine says “Do you remember the last time you hear of a kid catching on fire? Of course not. We teach fire safety and ‘stop, drop, and roll’ is ingrained.” Imagine how much safer everyone would be if the danger of guns was taught in schools (in an age-appropriate manner) every year. In a fair number of cases, had the victim simply got up and left when the gunplay started, they would be alive today.

The innocent victims of these tragedies could have prevented their own deaths or injuries by simply removing themselves from danger. One of the firearm safety rules taught to children is to run away from a gun. The NRA says, “This removes the temptation to touch the firearm as well as the danger that another person may negligently cause it to fire.” It’s a rule better suited to little kids, but even teenagers can benefit.

Running away may not be “cool” to a teenager, but getting away from a friend playing with mom’s or dad’s gun is a very good way to not be in the line of fire when Johnny Jackass pulls the trigger. Even Kenzo and Brooklyn might have lived if they noped it out of their friend’s house. The ideal child of a gun owner would have the maturity to not worry about losing face with his friends. Reality is different. Peer pressure and the desire to look cool or not appear frightened causes kids to make poor decisions, even if they know better.

It’s not just at home, either. There is a startling number of stories of guns being found in parks and abandoned houses where children are injured and killed when they start playing with the guns. Run away, tell an adult!

The problem is that firearm safety training for children is rare and depends almost entirely on the parents seeking out or giving that education to their kids. Gun safety is not taught in school. My police station had boxes of unused NRA Eddie Eagle material (but free locks flew out the door, thankfully). It is a shame that the taboo on guns has gone so far that anti-gun leftists have made it impossible to teach children to avoid these dangerous situations. So, parents, the responsibility is yours.

Respect and Fear the Gun

No sure-fire solutions exist to safeguard one’s children at all times, but the best thing a responsible parent and gun owner can do is teach respect for firearms from an early age. I know one couple that taught their son to keep his toy guns holstered and always keep his finger off the trigger. When he becomes a teen, he will likely have both the respect and discipline to avoid gun accidents, but such training is rare. This is behavior that must be reinforced. It is not something learned in an afternoon on the gun range.

If you understand the dangers and consequences of firearms, you are much less likely to kill or injure yourself or someone else. There is a reason why reputable firearm instructors don’t put guns, unloaded or otherwise, to the heads of their trainees or anyone else. Yet a teenage woman killed her boyfriend after shooting a gun at him for a YouTube video, assuming a phone book would stop a .50 caliber handgun round. Phone books are concealment, not cover. She neglected a fundamental rule of gun safety; “never point a gun at anything you are not willing to shoot” (like your boyfriend).

That death was partially ignorance for not understanding the power of the .50 Action Express cartridge and partially a total lack of respect for the danger of shooting at a human being. Don’t let your kids win the Darwin Award. Had those two poor lovers righteously feared the power of guns, no one would even know they existed, aside from the viewers of their bad channel. You don’t let someone shoot you unless you are a cast member of “Jackass” or you are selling bulletproof vests.

Children and teens with limited exposure to firearms do not respect the danger of guns. Far too many adults are guilty of the same, like this mom who found a gun and pulled the trigger to see if it was loaded. In Korea, range accidents (among suicides) are rampant because of no exposure to guns among the population, leading to measures like RSOs wearing vests and chaining guns up during firing (read the comments on the link). Many of the employees at tourist ranges here in Nevada can tell you many similar stories about customers who have no idea how one fumble of the trigger with the muzzle in the wrong direction can be disastrous.

A healthy fear of anything dangerous is necessary to stay alive. Responsible gun owners jump all over YouTubers for not clearing a gun on camera or gun store clerks for muzzling customers with a gun that is 99.9% probably empty. That is because we understand the danger and know “better safe than sorry.” The first rule of gun safety is to treat every firearm as if it were loaded. If that one rule were always obeyed, gun accidents would decline dramatically. It isn’t paranoia.

Lock Them Up!

It’s all fun and games to blame people for leaving their car unlocked or values in sight when their stuff gets stolen, but it sure sucks when it happens to you, right? Just that one time can turn into a stolen phone and a broken window. Still better than a child’s life because an accidental shooting couldn’t happen to you.

Training all children isn’t realistic. Plenty of parents talk about their incorrigible kids who never listen and always get into trouble. Just because you teach a child something doesn’t necessarily mean they will understand or obey. It isn’t going to work because you can’t train the neighbors’ kids or the friends that get invited over to your house. Your perfect child might not mess with the gun under your mattress, but that no-good friend of theirs will and isn’t smart enough to avoid sending a bullet into your precious little angel.

The best precaution is to lock away the guns. If they can’t get at it, they can’t hurt themselves. Yes, gun safes of all sorts can be picked, combinations guessed, and keys found, but defeating a determined attempt to get a gun isn’t the point. It is to remove as much temptation as possible, to make things difficult, and to keep guns from falling into the hands of young children. Amy Pittman’s children could have been alive if they were taught to respect guns, true, but they certainly would be alive if her boyfriend had put the guns in a safe too.

When it comes to self-defense, you take every reasonable precaution, right? You use hollow points, you keep your gun clean, you carry extra mags, you have night sights, a light, you train regularly in practical situations, you practice drawing, and you mentally rehearse scenarios. But why don’t you take all the reasonable precautions to avoid an accident? Lock your guns up, please. No matter how smart you think you are and how well-behaved your kids are, shit happens. Don’t be that guy who makes us look bad and who is responsible for the death of a child.

Should parents be prosecuted?

Prosecution for parental negligence after child shootings is rare and inconsistent. Laws vary from state to state. Many feel that it is wrong to punish someone after losing their child and it accomplishes nothing. They get quite hot under the collar when you suggest something so “inhumane.” I wonder how many of those don’t lock up their guns properly and they imagine themselves in hot water. But does it do any good to punish parents after the “ultimate” punishment of losing a child?

Fuck sympathy and not adding insult to injury—this isn’t a traffic collision. Put the responsible party away for a year, no more, no less, so they can think about what they did and never own a gun again. If you let a child get shot for leaving out a gun, you have forfeited your right to own one ever again. I’m guessing this winner doesn’t have much in the way of remorse and so punishment is right up his alley.

Make them remember what happened and why they are in jail so they can reconsider the poor decisions leading up to this point. If they were too stupid or too selfish to think about the safety of their children, then give them a time out to think now. Let them be tortured and haunted by the horror and learn their lesson. Perhaps they will emerge as better, more considerate members of society.

Prosecute and incarcerate as a warning to others; not so much as to instill a fear of jail (one should fear a dead child more), but for publicity. Maybe someone will see the story on the news and secure their gun. The average public is far more likely to see and respond to a tragic accident than they would to a proactive offer of gun safety training or supplies. The prospect of grieving alone in prison is not one that any parent would want.

Do what you can to save a life.

Kids with Guns

Generations of American children have been accustomed to carrying and fantasizing about guns. Take my family lineage for example.  Grandfather McGee, as a child on Southern California farmland, routinely shouldered a Winchester 22 single shot rifle. Purportedly to shoot at pestering crows endangering crops during the Great Depression era. During WWII he volunteered for the Navy where his love of firearms never wavered. Despite having a Japanese not-so-sharpshooter take a couple shots at him down at the swimming pond while on some R&R.

Upon his return to the States he decided to enlist in the Baby Boomer project and thus my dad was born. Reportedly, my dad filled his summer afternoons as a tween discharging firecrackers and taking shots with his Red Ryder BB gun. With one errant BB striking and shattering a neighbor's window (I assume that energy efficient double pane windows had not been patented yet).

Flash forward to the 80's when GI-Joe action figures were on every boy's Christmas list and you have me roaming my neighborhood or friends' ranches with a non-projectile firing replica. It was a metal and wood lever action rifle purchased from Knotts Berry Farm. And mind you, this was slightly before the time when orange tips were all the rage. Not knowing the statute of limitations...I may OR may not have threatened the lives of Cobra sympathizers and the occupants of passing cars by failing to prevent muzzle sweep. Boys being boys, right?

Thankfully my dad realized that my interest in firearms would be best served by taking a firearm safety course. Fortunately the Hunter Safety Course had a component of firearm handling and safety discussion. So whereas I failed the course at age 8 (I attribute this to my active PETA membership), I  successfully passed at age 9 and learned a great deal more about safe firearm handling. One of my proudest moments is memorialized on a fading Polaroid. Little 9-year-old me holding a 22 caliber rifle almost taller than me, standing right next to dad and the range master.

Move ahead to Halloween-season 1998. It seemed perfectly righteous to go to High School dressed as Walker Texas Ranger (though in all honesty I never watched the show) complete with unloaded 38 brass on a Western gun belt and a stainless steel non-firing replica revolver (with orange tip painted over with a black felt tip marker). A very diligent Vice Principal noticed my costume during lunch and removed my prop from its holster to verify it wasn't real, then promptly returned it to me.

Move slightly forward to March 1999 and a modern rendition of MacBeth performed in class required 4 students (me included) to dress up in camouflage coveralls and ski masks pretending to do a drive-by shooting (while playing "Low Rider"). And they toted replica firearms with one student (not me) daring all by bringing in an unloaded pellet handgun. This was met with great applause from the English teacher. And did I forget to mention this was a Catholic school?
But after the events of Columbine that April...these behaviors were no longer socially acceptable at school or much elsewhere.

Now that I'm a parent I wrestle with what is the right course of action. How should I mentor my young children about firearms?

I think accompanying a MATURE child to the range, teaching firearm safety, and restricting unsupervised in-home access to guns until after they are age 25 are important principles. (I say age 25 because the parts of the brain that control impulse aren't fully formed until then and a serious mental illness should show its first symptom by that age.  These are my personal rules, not an endorsement of laws that would raise the minimum age to possess/purchase.)

But...what about toy guns including replicas, Nerf guns, and squirt guns?  What lessons were you taught? What values do you teach your children about toy guns?

Gun Safety: When was the last time you heard about a child catching on fire?

Let’s face it, some parents suck at their jobs. They fail to teach their children some very important topics. In these households, there is no debate about abstinence. There isn’t even an awkward offer to buy condoms or a prescription for birth control pills. About the only education on safety a child might get is a sore bottom when seen doing something dangerous, like using a blow dryer in the bathtub. The lack of widespread gun safety education is threefold:

1. It is taboo for school to talk about guns in a frank and potentially positive manner;
2. With the move to an urban lifestyle and population growth, hunting is less common than it was and
3. Some gun-owing parents are too stupid or lazy to discuss gun safety with their kids. 

I’ll be the first to say it: there are a lot of people who shouldn’t own guns. Donny Dumbass who open carries to make himself look cool can’t keep from muzzle sweeping people in the gun store, and who takes a selfie with his finger on the trigger probably should be banned from owning guns, sharp objects, anything that makes fire, cars, alcohol, and reproducing. Yet when it comes to fundamental freedoms, you can’t limit gun ownership too much, no more than you can regulate who can vote or speak freely.

Growing up, I did a lot of stupid things. I cut the blinds with my new pocketknife (for reasons unknown even to me), which my dad simply laughed at. I learned the hard way why it was a bad idea to touch the lawnmower engine and why I was told to cut away from myself when whittling.

I always knew that the rifles were in my grandparents’ attic, just inside of the trapdoor. The refrigerator usually had beer or wine in it. Occasionally, liquor bottles were elsewhere in the kitchen. I had free access to matches and the fireplace too. Never once did I steal a drink, play with the guns, or start a careless fire.

In my law enforcement career, I saw a hillside catch fire because two Autistic children wanted to see a large plume of smoke. Other boys, who had discipline problems, were playing with matches and started a full-fledged brush fire. Mom and dad probably should have kept the matches and lighters in a locked drawer. Even so, kids can still get their hands on these items fairly easily, or heaven forbid, try making fire with a magnifying glass or rubbing two sticks together.

Many children need closer supervision that they receive. They need parental involvement and education that they simply don’t receive. Parents are too busy with the distractions of modern technology, busy with their work lives, or simply such poor human being that they cannot be bothered to do more than feed, clothe, bathe, and drop their children off at school. Even worse are the parents by accident who regard their children as an inconvenience or as a source of welfare income. These are the children that exasperated teachers cry for. All of us can probably name a family or two that only by the grace of God managed to have all children survive to adulthood.

When it came to fire safety, the biggest lesson I ever took away was when the fire department in my home town put on a safety fair at my grandparents’ church. The even brought a mobile home that they filled with dry ice smoke to teach us what to do if there was a fire. We practiced stop, drop, and roll until we were dizzy. Because of that lesson, even to this day as a grown man, I do not feel comfortable fishing a piece of toast out of the toaster, even with the appliance unplugged and cool. Those are lessons that stick.

Fire safety and drug avoidance (D.A.R.E. and Red Ribbon Week, anyone?) are all the rage in schools, but what about gun safety make it taboo? If there is a supposed epidemic of young children shooting themselves and others, why don’t schools teach gun safety? Instructor Mac says it well: “When was the last time you heard about a child catching on fire?”

Sex education brings out all sorts of parents; some who in the age of instant pornography want to pretend they can ignore their adolescent’s hormonal urges, who spend an entire evening railing at the school board. Mom and dad don’t want the teacher talking about sex, but they won’t have the conversation at home. Okay, not in every case though, and it’s a broad generalization, but where is the damn conversation about gun safety?

Parents have a huge role when it comes to influencing their children. Because of things I was told as a child, I won’t ride a motorcycle, I will never smoke, and I won’t try smoking pot. Why? Because above all my own personal reservations, it would disappoint my parents. Out of respect for them, I won’t go there. Sure, in other areas I will disappoint them, but the point I’m trying to make is parents reaching their children when they are young. Make the right impression early and it will stick for life. There is a reason all those anti-drug/drunk driving commercials keep saying “Talk to your kids.”

Take drug, alcohol, and tobacco education for example. Most of the government spending on it is money that is poured down the drain. Kids will drink, smoke, and try drugs. Those who don’t usually have parents that talked to them about that stuff. Even if the kids try it, the damage is mitigated, for the most part. Once my sister and I were old enough, our parents occasionally let us have a bit of alcohol. We never drove drunk, trashed the house, or developed an alcohol problem. Demystifying alcohol helped.

The same goes for guns. Kids dig through their parents’ things to find those hidden goodies. Children properly educated on the danger of guns don’t end up having charities named after them. Several of the gun owning parents that I know teach their children advanced gun safety—

they go beyond the typical don’t touch it, tell an adult rules. Their children keep their toy guns holstered and when they draw, they keep their finger off the trigger, just like mom and dad do. When their parents are cleaning their guns, they stand respectfully back and don’t grab for them. These kids preach gun safety to their friends.

In another anecdote, this one dating from the 1940s, courtesy of a sweet woman I worked with at the sheriff’s office, her police officer father kept his pistol in drawer in the dining room. Once she wanted to show it to her friends, but she made all of the kids put their hands behind their backs and promise not to touch it. So not exactly up to today’s standards, but she and the other kids showed far more respect than the gangbanger’s kid who shows off his dad’s Saturday Night Special kept under a pillow.

Parents must teach their children about gun safety. Asking other parents about unsecured guns in the home isn’t a bad idea. A frank conversation about not being a dumbass gun owner might lead someone to change their ways. It could be that these parents are so uneducated on guns themselves that the thought may never have occurred to them.

Nevada probably should have a stronger law requiring safe storage with children in the home, but Nevada must avoid the overly stringent laws of California. Adults without children shouldn’t be under the same restrictions and government must never make the mistake that legislation will cure all evil. For instance: 

• A ‘loaded chamber indicator’ isn’t going to matter to a child who can’t read or doesn’t understand how a gun functions, let alone what the indicator means.
• A magazine disconnect safety doesn’t work if the magazine is inserted.
• Requiring a gun be unloaded and locked or in safe doesn’t work if someone doesn’t do it. 

Talk about gun safety with your kids. When they’re old enough, teach them how to school. Invest in a quick-action safe so your gun can be kept out of little hands, yet ready for action. We don’t need ‘safe guns’, we don’t need draconian legislation, we don’t some anti-gun mom telling us that gun ownership is the root of all modern evil. We need good parenting and gun safety education.

-GC

Carrying a Gun Responsibly

Carrying a gun comes with grave responsibility and grave consequences. Proper use of a firearm results in serious injury or death. Unless you are prepared to take a life, do not carry a gun.

What carrying a gun is not about:

• It’s not about fun.
• It’s not about politics.
• It’s not about appearance. 

It is all about safety and self-defense. Every right has responsibilities.

The Legal Aspects

Even in the most 2^nd Amendment and self-defense friendly jurisdictions, there will be a thorough investigation of the shooting. The police and district attorney will have to determine if the shooting was justified; that you were in fear for your life and lethal force was justified in those circumstances. You will be interviewed by the police, sometimes interrogated. Your experience will be dictated by the attitudes in the law enforcement/judicial community in your area as well as your own attitude and character.

After a shooting, you may be detained or arrested, subjected to a lengthy interview at the police station (remember your rights to silence and counsel), grand jury hearings, a possible criminal charges, a trial, or even a lawsuit from the attacker or their family.

Knowledge of the law is vital. Carrying a weapon in certain places is a crime and you must know when you are legally justified in taking a life. This is why training that includes marksmanship, weapon handling, firearm/justifiable homicide laws, and safety is vital.

You must accept that misuse of a firearm could result in a trial, right or wrong, and large legal costs. Attorneys don’t come cheap, so you may want to look into buying self-defense legal insurance. Your name may be sullied and your life scrutinized in the press (George Zimmerman, for example). You could face a long, expensive and stressful process defending yourself or clearing your name.

If you cannot accept that you might have to fight harder after the shooting than during the attack, carrying probably isn’t for you.

Why do you carry?

Carrying a gun, particularly open carry, is not for political or attention getting purposes. The fact that unlicensed carry exists is not permission for anyone to strap on a gun for any reason. The right to bear arms exists for self-defense and not self-aggrandizement.

Carrying a gun is not cool. It doesn’t make you look tough. It certainly doesn’t abrogate your responsibility to stay aware of your surroundings and scrupulously avoid danger.

Open carry does have some instances where it is politically advantageous (i.e. carrying a long-gun at a 2^nd Amendment rally). In Texas, open carriers shouldered and slung their rifles, to make the point that open carry of handguns (banned for over 150 years) be decriminalized. This is known as hyperbole, where taking things to the extreme to illustrate a point is used. Unfortunately, with some choosing inopportune times and places to carry (recall the Chipotle ninjas) combined with controversial and idiotic members of the Open Carry Texas movement, this unleashed a furious backlash against open carry. This put the future of open carry in Texas, in doubt, and ultimately relegating it to licensed open carry only (beginning Jan. 1, 2016).

Nevada Carry does not support open carry of long-guns because they can and do intimidate the non-shooting public and are generally unsuitable for everyday self-defense. Short of widespread rioting, carrying an AR-15 to the grocery store is wholly unnecessary.

Behavior counts

When you carry a gun, good gun etiquette and firearm safety has to be observed at all times. As mentioned above, it’s not a game or to look cool. If you want to show off, buy some new sneakers, a watch, or a car.

Far too many people have been killed when someone shows off a new gun. Gunplay causes death. Guns are not toys and are not intended to be shown off and manipulated like a neat little gadget. Guns are intended to kill and wound humans and animals. If you are the type to goof around with a gun or show it off, especially when drinking, you have no business carrying a gun or probably even owning one.

Restraint and discretion

“Discretion is the better part of valor,” we’re told. Sometimes, running away is the best option, even though in Nevada, you have no duty to retreat (stand your ground, or, at home, the Castle Doctrine). Your first instinct should be to avoid dangerous situations and if you find yourself in one, your second instinct should be to get safety away. If you can’t safely get away, you have to know when to fight and how to do it effectively.

Author Robert Heinlein once wrote that: “An armed society is a polite society.” Not really, but the idea is that if everyone is armed, people are less likely to be insulting, rude, or pick fights because the consequences are greater. If you carry a gun, you can’t start fights, mouth off, or be rude. It’s like saying: “If you’re rude to me, I’ll shoot you.” Illegal and stupid.

The Truth About Guns has this great article debunking the statement. 

If anything, the saying is backwards. Being 'polite'—having a shared set of values that includes placing a high value on peaceful civic discourse—is a necessary pre-condition for the arming of a society. Arms in a 'polite' society remain the tools of good citizens to defend themselves against bad ones. But arming a society without those shared values is a recipe for chaos, for violence for, well, Somalia, Beirut, Pakistan et al.
 'An armed society is a polite society' sounds cute. It sounds witty and cool.  It impresses all the gun enthusiasts on the bulletin boards. It makes for a great t-shirt to wear at the gun show. But it’s just not true and if it was, it would be a bigger argument against arming ordinary citizens than anything the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence could possibly devise." 

If you carry a gun, you can’t start fights, mouth off, or be rude. Why? Because if your poor behavior starts a physical confrontation that leads to you shooting someone, you will likely be considered the aggressor and faced with a murder charge.

Fighting isn’t such a good idea when armed. So in one respect, the responsibility of a gun might make someone who would ordinarily return a harsh word or accept a challenge to fight walk away instead. The NRS also requires that in cases of justifiable homicide, the slayer must not be the original aggressor, and even if they did 'start the fight', the slayer had really, and in good faith, endeavored to decline any further struggle before the mortal blow was given (NRS 200.120 and NRS 200.200). So basically, you can’t start a fight and then claim to kill someone in self-defense. So much for enforcing politeness at the point of a gun.

Can’t I just show them my gun and ‘scare’ them away? Let’s hope it goes that way. Most defensive gun uses don’t involve shootings, but rather the attacker flees when faced with armed opposition. But that won’t always work. A gun might not scare some criminals and they might be armed themselves. Think of all the criminals who attack or shoot at police officers; are they deterred by the officer’ gun?

Showing someone a gun to ‘scare’ them is brandishing. Brandishing is defined as drawing a deadly weapon in a threatening manner, not in lawful self-defense. NRS 202.320 It's also a crime to aim a firearm at someone outside of lawful self-defense. NRS 202.294

A gun should only be drawn when in fear for life and only aimed at a person if there is already legal justification for using lethal force. Furthermore, pointing a gun at a bad guy may cause them to react violently, either out of anger at you or to save their life. Only carry and pull a gun if you are willing to use it. Do you always have to shoot someone? No, but if the gun leaves its holster, you need to be justified in doing so and that means a threat to life.

What if deadly force is not required? Will you shoot someone because they try to pick a fight or they insult you? Waiving a gun around during a road-rage incident or to intimidate someone is wrong on so many different levels. If you can’t control your temper or your mouth, you probably can’t control your gun. Do you regularly get into fights? Don’t carry.

Personal implications

Carrying a gun is for self-defense. Self-defense with a gun means killing. While one should always shoot to stop the threat, gunshot wounds frequently cause death. There is no “shooting to wound” and shooting guns out of hands or hitting only arms and legs are Hollywood myths or solely the domain of unbelievably good sharpshooters—which you probably aren’t.

Do you understand that using a gun properly will likely kill someone? Can you accept that fact and carry responsibly? Let’s say you shot and wounded your attacker. He is bleeding to death, screaming horribly, shouting lies about how you attacked him with no provocation (when the opposite is true), and you are surrounded by a large, angry mob. Can you handle that situation?

Can you fight and are you willing to fight? That is, once the attack has begun and your gun is up, can you pull the trigger, or will you freeze? If you freeze, you’re dead. You may even be disarmed and killed with your own gun. A gun is no use to you if you do not have the will to use it.

It may take several shots or more to stop the threat. Some attackers have been known to fight on, despite being shot a dozen times or more. It’s not like Hollywood’s magic bullets that kill with one shot; James Bond’s Golden Gun is not real. What if you miss? Can you re-assess and re-engage? What if the situation de-escalates from lethal force? Can you fight hand to hand or use less-lethal defensive weapons like pepper spray?

Many police officers, soldiers, and citizens who have killed righteously face incredible emotional problems. Human life is sacred—God designed us that way. Killing is not to be taken lightly and even the most justified shooting will result in emotional complications for all but the most hardened or sociopaths. You will face the stress of the immediate aftermath, any legal implications, your friends’ or family’s reaction, and your own mind. PTSD is a serious concern. Can you handle the emotional/mental effects of a shooting?

Hero complex

Do you have a hero complex? George Zimmerman is the perfect example; as the leader of the neighborhood watch and once expressing an interest in law enforcement, it’s very plausible that he was self-policing his neighborhood. An attitude that he had to challenge suspicious persons may have been what precipitated his altercation with Trayvon Martin and led to the tragic outcome. You are not a cop so don’t act like one.

You carry to save yourself, your loved ones, and those immediately around you. Trying to stop the casino or restaurant from being robbed is none of your business. Recall the man who fired a warning shot into the ceiling of Red Lobster in Las Vegas; he’s lucky no one was hurt and that the robber fled. What if that shot him someone or the robber decided that the ‘good Samaritan’ was a threat?

Carrying comes down to these factors: intent, attitude, responsibility, and safety. If you feel iffy about any of these things, keep your cell phone handy and your gun at home.

Lock Up Your S---! (Guns)

Press briefing this afternoon to discuss responsible gun ownership. There have been 1,694 stolen guns this year. pic.twitter.com/uZzQaxCaOp

— LVMPD (@LVMPD) September 23, 2015

Yesterday, Las Vegas Metro Police reported that 1,694 guns were stolen, year to date. Every so often, we see stories on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media where a gun owner laments their weapons were stolen in a burglary. Even worse than that are the incidents where a child is killed when playing with an unsecured firearm. Gun safety is the responsibility of every owner. Negative firearm incidents in the media lends itself to the false narrative that guns are evil and inherently dangerous. While guns are dangerous, they require direct human manipulation to cause death or injury. In addition to safeguarding your possessions so that they stay yours and so that innocent hands don’t find them, security is of paramount importance.

Guns should be either holstered on your body, under your direct and immediate physical control, or locked away, preferably in a safe. NRS 202.300 makes it a crime to allow a child access to a firearm unless it is “stored in a securely locked container or at a location which a reasonable person would have believed to be secure.” This allows a wide variety of method to be used, while still requiring responsibility and safety without becoming a draconian restriction like California’s laws.

Off-body carry is especially popular with women, who carry a handgun in their purses. For reasons mentioned in this post, on-body carry is always preferred. Special considerations must be taken if off-body carry is utilized.

1. Keep your weapon (i.e. your bag) under your control at all times. Never let it out of your sight and preferably, within arms’ reach.

2. Do not allow children or anyone you don’t explicitly trust with your weapons to access your bag.

3. Always use a holster that covers the trigger to prevent fingers or object slipping inside the trigger guard.

Home Carry

Many gun owners keep a gun at home for self-defense against burglars—probably magnitudes more than those who carry, openly or concealed, outside the home. Some gun owners feel it is best to carry a firearm on their persons at almost all times, even when at home. Carrying a handgun at home is called ‘home carry.’ There are two schools of thought; one that it is a little much, almost paranoia, and the other that says one never knows when criminals will strike. It’s ultimately a personal choice and partially dictated by the threats you may face. Here is a good discussion why one person thinks it’s a good idea.

Guns stored around the house for self-defense need to fall back on the statement at the top; either on your body or locked away. Now, if you are a young, handsome, single gentleman such as the editor living in a place without children, having a loaded firearm unattended on the dresser in the other room isn’t necessarily a dangerous thing. Yet if a stranger, group of friends, or a child came over, that firearm would need to be locked away. Same thing as if the home was left unattended and the gun didn’t go along with its owner.

Self-defense in the home must balance safety and security with a quick response. Doors can be kicked open in lightning speed and the distance to a bedroom closed before your feet could hit the carpet. Quick-access safes are a good way to keep guns from being stolen and out of childrens’ hands. Browse Amazon’s results here and you’ll find a wide variety of safes. Some can go under the bed, others in nightstand drawers. Key, cipher, code, or even fingerprint access is available.

Safes vs. Cabinets

Any large metal box is not a safe, even though we call it that. A metal box with racks to store guns and a locking door is not a safe, it is a cabinet. A safe is going to be much sturdier, heavier, and have an intricate locking system that will take skills and time to defeat. One of these Stack-On cabinets is a great thing to have and a good bargain, but they will not defeat a serious gun thief and shouldn’t be used to protect collections of great value. Such lightweight cabinets can be easily pried open. Cabinets are mostly for securing guns from children and quick or lazy burglars. Safes should be bolted to the floor or frame of the house and kept within a locked room to prevent thieves from grabbing the safe to crack it elsewhere.

 

Record and take pictures of your guns. Make a full record of your weapons, including your serial numbers, make, model, and caliber. Best to even photograph the weapon and take a close-up of the serial number too. Store them in the cloud or on hidden removable media (in case your computer gets stolen). Paper records can be used too, but should be stored in a fire-proof safe or off-site in case of a fire. A personal firearm log is available as a PDF from LVMPD. If your guns are stolen, report them to the police as soon as possible to aid recovery and help catch anyone who uses them illegally.

Car Carry

When outside the home, citizens should be carrying their handguns, if they feel comfortable doing so, whether concealed with a concealed firearm permit, or carried openly (permit or not). Though in some locations, like casinos, schools, and workplaces, it is either illegal or not practical to carry a firearm. Most workplaces stupidly do not permit workers to have firearms at work, fearing liability rather than letting employees defend themselves.

All forms of carry are illegal in the following places:

• On the premises of a public school, on the property of the Nevada System of Higher Education, or a child care facility without written permission of the college president, school principal, or head of a public child care facility, including in the parking lot (NRS 202.265).
• A private in-home child care facility, except by the homeowner(s) or residents. [Ibid.]
• The legislative building or wherever the legislature is conducting business (NRS 218A.905).
• Inside federal buildings, at Hoover Dam, and loaded guns at Red Rock National Conservation Area. This includes the Post Office, Social Security Office, and VA hospitals/facilities.

NRS 202.3673 (concealed carry only) prohibited areas:

• The secure area of an airport (for instance, employee-only areas or past the TSA checkpoints).
• Inside a building of a public airport (open carry is legal outside of the secure area).
• Inside a public building (government building) with either 'no guns' signs or metal detectors at each public entrance (open carry may be legal). See below for more details.

In these prohibited areas, leaving your gun in the car may be the only option. Guns are stolen from cars all the time. Everyone has either been victimized or knows someone who has had a vehicle burglary because a bag or something of value was visible in the car. Valuables lying out in a car practically scream “steal me!” to crooks and virtually any bag in a vehicle looks like it’s some sort of mystery-prize goody bag. Leaving stuff visible like that is as bad as leaving your car unlocked.

Lock it. Take it. Hide it.

Now if your car is locked and nothing valuable is visible, you may still be victimized. You don’t want your car broken into and your gun stolen from the glove compartment. Still, this is a risk that many of us take and have to accept, so if a gun is kept in the car, be aware that it may be stolen and you may want to choose a cheap handgun for your car pistol.

Car safes are available in wide flavors. Get one and install it in a hidden place. You can even go so far as to install a locking rifle/shotgun rack in your vehicle, such as in police cars.

Be a responsible gun owner. Note your serial numbers. Keep your guns secured. Teach children gun safety. pic.twitter.com/IJLyxlFKkZ

— LVMPD (@LVMPD) September 23, 2015

Know gun safety, also, know the law. The most important part about owning and carrying a gun is how to use and carry it safely. Visit our safety page.

Off-Body Carry

     Off-body carry is the carry of a concealed weapon, generally a handgun, not in a holster on the waist or other body part, but usually carried in a bag or purse. Most commonly, this is done when the carrier does not want or cannot have the gun on their body. Women in clothing, such as a tight dress, who can’t conceal, might want to tuck their handgun into their purse.

            One could easily imagine purse carry coming natural to women who carry that thing, filled with all sorts of necessities and odds and ends everywhere. A purse is like a natural EDC (Every Day Carry) kit for women. Examples from TV and movies show us women in the scary big city, portrayals of 1970s New York City come to mind, dropping a revolver in her purse before going out. It was the idea of purse carry, that is a woman being able to stow a gun in her purse, that changed my mind on Constitutional Carry. What is the difference between a woman carrying a gun on her hip or storing in on her purse? Why does one require a license while the other does not?

            But I digress.

            Several methods of off-body carry exist. Purse carry, of course, being the most notable. Men can carry in their ‘go bags’ or man pursues, and everyone can put something in a gym back or laptop bag. Several companies even offer specially designed bags and purses for secure off-body carry, including some, disguised as a tennis bag or a guitar case, to store AR-15 style rifles.

            At issue here is the reasoning and desirability behind off-body carry, coupled with the inherent safety issues it presents. Off-body carry is a more risky mode of carry than any other, for the following reasons:

            Lack of access.

            Let’s say that Joe carries everywhere he can legally do so, even to work. However, Joe’s workplace prohibits guns because his employer is ignorant about firearms and foolishly places his own potential liability at a higher premium than human life. So Joe decides to take put his pistol and a few spare magazines in his laptop case. His laptop case sits next to him on the floor of his cubicle, where he sits for most of the day. One day, a disgruntled customer comes to the office and begins shooting. Unfortunately, this is at lunch time and Joe is down in the cafeteria when the incident begins. Joe does not have his pistol with him. Does he risk meeting the gunman to retrieve his pistol? Does Joe flee, hoping that he doesn't encounter the gunman and is able to safely get away before the police arrive? Or does Joe try and fight back with ineffective improvised weapons such as fire extinguishers and stapler tucked in a sock?

            Unfortunately, in our litigious and paranoid society, ruled by corporations instead of people, hiding your gun (as if you were doing something wrong by wanting to protect yourself!) in a bag is (for some) the only way to get a gun into work. We can’t all hide our super-small single stack pistols in inside-the-waistband (IWB) holsters under our clothes without printing.

            A story of an Idaho mother accidentally killed with her own gun by her toddler shows just how careful one must be while utilizing off-body carry.          The mother was shopping at Walmart when her two-year old son in the cart, playing with her purse, found the gun and managed to fire it. Her husband had purchased a purse specifically designed for concealed carry. The gun was held in a separate, zipped compartment. The mother was trained and licensed to carry a handgun.

            The mother left the purse (and gun) unattended for a moment, within the reach of her son. Being naturally curious, the boy unzipped the purse, found the gun, and managed to fire the gun, striking his mother in the head. It was nothing more than a horrific, tragic accident brought on by the result of a moment's distraction and childhood curiosity.

            The Firearm Blog does a pretty good job at dissecting the particulars of the incident. Ultimately, a gun cannot be left within reach of a child, ever.  

            There are many, many liabilities with off-body carry. Colin Noir of the NRA provides some excellent insight and tips for off-body carry. Ultimately, you have to carry in a responsible manner that fits the situation you’re in. Take every reasonable safety precaution you can when carrying-off body. I will leave you with my absolute must-dos for off-body carry:

1. Keep your weapon (i.e. your bag) under your control at all times. Never let it out of your sight and preferably, within arms’ reach.
2. Do not allow children or anyone you don’t explicitly trust with your weapons to access your bag.
3. Always use a holster that covers the trigger to prevent fingers or object slipping inside the trigger guard.