I hope this blog post is the main part of the discussion you will have at this conference. "A Gun Is Not Fun" simply doesn't make any real world sense, as opposed to making sense in a Progressive ideological bubble where guns = pathology. Toy guns have been big sellers. Somewhere, there is a pic of me as a little kid having festooned myself with my Christmas gift: that U.S. Invader Set, complete with (toy) 1911 and Thompson. Then there is A Christmas Story, with Ralphie's Red Ryder (my B.B. gun Christmas gift as a kid was the Daisy Spittin' Image; take that, Ralphie!). And youth shooting activities, formal and informal, under supervision.
Vision Zero is a good "ultimate goal" in traffic and other design analysis, where we kill people, as with guns or swimming pools. You admittedly never get to zero, because this is not a perfect world, but you use the idea as guidance. But having worked traffic safety issues for three decades, I can tell you that getting adults to drive safely and traffic engineers to design safer roads has been....downright Sisyphean. Fact is, people don't like driving the speed limit or having roads traffic calmed because they put their lead foot above the interests of vulnerable users.
You are right: we need to teach kids to be safe in a world where there are guns around, just as we teach them to be safe in a world where water is around, because both are around. But it falls on parents and other supervisors to teach and enforce this, as kids don't get birthed as fully functional adults.
I continue to be unable to wrap my head around the fact that "every death of one too many" is a criteria that is applied *only* to firearms. For motor vehicles, swimming pools, etc. the same people accept that, while we should try to minimize injury (especially fatal injury), there's a risk of injury that just comes with the potentially dangerous nature of the object and we can't entirely eradicate it. Still, nobody urges "a pool is not cool."
The GQ writer has the honesty to admit that he keeps a TV because he enjoys having one, even though it would be better for his kids if he got rid of it. The same applies to cars and swimming pools, one can only assume.
It would be a great conference to video, especially your presentation, David. Will a transcript of your session, at least, be available? A project for one of your students? Great observations on the CDC data.
As for the guns are fun versus guns are not fun part of the equation... My guess is that the person who named this conference has never shot a gun, and can't imagine that they would be fun, and so is projecting their bias on the world. We all do that to some extent, but this also has - or seems to have - a political bent to it.
I wonder if the organizers of this conference realize how much good has been done by the Eddie Eagle program. It was started specifically to answer this issue, and it has done a tremendous job. (I don't have the data, but 30 years ago, the numbers were much higher.
Thank you for the shout out! We are proving that guns are fun if used safely and appropriately. Keep up the good work! 😊
You're doing the work. I'm just reporting on it!
I hope this blog post is the main part of the discussion you will have at this conference. "A Gun Is Not Fun" simply doesn't make any real world sense, as opposed to making sense in a Progressive ideological bubble where guns = pathology. Toy guns have been big sellers. Somewhere, there is a pic of me as a little kid having festooned myself with my Christmas gift: that U.S. Invader Set, complete with (toy) 1911 and Thompson. Then there is A Christmas Story, with Ralphie's Red Ryder (my B.B. gun Christmas gift as a kid was the Daisy Spittin' Image; take that, Ralphie!). And youth shooting activities, formal and informal, under supervision.
Vision Zero is a good "ultimate goal" in traffic and other design analysis, where we kill people, as with guns or swimming pools. You admittedly never get to zero, because this is not a perfect world, but you use the idea as guidance. But having worked traffic safety issues for three decades, I can tell you that getting adults to drive safely and traffic engineers to design safer roads has been....downright Sisyphean. Fact is, people don't like driving the speed limit or having roads traffic calmed because they put their lead foot above the interests of vulnerable users.
You are right: we need to teach kids to be safe in a world where there are guns around, just as we teach them to be safe in a world where water is around, because both are around. But it falls on parents and other supervisors to teach and enforce this, as kids don't get birthed as fully functional adults.
I continue to be unable to wrap my head around the fact that "every death of one too many" is a criteria that is applied *only* to firearms. For motor vehicles, swimming pools, etc. the same people accept that, while we should try to minimize injury (especially fatal injury), there's a risk of injury that just comes with the potentially dangerous nature of the object and we can't entirely eradicate it. Still, nobody urges "a pool is not cool."
The GQ writer has the honesty to admit that he keeps a TV because he enjoys having one, even though it would be better for his kids if he got rid of it. The same applies to cars and swimming pools, one can only assume.
It would be a great conference to video, especially your presentation, David. Will a transcript of your session, at least, be available? A project for one of your students? Great observations on the CDC data.
As for the guns are fun versus guns are not fun part of the equation... My guess is that the person who named this conference has never shot a gun, and can't imagine that they would be fun, and so is projecting their bias on the world. We all do that to some extent, but this also has - or seems to have - a political bent to it.
The world must fit my preconception, because I'm smart. (I have the MS/PhD/EIEIO after my name to prove it)
I wonder if the organizers of this conference realize how much good has been done by the Eddie Eagle program. It was started specifically to answer this issue, and it has done a tremendous job. (I don't have the data, but 30 years ago, the numbers were much higher.