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.
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.
First, thank you for this perspective, David. I’m a huge fan. This also is top of mind for me since we have a 6 and a 7-year-old and I find myself looking back at how I was raised as I navigate my way through parenthood.
I may agree with most here on a broad set of principles, but I don’t have quite the same visceral reaction to “A Gun is Not Fun.” I started shooting when I was 8, maybe a little younger, and firearms have been in my life ever since, whether going to the range with Scouts, or hunting with friends, etc. I was 11 when I first restored a gun (an old Winchester model 67) and 12 when I built my first (a .62 cal. fusil de chasse from a kit). Despite my access and use of real firearms at an early age, my parents never allowed me to own a toy gun, and I was discouraged from “playing” war. There’s a lot more that goes into it of course, but the sum has resulted in an almost reverence for firearms by the establishment of safe practices early on. By habit I do all the normal stuff, like checking obsessively to see if guns are loaded and tracking their muzzle when handling, but then there are a lot of social quirks. For instance, whenever I hear that someone died by suicide using a firearm, it almost doesn’t compute. With all of that said, I agree that guns are really fun, and I feel that establishment of good firearm hygiene early on has made them more so.
For our kids, we’ll raise them with firearms the same way that I was, and the same goes for swimming. Our kids have been taking swimming lessons since they were 2 and can swim like goldfish. Before they could get in to have fun, we wanted to make sure that they have the safety basics down as habit/skill and approached that with some seriousness.
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.
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.
Problematic? It is idiocy and a bare faced lie. Guns are fun. Guns are not the problem in "gun violence," people are. But dealing with people is hard and hard things are of no interest to these types.
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.
You need to write the children's book "A Pool is Not Cool" I think.
Haha. I know someone who is a swimmer who might be able to do this!
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.
First, thank you for this perspective, David. I’m a huge fan. This also is top of mind for me since we have a 6 and a 7-year-old and I find myself looking back at how I was raised as I navigate my way through parenthood.
I may agree with most here on a broad set of principles, but I don’t have quite the same visceral reaction to “A Gun is Not Fun.” I started shooting when I was 8, maybe a little younger, and firearms have been in my life ever since, whether going to the range with Scouts, or hunting with friends, etc. I was 11 when I first restored a gun (an old Winchester model 67) and 12 when I built my first (a .62 cal. fusil de chasse from a kit). Despite my access and use of real firearms at an early age, my parents never allowed me to own a toy gun, and I was discouraged from “playing” war. There’s a lot more that goes into it of course, but the sum has resulted in an almost reverence for firearms by the establishment of safe practices early on. By habit I do all the normal stuff, like checking obsessively to see if guns are loaded and tracking their muzzle when handling, but then there are a lot of social quirks. For instance, whenever I hear that someone died by suicide using a firearm, it almost doesn’t compute. With all of that said, I agree that guns are really fun, and I feel that establishment of good firearm hygiene early on has made them more so.
For our kids, we’ll raise them with firearms the same way that I was, and the same goes for swimming. Our kids have been taking swimming lessons since they were 2 and can swim like goldfish. Before they could get in to have fun, we wanted to make sure that they have the safety basics down as habit/skill and approached that with some seriousness.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. Maybe the right title is, "A Gun is not a Toy"?
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!
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.
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.
I don't think there are plans to record the sessions, unfortunately.
Problematic? It is idiocy and a bare faced lie. Guns are fun. Guns are not the problem in "gun violence," people are. But dealing with people is hard and hard things are of no interest to these types.