Rick Sapp’s blogs can have an edge to them. I was reading one about parents being held responsible and the edge didn’t come out until the end. I found the way he looks at the situation very interesting.
What do you think??
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/hold-parents-responsible/
I’m on the fence about that. If my children were really young (under 10) and their friend’s parents are not securing their guns and I don’t know about it, they should be held responsible for leaving the firearms unattended.
I don’t expect a small child to understand firearms being left out unattended. Parents need to be parents and responsible.
So what I’m getting is he suggests holding parents responsible for their kids poor manners, and only mentions the kid who was killed parents as being irresponsible? Hmmm, how about Markle’s kid, the one who knew where the guns were to be able to get to them and play with them? He seems to get a free pass from the writer, as does Markle’s lack of responsible parenting.
I’m going to go on a rant here. I often hear how if parents taught their kids to be responsible, things like this wouldn’t happen, and that their own kids would NEVER do anything like that. I often wonder, did these same people bypass the ages of 10 to 22?!
My parents taught me responsibility, and enforced it with a dose of fear for good measure. I look back and think I was a good kid, did well in school, was respectful of others, but was also a typical kid in other ways; we fought, played with matches, looked at magazines we shouldn’t have been looking at, and generally did a lot of other things we knew we shouldn’t have been doing, many of them not so safe and definitely not responsible
As a gun owner who strongly supports our rights and 2A, I feel a responsibility to not just myself and my family, but to all other law abiding gun owners; all of you! I make sure I’m living well within the law and do everything in my power to not give the anti-gun element anymore ammo against us. I don’t want to be that guy.
Guns in a Tupperware container with the ammo stored along with it and trigger locks satisfies securing the gun; having the keys for the trigger locks in the same container satisfies the title “Irresponsible gun owner” as far as I’m concerned, one who does more damage for the rest of us than we can ever know.
As for the author of the blog, I think he could’ve chosen a much better case to support responsible gun owners. This one definitely wasn’t it. We need to be able to articulate our points in an intelligent manner, much more than “Because it’s my right” if we want to win this fight!
they should be taught safe handling and taught to respect them and eventually utilize them properly. always stored safely.
safety talk always
safely stored and rules of the house and weapons…
With as many inexpensive, quick access safe as there are on the market, I don’t get the “night stand” mentality if there are or might be children in the house. I think the parents should be charged as negligent in those cases. If it is properly locked in a quick safe, gun case, lock box, etc, and a child breaks into it, then no. That’s why my son doesn’t know the pass code to my safe, and I have the key to the gun cabinet with me at all times.
Yes parents should be responsible for the actions of their children when it comes to gun safety I taught my kids about safety with guns from the age of 10 and had them fire them after to show them why they should respect the weapon. I have never had a problem with any of my kids mishandling a weapon or playing with one. It all begins with the parents.
The next question. Who makes the laws and or regulations? Politicians that most don’t even have basic gun handling skills.
Not a direct quote but Lt. Col Grossman wrote in a book… it’s like a bunch of virgins writing the book on sex.
You guys kill me! 
You all make great points - with a touch of humor which makes it easier for non-gun people to understand and relate to.
Reminds me of priests giving classes on marriage and sex or giving advice on parenting.
I was thinking the same exact thing, figured I’d let someone else mention it.
very well said i see your point
To me this is pretty simple. Your kid, your gun you are reaponsible ALSO. guns should be locked up and it’s the parents job to be parents. Everything else is just an excuse. If it’s someone else’s gun, then that parent is responsible.
I guess it’s because I’m a little older and a different generation…but when I was a little kid my grandfather and my dad and my two uncles all Quail hunted and subsequently there was always shotguns and pistols of various types at my grandfathers far on racks in the bedrooms. The rule myself and my cousins (including one with Downs syndrome) were told was “some of them are loaded and some of them are not…you don’t know which is which so don’t touch any of them”.
Not that simple bit of instruction worked back then for all of us.
I’m not sure if it would have worked for my two highly AD/HD kids at the same age however. shrug times change.
If someone is that careless with a gun or any kind of firearm that they’d leave it loaded and within reach of a small child and that child shoots someone else then yes the parents are responsible for what happens.
But I’m with James…the Government shouldn’t dictate how and where I safely store a gun. Because 99% of the time how they want me to store it is more of an advantage to the thug trying to break in my house than it is to me having access to it in an emergency.
@txradioguy… I am 50 and I do agree with you, how my generation was raised, as well. I am 100% against most of what the government is involved in, mainly because it just seems to get worse the more they’re in it. However, I am a staunch constitutionalists and believe we are entitled to our guns, but we are responsible for how we use them and how we live our life. However, when your, mine or anyone’s negligence leads to someone’s death… that’s on us! I have a bio safe that sits next to my bed that pops open in a quarter of a second when print on any one of my 5 fingers are scanned. This is my piece of mind as I sleep. I also know non of my grandkids can access any of the 3 guns I keep locked in it.
This is a no brainers. As a former kid, retired elementary teacher, and retired active duty military firearms instructor I can tell you from first hand experience that kids are curious. Add to that the video culture that depicts someone coming back to life after being shot and the not yet developed brain of anyone under 26 and you have the makings of a very sad story. If kids are around please keep your firearms locked up. Do you leave pills on the counter and rationalize to yourself that they know not to take them. Would you leave poison out again telling yourself that kids know not to mess with it? All accidents result from unsafe acts or unsafe conditions. Allowing kids access to your firearms is just dumb.
I was literally laughing out loud at that one, @Michael7! Great comparisons with the poison and pills. They all have their purpose and children will be curious about them all.
Dawn I’m glad I made you laugh. I distinctly remember my father saying, " those boys know what will happen if I ever catch them playing with my guns." The solution was simple; never play with dad’s guns when he was around to catch you. Fortunately for me, he never left them loaded. I’ve been called to to many homes where children were hurt or killed after playing with an unsecured firearm.
Is that just a boy way of thinking? Or maybe I was too much of a good kid when I was younger… I almost made it through typing that with a straight face.
I cannot imagine having to handle that type of situation as part of my job, @Michael7. It’s got to be heartbreaking.
Like most incidents, you can be cleared of criminal negligence, but not civil liability. In this day and age, gun owners are in a quandary, they need access to their firearms to defend themselves while at the same time being hamstrung by state laws that demand that you conform to their interpretation of safe storage. For myself I don’t have children in the house, so I don’t have to worry about that, but when my kids were small, as early as possible I drilled into them to be aware of the dangers of firearms, I didn’t want to teach them to fear the weapon, but rather have respect for it.
With digital combination safe’s, you can know access your firearm quickly. I want government to stay clear of what I do in my house, unfortunately we still have a allot of knuckleheads that are negligent and we have tragedy’s that gives people like Connecticut State Rep. Sean Scanlon the opportunity to come in your house and tell you what to do. I tell new gun owners that before they get another gun, instead get a safe, join USCCA, secure their house better, join the NRA. Let us practice our own personal gun control before the state wants to impose their own brand of it.
Great points, @Gerald!