My boys were teenagers during the school walk-outs mentioned in the article. One of them wanted to walk-out of school, which I totally would have supported as his right to protest - but first he had to explain to me what he was walking out in support of. Once we talked it through, he saw the bigger picture of what was really going on and decided he wasn’t going to walk. He had the same conversation with some of his friends at school and they also chose to not walk. They didn’t want to be political pawns.
How do you handle the anti-gun conversations with your school-age kids?
Let’s put it this way,
Recently, while shooting the breeze at the local gun shop, a few of us “older” guys were discussing these kinds of things. My son, 9 at the time, chimed in.
Son=“Well, Obama, Hillary, and all those other anti-Americans want to ruin this country!”
He then, used the quote “The tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots from time to time. For that, is it’s natural manure.” in a paper for school. I think this eludes to how I handle talking to him about these things.
My son wrote a paper about gun control his freshman year of college. I gave him some resource links to check out for the paper and read the draft he turned in for the draft round of the paper. He was advised to turn in a different paper, not because the paper was bad, but because of the topic.
He turned in the paper after he fine-tuned it. The instructor gave him an A on it because met all of her grading criteria for an A so she had no choice.
I talk about it with my kids as well as my Boy Scouts…(on the way to camping trips or around the campfire sort of thing)….and we start out talking about whatever incident occurred and all agreeing how horrible it was…….and then I guide the conversation around what could have been done to prevent it. I purposefully bring up gun control ideas like UBCs, large capacity magazine bans, various rifle bans (we even explore unrealistic ideas such as making all guns in the world go “poof”) and then we dissect each idea with the boys working it out for themselves why it’s not a good and/or realistic idea (especially in light of using guns to one’s self and their family).
Usually the conversation ends on the facts that evil exists in this world and you’re not going to be able to prevent that, so the best thing you can do is be as prepared as you can to deal with it if/when it happens and that includes as an adult owning/caring a weapon (to include firearms) to protect themselves and those they care about (and as kids knowing how to escape and or fight if necessary).
My small attempt at deprogramming some of what they get out in the rest of the world.
I had the same conversations with my youngest who was in her senior year of high school at the time. She would come home frustrated at how easily manipulated her classmates were. I let her know that instead of getting frustrated just know when to disengage and agree to disagree. She’s 18 and pro 2nd amendment, yet unless she gets a hunting license she can’t own a long arm in California.
My next daughter up is in a liberal arts math class and this instructor is way off the reservation, spewing all kinds of craziness. My advice to her was to run silent and run deep otherwise this guy will unleash on her. She usually keeps centered as a moderate but leans the right way. She’s very pro 2nd amendment and enjoys, rifles, shotguns, and blackpowder rifles.
My 24 year old son is a conservative republican, finishing up college. His fiancé used to be a leftist feminist liberal, and now she’s seen the light, she has her college degree and they both have explained how ridiculous the campus environment is. Those on the right are very low key and reserved. Both support the 2nd amendment and are active in the community.
My advice is to not get pulled into the drama, don’t get baited, and keep it civil.
The great grandbaby is only 6 but we’ve started. We talked about how some people don’t like guns, and that they’re scared, and that talking about them can be upsetting. When asked what she’d do if one of her friends got upset talking about guns, what would she do? Her: [shrugging] “talk about something else.”
So far, so good. More later as the opportunities to talk about these things pop up. She doesn’t do well with being pressed, so we wait on her terms.
On the other hand, she did ask if she could help while I was cleaning my pistol the other day. Got right in there with the Q-tips. So I think we’re fine.
Both of my boys chose to go to school on the “Walk out” day dressed in NRA t-shirts. My youngest son’s teacher was “prompting” kids to walk out when the time came, he refused to leave. From what the boys told me about 1/3 of the class walked out, the rest refused. They said the kids who did walk out explained it as getting out of class rather than any anti-2nd amendment feelings. The school required the kids to go to the gym for an “assembly” and there were people there from the local paper. I felt like the school was using the kids as “props”, so I called and said I would not allow any photos of my kids to be published, so the local paper didn’t have a picture to put in the paper with their article.