BleepingComputer.com: How Careful are you with your Gun?

First off of I want say this quite possitively, in no way does it involve Anti or Pro Gun Control and , Please keep those Comments out of this. It is simply about, If you have a Gun, just be very aware how are just what that Gun could do to a Child, even if you would NEVER mean that to happen, from your own lack of Knowledge.

A FIVE-year-old girl was shot in the head with a small-calibre firearm at Buderim this afternoon.

Police say she was playing outside when her head was grazed by a bullet.

A QPS spokeswoman said the bullets were not rubber as reported earlier but were fired from a "small calibre gun".

She said police did not believe the girl had been shot deliberately but they did not know who had fired the gun.


Link http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/bullet-fired-at-girl-5-on-sunshine-coast/story-e6freoof-1226148148266

I certainly know that the simple .22 fired in the air can carry over 1 Mile away and do this. So let's try to talk about it niely?

Ray.

@Drovers Dog:

I already made the statement in you're humor-thread, that I have one on my nightstand... I've had to stay alone at night most of my adult life and a woman alone is at any mans mercy. Not to mention I'm a tiny person.. When my boys were little we went to great lengths to have it in a place they could not get to but I could easily. I always wondered if I would freeze out of fear If someone broke in or if I could actually shoot them...But I have no doubt that I could and would now.

It's always devastating when children are hurt or killed by any means. But how many might have been saved if every responsible law abiding citizen had one?

How many children have been killed because the parents had no means of protection?

@ lora777

I honestly am neither against nor for Guns, don't worry I certainly have used heaps of them and I can assure you that any thing I pointed a Gun at died, quickly and quite pain free. In my younger days I was a very compident Marksman and rarely missed what I aimed at.

By all means, as protection as you have one, is OK with me, I have no worries about that what so ever. I spotted the story I quoted above and got to thinking about the Safety Issues regarding little Kids and decided to start this Thread so that we could talk about that. If this Thread leads to just one Child not being harmed then I will be so happy for that Child.

I would like to share this true story of how kids can be harmed if proper care is not taken, I certainly will never forget it as my four kids, from my first family were put in severe risk that fortunately, due to my training, I managed to avert and to correct the problem with the particular gun. I can assure you that it was never used again.

We were at my In-Law's house, just visiting. I was outside and walked in to check on the kids who were playing quitely in the Lounge room. My wife's Parents' bedroom door was open. As I walked past it I spotted a pump action shotgan alongside the wardrobe in the room. I automatically picked it up and did a safety check on it. It was full of 5 cartrides, was cocked with safety off. One touch of the trigger and some thing would have died.

As I am sure you all can understand, I was just not impressed in any way and proceeded to nicely and quitely modify that sucker so it would never be used again and just said nothing about it. This is really the thing I would love to talk about with you all and I hope we can maybe remind people that owning a gun is fine, just so long as you take proper care with it and ALWAYS remember that kids really don't understand just how dangerious they can be.

Ray.

@ Drovers Dog & lora777,
I'm gonna answer this with several true stories from my life...
one of these day's i'm gonna write a book, it'll have to be in the fiction section
tho, cuz ain't nobody ever gonna believe it
I'll Start with this one....
My Husband worked the 3 to 11 shift at the time,so my 2 kids and i were at home alone
most of the night,we had a peepin tom,now we lived in a row of townhouse's in the country
He was so close one night, that i could smell the "Brut" cologne that he was wearin
as i was doin the dishes,so i went and got my baseball bat and sat in the rocker in full
view of the kitchen window, so he would know i wasn't gonna play around with him, he
might have gotten the better of me, but he dang sure was gonna know that i was there...
( i've got a brother that stand's 6'4 and i can take him down,i'm only 5'3' )
Poor kelly the next mornin( my next door neighbor& an alone at night as well) was just a mess
so I said ENOUGH!
We went to see the local police,that was a waste of time, that twerp just laughed at us
I came home furious!I yanked up the phone and called my dad, told him i wanted a gun
and why,he asked what kinda gun, i said a pistol, he counseled me that was illegal
but agreed to give me his 410 shotgun,and then brought it to me,I thought ok jack, now try
commin thru my back door!The first lesson that my father ever taught me about gun's was this
it's the unloaded gun that kill's and the second one was don't ever pick up a gun unless your sure your ready to use it, and i was!,if it was a choice between that jack... and my kids and I
he was gonna lose,I'm so greatful that I didn't have to use that gun tho,turned out
that on the otherside of kelly lived a woman& her teenage daughter, they were providen
a peep show of their own when momma's trucker boyfriend was on the road, I think the wind must
have been blowin in their attic!! they apparently had no idea what kinda danger they were
puttin themselves in, had this jack... had a few bat's in his belfrey!you just can't fix stupid!
I kept that gun for month's....one night my husband and i were awakened by a noise downstair's
my husband went to investigate,me i dove under the bed and got the gun he came up from the middle of the step's went into our children's room, came back into our's, we heard it again,I asked him
did you physically touch BOTH of the kids???he said yes, i said your sure their both in bed
again he said yes, then i said get outta my way as i pointed that shotgun at the stairwell
he asked me what the sam hill i was doin I just said whoever is commin up those step's is goin back down the hardway...nobody emerged...we figured it must have been kelly next door runnin up the step's
in her townhouse.
This story ran longer then i thought, so i think i'll save the next one for tomorrow...
MissPlaced

@ MissPlaced

I can certainly relate to that and would like to share this one back at you.

Years ago I was out with my Sister's Brother-in-Law hunting Rabbits. Both of us were crack shots. We were in a Common Area and spotted a Rabbit alongside a Fence into Private Property. I can't remember which one of us actually shot it, but in it's final moments it rolled through the fence. My Mate just jumped over the fence to get the rabbit, then jumped back over with it. The next thing we could hear was a vechile coming at high speed, so waited to see what it was all about. The owner of the property obviously was watching through a telescope and arrived breathing fire.

His first words to us was "If either one of you ever step on my property again, I will shoot you". We just looked at him dumb founded and both of us, at the same time, said the following "That is OK, Mate, you miss and I won't".

He just cracked up and actually invited us up for a Beer, that we gladly accepted. Hunting rabbits is thirsty work in the heat here, it was over 40 C (104 F) that day.

Ray.

Now i'm gonna preface what i'm about to say with this,every family has a "Wild Card"
I'm the oldest of 5 children,and the brother next in line is the "Wild Card"
as a child he ate toadstools, had to be rushed to the hospital to get his stomach
pumped, now for most kid's once would be enough,but not for the Wild Card, he had his stomach
pumped 3 more times,this has been his way of life his whole life.....

Growin up we had gun's in the house, my father believed that the best way to keep us
safe from the horrible damage that gun's can do, was to teach us all about them and he did
We KNEW better then to touch them,If the gun didn't get us DADDy would!
This however didn't stop the "Wild Card"
he snuck out one of daddy's pistol's, took it out in the field by our house and SHOT
my cat!(he's never been my favorite brother )
Many years later,the wild card, my middle brother,one of his friends and I were target
shootin with a b.b gun,I was shootin,hit the target,the wild card went to check the target
to see where my shot landed,mean while my middle brother and his friend were horsein
around behind me,I had the b.b. gun layin on my knee, unfortunately i also had my
finger on the trigger,my middle brother's friend came up behind me and goosed me,I jumped
and shot the Wild card in his narrow behind,thank GOD we weren't shootin with a .22
or somethin!! I took off like my tail was on fire runnin for the house to get daddy, i was scared to death that i had hurt my brother bad, daddy came and checked him out, the only damage was a big red welt on his narrow behind,,
Today i can laugh about it, just the site of him( he's 6'4" with very long leg's)
grabbin his narrow behind and just like kermit the frog leapin for the sky crack's me up
The point i'm makin here is that even in the best hands,gun's are nothin to fool around with
I was taught and taught well,but it didn't stop that accident from happenin...

MissPlaced

You know I was on a missions trip overseas once to a small, former communist country. Guns were of course, illegal there, however I would dare say the percentage of people who owned guns was probably about equal to that of the US-they just wern't, how should I say, near as open about it (for obvious reasons) in any case, we were staying in this foster home, whicch had about 8 kinds in it, from age 2 on up to 18. The foster dad, kept a fully loaded, and cocked fully automatic assault rifle under his bed in his room, which was never locked. Now I know what your thinking, we all know in america every single one of those kids would be playing with it-but not here, not a single kid had even asked or given it a second look, and every single one of them including the two year old, knew where it was. That was how much respect they had for guns over there. If kids-or people in general had that kind of respect for guns today in america we wouldnt have near the gun accidents we do. This country needs gun eduucation, not gun control. Me personally, I keep all my rifles empty, and locked in a gun cabinet with the ammo stored seperatly, and I do keep a handgun by my bedside with bullets in the magazine, but not in the chamber. I am currently saving up for one of those biometric gun safes, and hope to have one by the time my daughter is old enough to be mobile, so there is no chance of her playing with it whatsoever, yet I still have it handy for protection.

and missplaced your story reminds me of a story of me my brother and his friend. Like you we were taught to respect guns, but being the stupid teenagers we were, we were being stupid with BB guns. We were in my brothers room shooting at a chair (yes inside mistake number one) my brother had a pump action pistol, my friend a gas powered pistol, and I had the high powered pump action rifle. In any case, my brothers friend was sitting on the floor, my brother behind him on a chair, I was on the bed. My brother was pumping his pistol, pointed at the floor behind his friend (thinking of course the floor was safe) in any case, it went off, hit the floor, and promptly ricocheted (who would have thought BBs would ricochet off of carpet) into my friends backside. He got mad, and turned around and shot my brother point blank on the front of the leg, which drew blood (the first shot to his behind did not) To which I just sat there and laughed. They threatened to shoot me, at which point I simply reminded them my gun hurt more, then we all laughed. Till our mom came downstairs to find 100 some BBs in her drywall. . .then no one was laughing. least not for a very long time lol.

@ Drovers Dog,
Speakin of huntin,I married a country boy,all of his friends were country boy's as
well.
Now his best friend is a crack shot, I remember the first time i met him,he offered me
some homemade Strawberry Wine that he had made, it was just a touch sweet but good,
That man could cook as well,It was him that taught me how to get the "wild taste" outta
deer meat( my father was a hunter as well, but my mother refused to cook or eat deer
meat untl...but that's a story for another day ) anyway, my husbands best friend
was also our best man and his wife our matron of honor....
are kids are all about the same age,we were always together doin somethin,We had been
invited for dinner,he was busy cookin in the kitchen,he emerged from the kitchen and offered me
this fried thing that he had in his hand,I thanked him and noticed a mischevious look
in his eye's and thought "What are you up to now??"is this thange gonna explode or
what I took a bite, he asked me if i liked it,it was good and i told him so,
he asked me if i knew what it was??? I said "Chicken??" hopein that it was...He just
cracked up and told me it was Frog leg...I dang near couldn't swollow It was good
but the thought of a green, bulggy eyed frog i just couldn't get outta my head
Now their next door neighbor was raisin chicken's, they were keepin chicken feed in their shed
which was drawin rat's....
a few night's after the frog leg dinner,he and his wife were watchin T.V. and heard a noise
commin from the cupboard in the kitchen where his wife kept, cracker's, noodles,pasta
Sure it was a rat, he went upstairs to get his gun,quietly stepped into the kitchen
whipped open that cupboard door and shot, as a cloud of cracker's , noodles, and pasta
filled the air, he discovered that he had gotten that little vermin!
BUT not the vermin he thought it was....NOT a Rat...A Mouse

@ the_patriot11,
Your BB Gun story remind's me of one of my favorite Christmas movie's...So just for
giggles i'm gonna add this...
~~ A Christmas Story~~

MissPlaced

@ the_patriot11 and MissPlaced,

I love your Posts, maybe others can learn from all our Posts, including ALL, that have and will, Post here. Please keep it nice. If it saves just one Kid's Life, I know ALL of us wil be so Happy.

The responstives have certainly shown me that American and Aussie Culture, although slightly diferent, have many similarities, including what MissPlaced pointed out about Country Boys (we call them "Bushies" here) and just like, I think, in Americsa, just like here, they are just simply misunderstood by those from City Areas. Often with sad results. Usually they, Male or Female, just say it like it is, usually in a Humourious way. If people ignore them, then they really just wear what happens, as a matter of fact. No matter if City or Country Folk.

Don't worry, this is very much on topic. I certainly hope others try to explain, as I try to.

I want to respond, but please bear with me whilst I give some background of myself and my Dad, as a "Bushie (Country Boy)"? Sorry if it is a little long winded, but it may help in the future? I really don't want ever to repeat this. It is painful Memories.

Sorrty, I need to come back later, hopefully tomorrow.

Ray.

@ Drovers Dog,
If the memories are painful, then there's no need to reflect on them,chose the
"Wolf" your gonna feed.....
I've got another Story....who knew
My Husbands best friend built a house several years back, He added a "Bunk Room",
complete with built in Bunk Beds, He's a jack of all trades and Master of none
We wnt up to visit, alone with 2 brother's( these guy's just crack me up ALL the time)
Anyway,He had also installed a wood stove, Bein up in the mountain, it get cold at night
He was afraid we'd get cold, so bein the thoughtful person that he is, he stoked that fire
till we were cookin in our own sweat ,
We liked to never got to sleep that night, it was hottern 9 kinds "o" hell, but we all
were finally able to fall asleep, shortly after we did manage to fall asleep we heard
a very loud KABOOOOM! it was commin from the kitchen, we all took of at lightenin
speed for the kitchen at the same time, and when we got there, THERE he stood, with
the kitchen window open in the dark west virginia night, gun in hand and grinnin from
ear to ear, we asked what the sam hill was goin on!( we wuz a lil cranky from bein cooked
and little sleep )He laughed and said that he had just shot a deer,we asked well did you get it??
he said I don't know, it's too dark to tell....we all wanted to lynch him!!
After some coffee we decided we wouldn't lynch him...Now he's a crack shot,i swear he could knock the fuzz
off at flea! so come daylight, sure enough he had got that deer and had plenty of help
draggin it home and dressin it out, it was perty dang good too!!
The next night he was kinder with the heat

MissPlaced

I own 1/2 dozen guns, the rifles are unloaded and in cases. One of them has never been loaded, yet, (I need to get out and plink with it). The pistols are loaded and locked in a box. I guess I could get them out now that the grand kids are older, one's married the other is in college. Being locked up they won't help me much if I need them. Not like somebody will wait while I get the key and open the box..
But I live in a very small town and it's pretty quiet here..

@Anyone - Why is it so dangerous these-days to have loaded guns in the house but wasn't in times past when people had huge families and home invasion was a rarity and other types of crimes hardly ever occurred?

This post has been edited by lora777: 30 September 2011 - 12:02 PM

@ lora777,
I'm gonna try to answer this....
Back when we were growin up, it was a very different time,Parent's taught their children
about right and wrong and took the time to make sure that lesson's like those about gun's
were learned did accident's still happen??YES! but they were rare,children were taught respect
to think about somebody besides themselves, the kid next door would mow his elderly
neighbor's grass because it was the right thing to do and didn't want paid for doin it
or would ride that 5 mile trip to grandma's on his bike to do the same thing.....
Saddly today that's not the case,this IS a different world that we live in now....
A Couple of years ago, I transported a young man to an alternative school, he was a handful to say the least,he was the only kid that i've ever had to write up for diciplanary action,once he realized
2 thing's 1) I wasn't gonna fool around with him,i mean't what i said and said what I
mean't(If there's no follow thru what's the point) and 2) I cared about him and that under
all of his crapola was a good kid,once we estabolished that, to this day there's
nothin that he wouldn't do for me....Now his momma had been in the service and he was thinkin
that's what he wanted to do after graduation( and he did graduate! I was so proud of him!!)
His reasoning was that because he was good at video games(War Games) he would be fit
for the service, it took me awhile to get it thru his head that video games and real
life were 2 entirely different thing's,in real life you can't reset, those are REAL BULLET'S
commin at you! His momma was tellin him the same thing! I think more to the point with him
he was lookin for validation, he wanted somebody to think he was really somethin!!
His momma and I already did!!
Did he feel this way because his momma wasn't doin her job??NO!!
He felt this way because(and it's the same ole story nothin new) everything and most of his peers
were sendin the message that he was damaged good's and they felt the need for validation
themselves so they passed on the message to relieve their own pain...it's a vicious
circle and I believe that we all can help stop this by just reachin out, was it easy
to reach this young man??NO!! many many night's at forst i would come home so mad that
I was spittin spark's and callin him everything but a child of GOD, BUT we both hung in there
and the end result was well worth the time and aggrivation.
MissPlaced

@MissPlaced,

I agree and a very fitting story proving you're point. You have quite a gift there.

A dear friend of mine that sadly passed recently, had that gift as well. He was a Healer and a Teacher in his own right and an Icon in this area.

Back on subject- why is it that parents and kids are not what they used to be? What has changed in our society that has caused this great change? I don't mean the symptoms, such as working Mothers..or divorces. What's at the root of it all?