Pros And Cons Of Gun Safety Essay

Have you ever wondered whether or not gun safety would be useful? There are many opinions the usefulness of gun safety, we are going through this issue right here in Kansas with our concealed carry law going into effect on July 1 2015. According to At Issue a reference database online through usd261 states that gun safety seeks to eliminate or minimize death or injury from guns. While some group’s state education is the key to gun safety, opposition state that children should not even be around guns at all. This paper will examine the pro, con, and my viewpoint on whether or not people should learn gun safety.

First, Gun safety teaches how to properly store, maintain, clean and safely operate the weapon and load or un-load in a safe controlled

venue. Then the class teaches trigger control, breathing techniques, gripping the weapon along with pointing the weapon in a safe direction and knowing your target. The class covers in-depth current state and federal laws governing operational use in hunting, target ranges, plus open /concealed carry rules, plus the proper guidelines to transport weapons in vehicles. Gun safety is more than just teaching what not to do but also what to do when you approach or encounter gun, you should always treat all guns as if they were loaded.

To illustrate the point, a fatal accident underscores the need for proper teaching procedures. Cindy Carcamo, a journalist for the Los Angeles Times reports that a man named Charles Vacca was shot and killed at the Bullets and Burgers outdoor range in Arizona by a 9 year-old girl who lost control of the firearm that Vacca was teaching her how to use. Firearm instructor Butch Jensen points out that a firearm needs instruction to know how to safely use it, you cannot just pick one up and know how to use it like a video game (Carcamo). The accident in Arizona made it clear that the little girl was a beginner and you never start a beginner on a fully automatic weapon. As Jensen describes, “If you want to learn how to run an Indy car you don’t start at Indy” (Carcamo).
To further explain, why we should teach gun safety to avoid accidents involving guns. A journalist for University Wire Elisa Juliano references USA Today writer John Lott who wrote a story stating, “With just one exception, every public mass shooting in the USA since, at least 1950 have taken place where citizens are banned from carrying guns.” Lott further averred that killers search out soft targets, knowing that they cannot defend themselves, which means that our gun laws do not really protect anyone. MNSBC reported on Utah teachers who got training so they could carry concealed weapons in the classroom. One of the participants, elementary school teacher Jessica Fivesh opined that teachers have the responsibility to protect their students (Bitto). National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswoman Heidi Ciefelli contends that gun education is a great tool for saving lives, and that all schools should offer training (Bitto).
In addition, children get a hold of the guns because of their parent’s negligence to properly secure or keep the gun out of reach of the child. Chris Sacco, a journalist for University Wire, points out that there have always been accidents involving children and guns, so it is important to teach gun safety education to children. Children occasionally escape from their parents’ attention so children should be taught not to touch a gun besides receiving education that guns can kill. Education and parental supervision are key to keep children safe and guns out of the hands of inexperience non-supervised children. NBC reports that in this particular incident of a child shooting his mother and father while in a motel room. After getting ahold of his mother’s gun from her purse while the parents were getting ready to order a pizza, the gun went off, hitting both parents. Gun safety does not end at the end of the class it is a 24/7 day responsibility that if you own a gun it’s your obligation to safely secure that weapon at all times. There certainly are gun owners who believe that educating their children in handling and operation of firearms is the first line of defense. However, knowledge about gun safety is not just about protecting your children it is also about protecting yourself along with other, so you need to learn before you can teach your child. It is all well and good to make sure your child understands they could kill someone with a firearm, but physical barriers to a gun access still must be first or foremost the first line of defense. For all these reasons, gun safety should be taught to everyone (Sacco).
Second, gun safety should not be taught to young children, because they should not be around guns at all. Primarily, guns in the house are proving deadly for kids. Liz Szabo, a journalist for USA Today, reports that gun accidents caused around 800 kids 14 years-old or younger were shot or killed between 1999 and 2010. According to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC). Almost every week there is news that a child was killed in a gun accident. According to a 2006 study by The National Shooting Sports Foundation says that, even though they have given away over 35 million gun locks and brochures, and countless commercials, almost 30% of families with children still leave their guns unlocked.
Secondly, there should be more restrictions on firearms keeping them away from children.

A writer for the university wire Dana Bitto had reported about a study on about.com which stated, “About 80 million Americans, representing 50% of the U.S. homes, own 223 million guns.” He further mentioning that this is “easily the highest private gun ownership rate of any country in the world. “A staggering 30,000 men, women, and children are killed in gun related deaths each year in the United States that reflected by his study’s results. Without proper gun legislation and more restrictive gun control these numbers could grow in the future. By allowing citizens carry guns, even concealment can cause fear to those around them, by knowing that anyone could have a deadly weapon at the ready and not knowing their mental stability and whether or not they were trained, is why so many people are scared of conceal and carry. In 1999, Harvard school of public health conducted a study about how people feel about concealed guns. The study showed that “Americans feel less safe as more people in their community begin to carry guns; of the people surveyed 90% believe that “regular” citizens should be prohibited from bringing guns into any restaurants, hospitals, college campuses, and places of

worship”.
Finally, parents’ should take extra precautions to keep firearms out of reach of their children. A reporter Chris Sacco which is a journalist for the University Wire asserts about a 3 year-old in Albuquerque, NM, who retrieved a gun from his pregnant mother’s purse and accidently shot his mother and father in one round while they were ordering a pizza. If this was a rare occurrence it would not be as such a small deal because it is almost an every other day occurrence, and a week prior to that incident a five year old found his grandfather’s gun, according to Washington post, and proceeded to shoot and kill his 9 month old sibling. For the first case, as well as this one there are countless, almost exactly the same reports of children getting ahold of firearms and harming themselves or others. He also writes that for the sake of American children now and in the future, gun owners and the gun lobby need to either influence and enforce a wide-ranging shift in gun culture or accept new regulations calling for responsible gun safety around children. It is not absurd to call for mandatory gun safes or stricter regulations for guns in the presence of children. Rights are to be used responsibility. When they are bastardized to allow an excessive proliferation of dangerous objects, changes need to be made children possess enough strength and dexterity to turn curiosity into a tragic event. As long as guns and children cohabitate, culture and regulations need to change. For all these reasons is why children should not be around guns.
Third I believe that it is up to the parents not legislation to make sure that children do not get a hold of guns. Firstly parents need to lock guns away from ammunition and children. To support my idea I am using facts from articles to support my idea from Chris Sacco who writes that keeping a locked weapon in a purse near a toddler is negligent and dangerous parenting. NBC reported that the child in Albuquerque had been taken by protective services which is the correct decision. These parents have shown no ability to keep their child safe. If a loaded gun must, for some reason be kept in the vicinity of a child, it should be kept well out of their reach. And I think that most parents will not do this because they say “my child knows what is deadly or not” but a lot of them are lying and are the family is that the reports of accidents happen to. And if you leave a firearm and your child kills themselves or someone else it is on you because you left it out with ammo inside of it. You should never keep ammo with your guns ever. Furthermore parents do not watch their children as much as they should. Chris Sacco reports that for a 3-year old, all these parents would have had to do is place the purse above the child’s reach on a closet or a shelf or even in a safe that some motels provide since they were in a motel, in the room safe if one was available. It is fine for Americans to profess their love and admiration for firearms. It has, for better or worse become an inalienable portion of American culture. However, there should be a far greater love and protection of one’s own child. I say that parents should always look after their child before anything else if something is more important than your child. Like the parents who were ordering a pizza instead of watching their child who died because they were dumb enough to keep a firearm where a child can reach it but also were not watching him. Also if a parent does not look after their child they should not have a child in the first place. If a teenager has a baby and takes care of it and a grown woman planned a baby and does not take good care of it then they should have not even had a baby in the first place. Additionally, you should be careful whether or not a gun is loaded or not and also who can get a hold of it or who does have it. I think that gun safety should not be taught to just anyone who wants to know about it. Gun safety should be mandatory for anyone who is going to buy a gun and to purchase one you need to show proof that you took a course on gun safety. Also this is not just about being cautious about who can buy a gun this is about protecting lives of the people who buy a firearm and others who sometimes get in the crossfire or is the victim of an accident or attempted murder. Chris Sacco reports that pundits and activists can debate the absurdity of having a gun around children. However, so long as the interpretation of the second amendment as it is, this situation will continue to occur. People will have weapons and they will have them around children. What needs to change is the culture surrounding responsible parenting and gun ownership. For all these reasons is why I think you need everyone especially parents to take gun safety courses.
This paper has explored the pros, cons, and my viewpoint on gun safety and gun safety for children. In summary this paper has included why you should let children take a gun safety course and why children should not even be near a firearm at all and also why I think it is mainly the parents fault children have done what they did with firearms and also my viewpoint on gun safety and why we should have it. We don’t blame cars for drunk drivers why blame guns for violent people.