Quote:
|
I then make my point that if they can't tell what is real and what is a toy, how is a child supposed to know?
|
That's an excellent point.
When I purchased my first NAA mini-revolver (I have several), I made a point of showing it to my children and explaining that even though it looked like a toy, it was
NOT a toy.
We also added two things to the Eddie Eagle rules for our kids. Eddie Eagle teaches kids that, if they ever see a gun, they should
- Stop
- Don't Touch!
- Leave the Area
- Tell an Adult
We taught them that much, very early on. Later we added two additional rules:
1) If you ever see a gun that you really, really,
really want to touch: stop, don't touch, leave the area and
ASK an adult if you can; and
2) If you don't know whether it's a gun or just a toy, treat it like a gun.
That second rule came in very handy one afternoon when my three youngest boys were around ages 6, 7, and 8). Here's what happened:
One day I made a bad mistake that could have been very serious. A friend of ours had just come from the range, and offered to take the kids and me to town on a quick errand. I thanked him and told my three youngest boys -- then ages 6, 7, and 8 -- to go hop into the car while I grabbed my purse. Meanwhile our friend stepped into the house to use the restroom, so the boys were by themselves when they discovered our friend's open range bag in the back seat.
Six-year-old Timothy was the first to spot the gun, and said, "Stop! Don't get in! You guys, there's a gun back here."
Jonathan, our seven-year-old skeptic, disagreed. "I don't think that's a real gun. Mom wouldn't have sent us out here if it was real."
Eight-year-old David countered, "Don't you remember? If we don't know if it's real or not, we gotta act like it's real."
All three of them came running back into the house, with Timothy in the lead. "Mom! We didn't touch it!"
pax