Kids, Guns, and Gun Safety

When my six year old son asked me if he could have a gun I won’t say I was caught completely. I think fathers of most boys should expect to have ¨the gun talk¨ sooner or later. Now I’m not taking sides on whether guns are good, bad, or somewhere in between. That should be a family issue (IMHO), but when it comes to gun safety, I think we’re all in agreement.

So like I said, when he asked about buying a gun I should have been somewhat prepared. But that´s not the way life rolls for me. In this case, we were on a trip to Central America, visiting such places as Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. My impressions of these countries have been of fruit, lush foliage, often very rural and simple living, and guns. Lots of guns.

At first it seems like everyone has a gun, but then you realize that only people in a police/security type position have guns. But then you realize that approximately 73% of the population must work in the police/security industry. For example, the man in front of our building has a gun. The man at the entrance to the grocery store has a gun, as does the man at the entrance to the grocery store parking lot. Obviously, the police have guns…the police in the trucks, the traffic cops, the border patrol, the cops on bikes, the cops on motorcycles and horses too. Virtually every building, from retail to office space to restaurants, hotels, and residential buildings all have guards–and they all carry guns.

So the gun speech I had prepared for my son had to be amended. Conditions had changed. In our neighborhood you don´t typically see teenagers carrying fully automatic weapons (unless they´re loaded with paint).

I´m interested to hear how others out there might react to this. How would you talk to your children about what they´re seeing here?

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