From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Sun Jun 06 1999 - 23:51:51 MDT
At 10:50 PM 6/6/99 EDT, you wrote:
>In a message dated 6/6/99 4:50:56 PM, you wrote:
>>
>>Of course not. Thousands of fatal accidents happen every day, and most due
>>to ignorance or carelessness. Accidentally shooting someone is a
>>combination of the two and no
>
>A five year old child, by it's very nature, is ignorant (free of knowledge)
>and careless (has no cares)...
This is hardly a useful characterization. A five year old child can most
certainly be educated (so that they are not ignorant) and taught why it is
important to be careful when dealing with firearms. We do it with
everything else, why not firearms?
A 5-year old child from SmallTown, Oklahoma is almost certainly safer with
a loaded weapon than most of the 30-year old yahoos from BigCity,
California; not because of their age but because of training and
environment. When I lived in rural locales where guns were an integral
part of life, kids were constantly taught everything they need to know
about guns since before they could even lift one. Despite the fact that
loaded guns were *everywhere*, and fairly accessible to children, accidents
didn't happen because the children weren't ignorant and they were
constantly taught the necessity of being careful when handling firearms.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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