A kid brought a BB gun on a Bullard school bus causing a serious stir on the rumor mill among worried parents, but fortunately no other disturbances.
Thanks to the alert and quick handling by school officials, and some well thought out policies and training, we are not reporting a tragedy in this week’s paper.
When I heard the rumors, my first thought was: There but for the grace of God go I.
My husband was in charge of gun safety at our house because, well, bluntly my dad did such a good job on gun safety over 40 years ago that I am paranoid of guns to this day.
Gun safety is an oxymoron, if you ask me.
Thank heavens God gave my children two parents because my husband has a more judicious, less hysterical approach.
I never worried about our daughters, too much, being hormonally predisposed to a sensible, practical approach to weapons.
In fact, one of our daughters recently finished her Concealed Handgun License, or CHL. I love to brag about her perfect score on the target shooting section of the training.
Her daddy rewarded her by buying her a sleek, small black handgun that looks like a toy. I have no idea how it feels cus I won’t get near it.
Knowing she is licensed to carry actually makes me sleep sounder at night.
My son is getting there, too, but that hasn’t always been the case.
As a 3-year-old, he would slip out of the house and stop traffic with his plastic cowboy pistols. The main danger was to his mother who suffered serious panic attacks on multiple occasions with that kid’s adventures.
Fortunately, the neighbors quickly grew to anticipate the unexpected and graciously proceeded with extreme caution while he outgrew the sheriff stage.
We took the obvious precautions with our guns.
-We locked them in a gun safe with a combination, not a key, lock.
-I insisted on trigger locks on each and every gun inside the safe.
-We kept the ammo in a separate, secure place on the other side of the house.
Our kids know “All guns are always loaded, even the ones you think are unloaded.” They also know to get the heck out of Dodge if they see anyone holding a gun in an unsafe way or place. Run, don’t walk.
We live in Texas. People keep as many guns as they keep Bibles in their homes. And that’s a lot.
But for heaven’s sakes, there are things you can do to keep guns out of the hands of children.
Do so, or suffer serious personal consequences, folks.
Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, lives and writes with a Texas twang. Comments are invited at checklistcharlie.blogspot.com.
