Subject: RE: Oscar Pistorius accidentally shoots and kills GFwannabefaster - 2013-02-14 5:38 AM I am a gun owner. A very safe gun owner. But I have to be cognizant of the dangers that having a gun introduces in to my home. I think that statistics will bear out that you are orders of magnitude more likely to have an accidental shooting of yourself or a family member than you are to ever have to use a gun for self defense (I am not going to argue about whether or not this incident was accidental). If you have a gun around to "keep your family safe" you are probably deluding yourself. Your family would be safer without this type of weapon easily accessible in the house. I have made gun safety and education about guns something that I teach my kids. But they are kids and kids do stupid things (adults too). Before you all jump on me about how safe you are with your guns, I suspect just about everyone who has had an accidental shooting happen to them would have said the same thing. My guns are not for self defense. If I could figure out a way to safely have them available as such, I would. As it is, they are locked away. Unless I knew that someone was coming well in advance my guns would be useless to me for home protection. This is what I feel I have to do to keep my family safe from guns in my home. My gut wants the gun in my bedside table. My brain tells me this is not the safest thing to do. Flame suit on. This is the bottom line catch-22 for me as a gun owner with two small children. Keeping them located anywhere close to make it useful for self-defense makes it dangerous with the children. Anywhere safe from the children makes it tough to be handy for self-defense when needed. I thought that I had a good middle-ground, in a nearby shelf with a safety lock. Sounded good, until a burglar took it when our house was robbed. |