Give Kids a Gun and Target
Well, the email and lines sure lit up this morning with my comments on why I feel kids kill. In fact, several parents were incensed that I would hate kids so much.
No people, I don’t hate kids, I have three beautiful girls. What I hate is being a potential target every time I walk down a large city street.
Listen to this parents’ response. “People like you are why our rights are being taken away. I can give my 7 year old son a handgun anytime I want to because the Constitution gives me that right”, John F.
Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke or did I wake up this morning on a different planet?
First of all I agree that you have a constitutional “right” to bear arms and to give your son a gun if he is properly trained to hunt with it, but a handgun? Why on earth would you even consider giving a 7 year old child a loaded handgun?
To me that is just about the most irresponsible thing any parent could do shy of dropping your kid off in Nebraska and leaving them there. Safe haven my butt. Another parental excuse!
How about this. Why don’t we just give handguns to all kids in grade school and then paint a big bulls eye on our backs to give them some easy targets? Maybe Vera Wang could put a new line of bulls eye wear in Kohl’s.
What are we thinking people? It is our responsibility to set an example and educate our children on the proper social and living skills and that includes the safety and respect of others and the property of others.
The quality of America will be determined by the quality of future generations. Now more than ever we need to instill quality values in our children. Where are the emails and comments that support teaching children to live a quality lifestyle?
I have dozens and dozens of messages from people that want their children to be able to grow up to be gun toting thuds bent on maiming and chaos, but NOT ONE comment or message from any ADULT with a mindset of human excellence and effective parenting.
What is happening to this nation? Social strength or decay starts at home.
This with the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING CONSOLE 
When Kids Kill
The headlines are far too frequent and shocking. An 8 year old shoots his father in Arizona, a 12 year old in Omaha is a killing suspect and now a 15 year old Florida girl shoots a schoolmate to death right in the crowded hallway. What’s going on?
Violent crimes by children used to be few and far between, but now they seem to be happening every few days. Remember Columbine High School and Virginia Tech?
Don’t feed me bull about this being a crime of impulse and that a good girl went suddenly and momentarily insane during an argument. She had the gun at school with her. Having the gun implied that she was mentally prepared to use it if necessary and had accepted violence as an answer to confrontation.
How many gun toting 15 year old schoolgirls do you know?
Often parents ask me what is causing this and what they can do to be certain their children do not commit such an act or fall victim to another. The victim part is random chance when you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but the cause is something parents need to be aware of.
Children are exposed to more violence and death at a much younger age now than ever before on television, in the movies and especially on video games. Remember if your child plays violent video games he or she is essentially programming themselves with those thought patterns.
In fact, children that play video games often play them for hours on end and most of the popular games have some form of graphic violence designed into their format.
Before my telephone lines and email accounts start to flame out with video game designers and supporters please be aware that I am not saying video games should be banned or anything of the sort. I’m simply making an observation of human learning patterns.
Kids are becoming desensitized to violence and violent behavior. The weakening social and moral structure escalated by more permissive music, videos and fads have forced our children to grow up far too soon.
When I was young we had the occasional Charles Whitman, but kids of 15 were somewhat naive to the grown-up world of violent behavior. Now gangs of 10 to 20 year olds roam the streets as armed thugs and set the fashion for trends that new generations consider cool to follow.
Children learn three primary ways.
- They learn from their parents and the other adults in their life.
- They learn from their peers and the others that influence them.
- They learn from living experience or trial and error efforts.
The solution starts at home. Parents have complete control over the education and development process unless they CHOOSE to relinquish that responsibility to peers, friends, gangs and poor living decisions made by their children.
Your child is a by-product of what they see, hear, experience and desire. Saying NO when they are young is far better than talking to them through a pane of glass in prison later on.
This with the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING CONSOLE 