It's kind of like buying a watch. You need to understand the difference between "resistant" and "proof". They are different things, and the meanings vary wildly.

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Originally posted by oddball:

Another stupid stunt to get their 15 minutes on Tik Tok, a pox on our society.

I'm telling you, one day we are going to find out (and not hopefully too late) that TikTok was a Chinese weapon designed to destroy our nation from within.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
<<snip>>
The incident does demonstrate two things that gun rights organizations, especially the NRA, have preached for years: Children should not be permitted unsupervised access to firearms, and children and others should be taught the lessons of gun safety rather than refusing to discuss the subject. <<snip>>

As a child raised in the south, I had unsupervised access to a firearm all the time, and I knew where the ammo was kept. However, I also knew better than to touch the thing when my father wasn't helping me! Why? Because my father taught me better than that, and also preached firearm safety!

I repeat: I was taught by my father... something that seems very lacking in these days and times!

Taught or not taught, children do not have the mature judgment to be trusted with unsupervised access to firearms. The fact that some, or even many, are exceptions to that rule doesn’t change the fact that it’s true of the others or that it’s impossible to know which ones do and which ones don’t unless it’s demonstrated in a specific case like this one. And such incidents didn’t just start in the past X number of years. If anything, I suspect that they are less common these days than in my youth 60+ years ago, for example.

Whether they are or not, a show of hands: How many were taught as a teenager, sometimes as clearly as possible, to avoid doing dangerous things, and yet did them anyway because we knew the dangerous stuff didn’t apply to us? Yeah, disregard. I don’t want to embarrass anyone, including myself.

Children cannot be sheltered from all dangerous activities, but unsupervised access to firearms is one that’s relatively easy to prevent, and therefore should be. My opinion means nothing, but if someone disagrees and tragedy results, look no further than the nearest mirror to see who was at fault.

Many kids today do not receive the harsh discipline that was common when I was a child. Harsh does not equate to abuse, either--it was "tough love" and intended to instill respect for others and proper behavior. My dad was not mean or abusive, but he was not shy about using his belt on a few occasions. I learned quickly that when he gave direction, it was to be obeyed. His guns and ammo were not locked up, but they were in the parents' bedroom and I would no more have gone there and touched them without his permission than I could fly. Yet his love for me was never in question, and he forbade me very few things in my life. He was a good father, and I miss him (died in 1984).

flashguy

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Originally posted by flashguy: He was a good father, and I miss him (died in 1984).flashguy

That's a great epitaph, FG.