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whartt@iamerica.netI grew up in the piney woods of deep East Texas. I have often told people that we lived so far out in the woods that we had to go towards town to hunt. I remember vividly that we did not have electricity or running water or gas. We used coal oil (kerosene to you city slickers) lamps for lighting and wood burning stoves for cooking. I was 14 years old before I found out my last name wasn't "getwood", because every time someone called my name it was Wayne Get Wood!
Seriously, though, I remember my granddaddy teaching me how to hunt and shoot a gun. I don't ever remember not having a gun in my hands, whether it was a cap gun or a B-B gun, or a rubber band gun, or just a stick that would make a richochet sound if you held your mouth right and made the right sound.
I made rifles and pistols out of every scrap of wood I could find. If I went to see a movie, and the hero had a special type of rifle or handgun, I came home and made me one that to me looked just like it, including bullets that I whittled out of limbs of trees. The only problem with the bullets was that I usually cut them out of green limbs and when they dried in a few days, they would shrink and no longer fit the holes I had made in my wooden guns. One time after seeing a war movie, I made a machine gun (BAR) like they used in the movie, complete with a clip that could be removed. I am sure to other people, my guns were nothing more than whittled pieces of wood, but to me they were very realistic.
The point I am trying to make is that kids today grow up around guns, but not in the same way I did. Their experience is in the alleyways, streets, and out of the way places where someone shows them a gun and they think they get a lot of power whenever they can get their own gun. They do not realize until it is too late what a gun can do to themselves or to their friends, or for that matter, even to their enemies. They do not look at a gun in the same way that you and I do.
Because of this, we have a lot of instances where kids of all ages are exposed to guns in ways that are not safe, and they need to learn how deadly a gun of any type can be. They need to see what a bullet of any caliber can do to a human or to an animal before they are the ones pulling the trigger on a gun that is pointed in the direction of another human.
Since you and I grew up learning the safety points of handling a gun, we think that all people have that knowledge and understanding. This is simply not true. I am totally against gun control of any method or under any disguise such as requiring people to get a permit or taxing the use of the guns or the ammunition or in any other way of keeping people from bearing arms and which plainly stated "shall not be infringed".
However, I do think that people of all ages (not just young kids) should be required to demonstrate that they know how to safely use a gun. To me, if people of all ages were required to pass a safe handling test before they could purchase or use a gun, we would see a drastic reduction on gun injuries. Do not misunderstand my statements. This should be a free test, and with free instructions, and without restrictions of any manner, in order not to be used to deny people the right to keep and bear arms, but the method and the ability to keep and bear arms safely. This has been somewhat accomplished by safety hunter programs. However, every one who has access to a gun is not a hunter. In fact, many of the accidents or intentional shootings are done by people who have no intentions of hunting.
There is no way we would let our kids graduate from high school without teaching them how to write, or read, or use a computer, or drive a car. Yet, we let them go through school without ever teaching them how to safely handle a gun or what a gun can do to people. The school zones are even marked "no gun zones". This is stupid! We teach "safe sex" to prevent everyone from getting aids. We should be teaching "safe gun handling" and "the deadly force of weapons" and "how you can get killed by guns" in the same manner. This does not mean that guns should be allowed to be brought to school or ever allowed to be used by students except one on one with a qualified instructor, and always is a controlled environment.
And not only gun handling and safety should be taught, but a course closely tied to this is "legal problems that can be caused by missuse of guns".
When I was growing up, the movies taught us lots of things. One of the things I remember learning was that "crime doesn't pay", because the villain always was put in jail, or hanged or electrocuted or in some way made to pay for his crimes. Today, I would venture to bet that less than 1 percent of the high school graduating classes have any idea of what happens to them if they commit a crime. Our prisons are full of people in their 20's that probably never heard of laws that they broke and because of that were put in prison. I believe that courses in criminal law should be a requirement in order to enter High School! In the lower grades you can still make an impression on the young minds and teach them how to survive in today's world. Criminal laws and the safe and proper use of guns are two of the major things that affect today's youth. We don't need them to learn either one on the streets or in the courtrooms. They need to learn these things in the classroom before they are facing prison terms for violating a law or because they did not know the consequences of their actions. They need to be taught and drilled in these areas just as much or maybe more, than they need to learn how to operate a computer or drive a car.
If people like Ann Landers and Sarah Brady and some of the other "gun control" people really want to solve some of our problems, they need to try to make a difference in the world, instead of merely using other people's tragedies to make their living from.
The registering of guns or the banning of "assault weapons" is not the answer. Used improperly, all guns are assault weapons and should be considered dangerous and treated with respect. Guns are made to kill with. That is their purpose. However, guns should not be used to kill or threaten or used to intimidate or rob people. To simply say "guns are illegal" will not solve the problems any more than saying "drugs are illegal" solved our drug problems. People and education are the ways to prevent accidental and intentional injuries caused by guns.
If people are taught the right way to treat other people, it will not be necessary to say "don't shoot someone". The problems of our youth are not because they have access to guns, guns have been around for hundreds of years. The problems caused by guns are caused by people who do not understand how to treat other people and the consequences of what happens if you don't treat other people in the right manner.
I think this can be solved by education, in small controlled environments, with classrooms and schools that are small enough where people are held accountable for their actions as they grow up. Someone once said "if you bring up a child in the way he (she) should be, when they are old, they will not depart from it", or words to that effect.
Let's take care of our Youth and our Youth will be around to take care of us!
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Wayne Hartt
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