Roanoke Area College Professor Calls Gun Owners Callous

Megan Doney, an English professor at New River Community College had this OP/ED in today's Roanoke Times, where she uses the tragic incident in Arizona last week to call gun owners who have defended teaching young children to use firearms, extremists and callous:

Because extreme gun rights proponents think it’s perfectly all right to allow children to handle machine guns, a 9-year-old child has to spend the rest of her life knowing that an innocent man died at her hands. Gun rights extremists have fostered a culture where parents think it is adorable to watch their pony-tailed daughters firing a machine gun. In their world, Vacca’s death, the child’s trauma and the parents’ guilt are acceptable prices for the “right” to own as many guns as they want, and carry them whenever and wherever they want.

Speaking for this gun rights proponent, it's perfectly all right to allow children to be properly taught how to use firearms.  I'm not in a position to second guess what occurred last week which is why more has not been written about it on this blog.  I am not an instructor or range officer.  But, others with more qualifications have shared their thoughts.  ICE Training's Rob Pincus spoke with Mark Walters on Armed American Radio Sunday and gave his assessment:

And here is the CNN interview of NRA Certified Instructor Claude Werner that Pincus mentioned:

It's clear from Doney's piece that she believes even though millions of people have used firearms to stop armed attackers, because an incident at her college was averted by an unarmed security guard, that should be sufficient for all of us.

Despite my own firsthand experience in a school shooting, I carry no credibility with gun rights extremists. But I know that many sensible gun owners and NRA members are also horrified by this event, and I appeal to them — indeed, I beg them — to help their colleagues understand the gravity of this situation, to see reality, and to stop lying to themselves and to the American public.

Maybe if Doney listened to people like Rob Pincus and Claude Werner, she would know the firearms community is assessing what happened to make sure that such an incident, which rarely happens to begin with, doesn't happen again.  But my guess is she is more interested in spewing an anti-gun rant because she doesn't believe it is ever appropriate for children or adults to use firearms.

Update: A much more intelligent OP/ED can be found at Stars and Stripes.

Arizona Range Tragedy Prompts Look at State Laws on Minors and Long Guns

Sebastian found this piece on the Washington Post Wonkblog yesterday that looks at state laws related to minor possession of rifles and shotguns.  The Wonkblog post was prompted by the tragic shooting of a range instructor in Arizona on Monday when a 9 year-old was not able to control an Uzi that the instructor was showing her how to shoot. 

In the wake of the accidental death of a gun instructor in Arizona, many are likely asking how a 9-year old was allowed to hold and fire an automatic weapon. But gun laws in the United States — specifically those concerning minimum legal age requirements for gun possession — are actually still surprisingly lax.

As the article points out, there are federal laws for minimum age purchasing of firearms.  But, as Sebastian's title of his post points out, The Horror!  Parents can buy firearms and give them to their children:

But a child's parent could. "If dad wants to give his son a rifle or a shotgun on his 13th or 14th birthday, he's pretty much free to do that in most states," Webster said.

And we can't have that! Although accidental deaths related to firearms are at all time lows, the gun ban proponents have trotted out a new response - questioning the number as being something that is under reported:

But it’s important to note that these numbers could be too low. A recent study found that federal reports of accidental child gun deaths are significantly underreported. There’s good reason to assume that accidental gun deaths and injuries are underreported for all ages. "You are potentially looking at accidental shootings that are twice current estimates," said Sam Bieler, an Urban Institute researcher who studies gun violence.

The nannyists will continue to use tragedies like the one on Monday to take away the ability of parents to decide what is best for their children when it comes to firearms but the fact is, millions of young people of varied ages use firearms safely for competition and hunting.  And, as Adam Winkler, a law professor at the UCLA who is not usually consider a proponent of gun rights told the Wall Street Journal: 

"There's nothing wrong with having children at gun ranges," he continued. "Shootings at gun ranges are freak accidents. They don't happen very often. Usually there's no place where shooters are more supervised than on a gun range."

Exposing Children to Firearms

I was channel surfing this morning while getting ready to head to the convention center and landed on CNN just in time to catch a story on whether it is a good idea to expose children to firearms at an age when they "haven't learned to tie their shoes."  They haven't uploaded video of the segment to their web site yet but the story featured a conversation with a 17 year-old competitive shotgun shooter and his mother in Florida.  The mom mentioned that firearms was always a part of their lives for generations and that they never allowed their son to have access to firearms without supervision.  The basis for the story was the negligent shooting of a two year-old by the five year-old brother in Kentucky recently and the fact that the five year-old had been given a .22 rifle.

I've been a proponent of exposing children to firearms as early as possible (ages may vary based on the maturity of the child) so that the curiosity is taken away, and that they will be taught how to safely handle firearms when ready.  I have done this with my children and it is probably safe to say VSSA members have done the same thing.

While visiting the Savage Arms booth yesterday I happened upon a .22 called the Rascal that is perfect for the young shooter because of it's size.

It's perfect for children whose reach is still too short for the standard youth firearm.  What drew my attention to it was an exhibitor had stopped with her young child who was fascinated by the colors and wanted to try it.  The mom safely took it down and as she helped her son mount the firearm on his shoulder, reminded him not to point it at someone.

People who have been around firearms all their lives know the importance of teaching their children firearm safety.  Part of that is exposing them to firearms and shooting when they are ready.  People in the media, and those who don't come from the firearm community don't understand this and it is likely they fear if we expose our children to firearms and the shooting sports, they will like it.  And that is probably the point of the type of stories like CNN ran - the more people that own and enjoy firearms, the less people will be interested in losing their rights.