Toy Guns and Training

I was talking to a co worker the other day. I work on a federal installation with many ex and retired military members. I also work with many hunters. Where I live, hunting is not unusual and during hunting season our town swells. This co worker is younger than I am and so is from a different generation. We were talking guns when the conversation turned to toy guns.
I am truly a gun nut. I’ve hunted, competed, and shot guns a lot. My many children vary in ages from pre teen to married with kids. As my kids grew up, my wife and I made the choice to not let our kids have toy guns. Every child, boys and girls, were taught young and often about real guns. They had safety drilled into them and enjoyed lots of trigger time at the range. I still have the opportunity to shoot with my oldest son every other week. I don’t know why we decided against toy guns, but I think my thinking was this. I didn’t want my kids to have to differentiate between real and toy guns. If they picked up a gun in our house, it was real and should be cleared and the 4 rules followed. I think I gave in when it came to squirt guns. Most squirt guns look about as far away from the real thing as you can get and still be called a “gun”. My kids were not deprived; they used their finger, sticks, Leggo’s, and many other inventive ways of “making guns”. Now that they are all older, some of them are gun nuts, and some shoot occasionally and with the family. None of them are scarred from not being able to play with realistic looking toys. That is what we did. Also, consider the time that they grew up. The older ones grew up in the 80’s and 90’s and the young one’s live in a post-9-11 world. My younger kids don’t know what this country and world was like before 9-11. Now fast forward to 2014. These days kids who play without parental supervision are considered in danger. The police are called if kids are playing in their front yard with red-tipped air soft guns! School shootings are happening all the time and recently there was another shooting on an Army base. It is quite a different world than what I grew up in, but a different world than even my older kids grew up in!
I can’t tell you what to do as a parent, but I also sometimes feel that some parents are out of control! Overkill is the word that comes to mind. Some parents won’t have their children walk anywhere and wouldn’t dream of sending them on a school bus. I am keenly aware of the differences in decades and especially in a post 9-11 world. I would also act different if I lived in a city instead of outside of a small town. You need to assess the danger your kids may be exposed to where you live. But I think we don’t give our kids enough credit. Do not ever compromise their safety but be realistic about the danger. Depending on where you live, there is not a sexual predator or a kidnapper behind every bush. There are some places in Phoenix, where I grew up, that I would not even go armed into, but I don’t live there anymore.
Teach your children safety, stranger danger, or whatever you think they need according to your circumstance. Give them some independence from you so that they won’t be paranoid or think they need someone else’s protection the rest of their lives. I’ve read stories about a parent in a large city taking their 10 or 11 year old a ways away from home, and telling them to get home and leaving them to do it. I’m sure there was instruction and training involved. I’d have to have some confidence in my child and the city and area I lived in to do that. Now I have trained my children, at what my wife and I deemed an appropriate age, to use weapons. We’ve taught them to shoot guns, how to use a baton, stun gun, and pepper spray. These less then lethal weapons require some training or they can do some irreversible damage. I wanted them to understand these weapons so they could use them effectively and also fight against them effectively. They’ve also had some hand to hand combat training. Now, they are not mini-Rambo’s but they have an understanding of how to defend themselves. I would recommend this. Ensure their training is by someone you trust if you cannot effectively do it yourself. I would recommend taking this training with them if you don’t feel competent in these skills. Too often we buy our college age daughter a can of pepper spray without any type of training involved. This is dangerous. Even a less than lethal weapon can backfire and be taken from the defender and used on them. Without a little knowledge and experience using these weapons can do more harm than good.
Our spouses are also a big part of this equation. He or she should be on the same page with you in their training and the training of your kids. I don’t expect any of this type of training to be extensive. Especially if the person receiving the training is not really interested in it. If they are interested you can find some advanced training for them. I think along with self defense training, medical training should be given too. At the least basic first aid should be taught. In LDS wards sometime this training is neglected with our youth. Boys need the First Aid merit badge for Eagle, but if your Troop is not real active, medical training can go by the wayside. Some Young Women organizations may do medical training once a year for camp, but neglect it during the year. If you only get medical training once a year, you probably won’t remember a lot or have anything to build on. Once a quarter, if each of us touched on the training we have received in the past, we would retain enough to get us by. I don’t feel the same way about weapons training though. Once a quarter is not enough time with a gun. To train your mind and muscle memory, I feel once a week , as a minimum, with a gun over the course of years would do the trick.
In the end, we live in a different world from that of our parents and grandparents. World War II was a war that brought this country together in very significant ways. 9-11 did the same thing for about a year. Living in the last days has brought us a more brutal, harder world. There is less of an inclination toward God (of any religion), and patriotism. As the things that try the hearts of men become more prevalent, I believe we will live in a much less kind and civilized world. Giving your children toy weapons will become less accepted socially. You and your spouse must weigh these things and consider what you will do. I hope you will consider training a part of your life and the lives of your family. I’ve only touched on self defense and medical skills in the article. There are many others to consider. Here are some:
Aternative cooking, lighting, and heating. Food storage. Water storage. Bug out bags (72 hr kits). Communications. Transportation. Shelter. Gardening. Raising animals.
Skills trump gear every time.
Semper Paratus
Burn