In that thread, I mentioned my insistence for my wife to learn the basic rules of handgun safety, further alluding to my desire for her to take lessons and become competent with a handgun herself. Another poster objected, suggesting that my wife might have a fear of handguns and that she (the other poster)would not be comfortable under such circumstances. This led to a discussion of whether a fear of guns is reasonable or unreasonable.
Any thoughts?
My wife hates, HATES guns. I have a few that I keep locked - she has played with one of them when I was out back with my brother shooting, but has no desire to learn the safety of using them. I taught her the basic safety but she does not want to know anymore than that and I respect that. I’m not a gun person, but I’ve got a Sig. 40 and a Glok 9mm locked up in a safe. I’ve also got a Winchester 12ga. She knows how to shoot all of them, but she likes the shotgun the most. In my opinion, that’s good, cuz should she need a home defense weapon, using a shot gun against an intruder is hgihly preferable to a handgun. Basically point and shoot, no need to aim really.
Again, she hates guns and I won’t force to to learn something she doesn’t want to. They are safe locked where they are, and if she needed to use one she would use the shotgun I’m sure.
I play golf. I thought it would be fun if I could play with my last girlfriend. She wasn’t interested. I dropped it.
I don’t think learning to shoot should be any different.
Since I didn’t make it clear earlier, Kim has no particular fear of guns; she just hasn’t been exposed to them. While I did insist that she know where mine were and how to handle them safely, I am not forcing her to learn how to shoot (though I’m glad she is willing).
There’s nothing unreasonable about being afraid of guns, but if you’re going to insist on owning one you should also insist that she learn how to be safe with it.
It’s inappropriate to insist that she learn to be a competent shot, or to insist that she own a gun of her own. I guess it’s possible that after learning the basic rules of handgun safety she would be comfortable enough that suggesting she practice with or own a gun wouldn’t be inappropriate, but even then it would still obviously have to be her decision.
Edit: Posted before you clarified in the post above.
My son likes guns, in response IMHO to the way they are depicted on TV and video games. I taught him basic gun safety and took him to shoot some targets using my .357 magnum. An hour later his hand was sore and I moved to stage II. I showed him some graphic pictures of gunshot wounds. He still likes guns, but I hope the experience sobered him a bit.
Sure there is. An unloaded gun is no more dangerous than any other piece of metal of similar mass, but I know people who suffer from such an irrational fear of guns that mere proximity to one that was demonstratably unloaded would leave them terrified. This is little different and no healthier than my former phobia of dogs, which would cause me to cross the street to avoid proximity to a schipperke.
No, not at all.
I was in the same boat with my son. When I bought my first handgun I made it a point of taking him with me whenever I went to shoot. After a few sessions of having him shoot and clean them he seems to have lost all interest in guns. I still make sure I drill him in basic safety since they are in the apartment but I no longer taking him shooting with me.
Being afraid of a handgun is no more or less reasonable than being afraid of a drill or a bandsaw.
Thanks Skald, glad I hadn’t posted this in the other thread yet.
There’s no reason to fear firearms if you have a basic understanding of their operation and safety. Guns don’t just go off, they don’t randomly shoot people. People do not accidentally animate firearms, they sometime negligently do, but that should result in a fear of people and not steel & polymer.
Fear of a secured inert object is irrational, in my opinion.
To paraphrase myself (paraphrasing someone else) -
Guns don’t just “go off”, they go off because someone couldn’t keep their damn booger hook off the bang switch.
ETA - to address the purpose of this thread, I don’t think it’s any more inappropriate than it is to encourage someone to learn to operate a fire extinguisher or kitchen knife, except that it’s far more likely that the neophyte will discover the joy of shooting than the joy of extinguishing kitchen fires.
Does this read like satire to anyone else??
Or am i just Australian?
If you have guns in your home, it is your obligation (as a responsible gun owner) to provide the basics of safe handling to all members of the household (age appropriate).
Encourage? No, I would have no issue with that. Insist? That’s pushing it. If ANYONE insisted on teaching me to use their guns, I would have to seriously rethink being around them.
A fear of guns is irrational. As with any tool, a healthy respect for them is mandatory, and no one should operate them without knowing what they are doing.
I’ve never asked my wife if she wants to learn to handle any of my weapons. I’ll have to ask her. I’d feel more comfortable if she was trained in basic firearm safety, but she doesn’t even touch my weapons, so I’m not too worried. She grew up around firearms, and is not afraid of them. She’s totally fine handling a nail gun or skil saw, which are inherantly more dangerous that any weapon I have around the house.
Why on earth would it be inappropriate to encourage a person to learn a useful skill? As long as the “encouragement” doesn’t cross the line into being a pushy jerk, I can’t see how it could be a problem.
I think maybe “afraid” is the wrong word to use. I’m not AFRAID of spiders in glass cases, but I don’t like seeing them and I would avoid it if possible. There’s a strong connection between visuals and psychological responses, and literally EVERYONE experiences it. Whether it’s “healthy” or not is another story, but having a negative psychological response to seeing something that looks like a common weapon of murder (even though I’m sure your particular guns aren’t) seems perfectly reasonable to me.
IMO, if guns are in a household then both adults should go through safety training and learn how to shoot.
It’s hard for me to say if I agree or disagree with that statement as I won’t allow guns in my house anyway.
Is there anything else you would apply that same thinking to? (obviously things like a fire extinguisher, but I would consider that ‘community’ property, what I mean is are there other personal possessions that you would say everyone needs to learn to use)
I live a saterical life what can I say… seriously though, she hates guns…but occasionally she has gotten curious and she is very outspoken and doesn’t take shit from anyone. So I could careless if she wants to learn to shoot…Usually she doesn’t want anything to do with weapons, the ones I have were given to me by relatives, except the Sig. which I bought. Guns just aren’t really that big of a deal to us. We’ve got a few sure…but I wouldn’t say we were gun people, and I have my carry license because I had to get it to own a hand gun in CT…I taught her basic safety…but that’s all. If you asked her what the difference between a revolver and an automatic was she’d have no clue, or desire to know.
Safety yes, intimate knowledge no.
