Amanda --->Cold dead hands (or a lawyer), was Bowling for Columbine

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> 
wrote:
> And, anyway, what's a doctor doing when a child tells him there is 
> a gun in his home?

I actually asked my doctor this.  We'd never dream of having a gun 
in the house (my husband's a black belt anyway, if anyone was ever 
stupid enough to try to break into our house), but I was also 
curious about this and asked our doctor about it the last time my 
kids had a check-up.  He said he just tells parents who do own guns 
about basic gun safety and keeping them away from the kids, he 
recommends they teach their kids about gun safety, and makes note of 
it on the chart for statistical purposes.  He also has little 
brochures people can take away.  (I think they're actually printed 
by the NRA.)  He's a good guy, not the least bit preachy.  He 
revealed to me that he doesn't think that it's a good idea to have 
guns in the house ever, as he could tell I was on the same page, but 
I doubt he would reveal this bias to anyone who said they had a gun 
in the house.  And when you have a kid whose mom or dad is a cop, 
they're definitely going to have one or more guns around.  That's 
part of the parent's job, and he said he totally understands that.  
I don't think most doctors are judging people and certainly 
not "reporting" people who have guns.  They're just interested in 
making sure safety precautions are being followed for the sake of 
the kids.

I've even had one or two parents whose kids are friends with mine 
ask me whether we had guns in the house before allowing their kids 
to come over.  I said, no, we don't have a gun, and I assume you 
don't either or you wouldn't be asking.  They confirmed this.  As a 
parent, if you only know your kids' friends and don't necessarily 
know the parents well, you can't necessarily take for granted that 
the folks in the house are observing precautions concerning gun 
safety.  And when I forbade my kids to continue going to a friend's 
house it wasn't because the parents had purchased a gun--it was 
because they'd brought home a pit bull from a shelter.  Now, a pit 
bull raised from a puppy is one thing, but one from a shelter could 
have had a very unpredictable early life.  Loads of people around 
here train them for fighting, and more than one person who OWNS a 
pit bull has been savagely attacked by their own animal, thinking 
that they could control the beast.  (They were obviously wrong.)  On 
the balance, I'd be more inclined to allow my child to go into a 
house with a properly maintained and locked-up firearm than with a 
pit bull.

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb