If you have children, please read this!!
 

This is very hard for me to do, but I want to tell a story of how I almost lost my son due to an error on my part. I hope it prevents a gun death in the future. I was lucky, my son survived but it still haunts me to this day.

He is now 19 years old and going to college and probably doesn't even remember the episode. I will tell it to him when he has kids of his own. It happened when he was about 6 years old. I always took him hunting with me and on occasion I would let him shoot a 20 guage at doves if we were sitting down. One day he asks to go along with me to shoot my .22 ruger revolver. We were sitting there having a good time, he was shooting into a bank about 20 yards away and I was right there at his side watching him. I taught him about gun safety and he was doing fine. I decided to walk back a couple of yards to sit and watch him as he fired into the bank. I ONLY TURNED MY BACK FOR 2-3 SECONDS!! I turned around and to my horror he had the gun pointed straight at himself looking down the barrel with the hammer cocked! This still raises the hair on the back of my neck knowing how his life, my life, my wifes life, his grandparents life could've changed due to that 2-3 seconds of inattention. THERE IS A GOD!! He never pulled the trigger and the gun never fired. I instantly grabbed the gun and yelled at him asking why he did what he did and lecturing him about doing something like that. He told me he wasn't sure how many bullets were still in the gun and he was just looking into the front of the cylinder to see how many were left. I've never told anyone about this until now. My wife still doesn't know how I almost killed our son that day 12 years ago. If that trigger had fallen, he never would've been prom king, made "most valuable" on the basketball team or been able to go deer hunting with me. I know I'm opening myself up for some sharp criticism about how he was too young or I wasn't attentive enough. I just wanted you to know how my life almost changed that day so that maybe I can prevent an accident with your kids. Thank you!!

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Chilling story ! .......what more can I say

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

As the father of a 9 year old boy who likes to go hunting and shooting with me (he's got a .22), I appreciate you sharing that. I'm always stressing proper gun safety to him, but hearing a story like that from time to time is necessary and helpful to make sure I don't get too lax.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

trust me, being a father of a 2 1/2 yr old and an 8 month old, I can tell you I BELIEVE YOU when it comes to the split second of turning your back. I guess it is a good thing to hear about this, so we can all say, "Im not gonna turn my back even for a second"!! I appreciate your honesty....no critism here.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Thanks for sharing. You have performed a very important role in stating and proving that it is impossible to take TOO MUCH care in the handling of firearms.
I shudder with you at the thought....and can only imagine how huge your heart must have felt when it clogged your throat that day.........

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Hunter you are completely normal!!!

Children and guns DONT mix unless you use some EXTREMELY wary safety precautions. I'll tell ya a story about how I could've blown my 4 year olds head off!!! :(

My oldest son (now 9) really liked going out to my step-fathers farm and shooting, riding 4 wheelers and just doin "big boy stuff". So I caried him with me one afternoon to sight in my muzzleloader. We loaded everything onto the 4 wheeler and rode down to a safe field for shooting. It is a large field (over 1 mile long and appx 1/4 mile in width) right through the middle of it is an old ditch row that is about 10ft deep and has head high weeds growing along the side. Anyway, I knew I was in trouble as I began shooting at the target while it was at 25yds (a taped paper target on a 4'x4' box) as my son wouldn't be still and his movement made it difficult to shoot steadily off the 4 wheeler I was resting on. I required him to stay on the 4 wheeler and behind me so that I knew where he was. Being a muzzleloader I would have to shoot, clean, walk down range and tape over the holes in the target after each group was shot. So in between shots and groups he would get down and run around. Most of the time he would run quickly too the ditch and "explore" like little boys are prone to do.

After a couple of shots I then moved the target too 100yds and walked back to shoot again. I got ready and called for my son, he wouldn't answer me but I was fairly sure he was playing in the ditch (which was about 20yds too our left and ran parallel to the "range"). But being cautious I wouldn't shoot until I knew EXACTLY where my son was. I called and called and finally he answered... He was sitting IN the box my target was taped too and looking back through the 50 caliber bullet holes at me!!! [:o][:o][:o] My heart instantly JUMPED into my throat at the prospect of what would've happend had I simply gone on and pulled the trigger. Too this day I REFUSE to shoot guns with small children unless I can make EXACTLY sure where each and EVERY one of them are at ALL times and there is another adult with me to help with them. I told my wife and my own mother of the story and they nearly cried. I get chills everytime I mention the story or even think about it.

You can just NEVER be to sure, they say alcohol and guns are THE most dangerous combination. But I honestly think under many situations that guns and small children are a much more dangerous combination!!! [:'(]


Glad BOTH of our stories ended safely. :)
RA

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Thanks for sharing and I'm glad your son is still around. I'll be sure to keep this in the back of my head when my son starts shooting (he's 2 1/2 now) but I've started to teach him proper safety by letting him handle unloaded pellet and paintball guns.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

I have a 4 year old son he has a 22 bolt cut down to fit him.I will not let him shoot a pistol at all .I only have 1 but it wories me more than all my rifles and shot guns together.

I keep good track of my son any time I am shooting. I think most people do that.If you know do not know where they are you are NOT doing your job.


We as parents know that every thing our kids do is unsafe.All we can do as parents is to teach them the best we can.

I am glade to hear all is well in the to incidents.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Many stories end with a happy ending, scary but happy!! Used to work @ Level one Trauma center ER, I saw the unhappy ones!! Personally, I believe children under age of 10, should not
be in proximity of loaded firearms, unless it is @ public/private firing range with safety officers on premises. Later take them to field after safety/firarms handling in controlled enviroment.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Pretty nuts, those two stories are! Yoda.

I won't forget them.

Tom

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Those stories are pretty scary, have to remember that when I have kids

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Anyone can have a slip. We just can't afford to do it with firearms. In our 4H classes we never shot unless we were close enough to grab the gun to control it and never turned out backs. Well we tried not to but we are all human.

Just be so very careful!!! It can happen way to fast and there is no way to call it back.

The story of the child in the box shakes me up. We have no children save our lab. But believe me he is like a child. He loves to dig bullets out of the backstop. Or swim while I shoot. Creek is behind me. I always hope to remember to locate him because sometimes when I call he comes out from behind the target while he was digging for a bullet. Just too scary. Sorry I compare Cole to a child, but he is to us.

You can never be to careful.

Jeff

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

I'm not trying to preach to you or tell you how you should have raised your kid, but like others have said, it's really easy to mess up...it's human nature, but that's why we put in those "you're not quite old enough..." phrases for kids. When I first read your post, I thought to myself, what is he doing giving a handgun to a 6yr old. I've let kids shoot my guns, even some of my handguns on rare occasions, but I've always been really strict about always having a hand either on the gun, or on the childs hands or arms--no walking away or allowing distractions.

Letting a kid handle a long gun is a lot different than letting them handle a handgun. It's pretty hard to point a longgun at yourself, but for a handgun, it's all too easy. I've RO'ed and worked at shooting ranges and have seen probably 9-10 ADULTS shoot themselves with a handgun accidentally, guys who are knowledgable in safe gun handling and old enough to know how to properly control their muzzle, some of them decorated marksmen/sportsmen and some of them Veterans....it's just that easy.

There's more than one reason that you can buy a long gun at 18, but not a handgun until your 21. Conscience of mind is definitely one of them.

I'll say this, you got lucky, and I'm glad to hear that it turned out the way it did.

Accidents happen, sometimes the best prevention is to completely avoid the situation, if my kid is sitting at home while I'm shooting my pistols at a safe shooting range, I'd have a hard time shooting him...They're young and have a lot of life ahead of them, I'd rather they live to shoot pistols in the last 50yrs of their life, they can wait for the first 10-15.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

those stories made the hair on my neck stand up wow thank God that both of your kids are around today my ten year old loves going out hunting and shooting with me trust me those stories are forever in my head thank you for sharing you can NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

My two boys are 22 and 18 now, so I guess I must have done ok. They have shot with me from the time they were quite young. No offense to any one, but you CANNOT TURN YOUR BACK ON A CHILD WITH ANY FIREARM, EVEN FOR A SECOND!
As for the box episode, yeah, it could be scary...BUT, you are out with your youngster, and are not aware of where he is when shooting? Glad you didn't shoot the box, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. You can plink with kids, but don't try to do anything requiring concentration, such as sighting in. Primary responsibility is to keep an eye on your kid, and make the outing intresting and fun for him. A youngster could not possibly care less about you shooting groups, and is going to get antsy.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

One rule that I made for myself years ago about taking kids shooting, basically for young kids: Take them shooting, but don't shoot. Let them shoot, that way you're not focusing on your own group, or sighting in your rifle. If they're there to have fun shooting, let them have fun shooting and watch them. You won't be distracted as easily that way, and if you're watching them shoot, it easily follows that you're watching them. I've got plenty of other time for myself to shoot 'seriously', and not much good gets done when I'm concentrating on keeping a kid safe too, so when I'm shooting, kids aren't around, when kids are around, only THEY are shooting.

Of course, if there's someone else there who's primary function is to watch the kids, then that's a different story, but when my primary function is watching kids, my secondary isn't shooting.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

Had a less threatening but awakening story with my 16 yr old. He has "his" .270, given to him for his 16th, but cannot take it alone until he's 18.

This last season we were about two miles up a mountain trail. I decided to take a doe at around 200 yds. While we were gutting two other does looked over a rise at us, and my son asked if he could go take one. Sure.

Some time later, I hear a shot from about 400 yds away over the rise. Excellent! My son made his first stalk, decision, and shot without my coaching! Didn't care if he missed or not, I was proud.

Then it hits me like a truck - I sure hope that shot was on purpose! Wish there had been a second one so I know. Zach? ZACH!! ZACH!! No answer. I'm yelling and running through the snow and deadfall. Come up over the rise and see him on his knees, starting to gut. Whew!!! 2 minutes of terror! With the excitement, wind, and insulated ear hat, he couldn't hear me. When I got there, his chamber was empty and slightly open, muzzle pointing into the hill away from him. One clean high lung shot. Good Job!

Not a close call, but those two minutes were sure an awakening. I'm probably being conservative, but he won't be allowed "his" gun alone until 18.

Come to think of it, I guess I'd have reacted the same if he were 30, but you gotta let 'em go sometime. The military trusts them with automatic weapons when they're still kids to me.

RE: If you have children, please read this!!
 

In 1976 I was an investigator with the Sheriff's Department in Routt County, Colorado. A rancher had his three children in his crew cab pickup. He pulled up at his house and ran in to make a phone call. The twelve year old son took a 6mm bolt action rifle out of the rack. He opened the action, closed it, and unintentionally chambered a round. We are not sure exactly what happened then, but the rifle discharged. The round hit his six year old brother in the head. He died instantly. Many lives changed that day.

I live on a ranch and we constantly keep guns at hand. I trained my children very early about firearms and they have never had any "curiosity" about them; in our family, guns are tools. We have always secured firearms when other children visit our home since we don't know how other children have been trained.

I am a hunter safety instructor, a law enforcement instructor, 4-H Shooting Sports instructor, etc. The rules are all the same and simple: muzzle in a safe directions, treat every gun as a loaded gun, finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target, etc.

We must be responsible in not only the safe storage of our firearms, but we must also be responsible in the education of our children in the safe handling and storage of firearms.

And remember, if your child doesn't learn about guns from you, they will certainly learn about them from a friend at a friend's home, probably without adult supervision. Even if you are not a member of the "gun culture," get your kids into a training program. The Eddie Eagle Program is terrific for very young children. As they get older, get them into one of the other classes - NRA, 4-H, Hunter Safety, etc.

Our children are our most precious blessings. They are also the future of our hunting and shooting traditions. We need to protect them by educating them.

Thanks for your attention.

SD Shooter