Does Owning A Firearm Make You A Bad Parent?
Apparently, for some, it does:
At a recent pediatrician’s visit, the nurse asked me — as part of a series of standard questions — if we had any guns in our house. Like I always do, I answered with a quick, emphatic “no.” I’m not sure why I lie, because we do, in fact, have a gun. My husband keeps one safely stored in a closet. It’s unloaded and completely inaccessible to our daughters. Yet even though we are responsible gun owners, I guess admitting the truth makes me feel like a bad mother.
I understand the implication behind the question: owning a gun may pose a danger to my child’s health and safety. The American Academy of Pediatrics concludes that although one may feel safer by owning a gun, it’s actually safer to maintain a gun-free home. In their official policy statement regarding firearms, the AAP points to some pretty compelling research against gun ownership. They state, “Guns kept in the home are forty-three times more likely to be used to kill someone known to the family than to be used to kill in self-defense.” I understand this, but nevertheless I’ll still keep a firearm.
It still shocks me that doctors ask whether or not you own a gun (this is something I’ve posted on previously). Frankly, if a doctor asked me such a question, they’d get a “None of your damn business” as a response.
As for guns making homes more dangerous, I think that depends on the gun owner. Some people are more respectful of their firearms than others. Some gun-owning families go through generations without a single gun mishap. The vast majority of gun-owning families never see any injuries or deaths from their firearms.
And let’s look at this another way: Owning and using an automobile on a regular base increases the danger of death or injury to your family, yet this is a risk most parents take every day because of the convenience automobiles provide. And again, the danger is relative to the respect the families show their automobiles. Unsafe drivers are in more danger than safe drivers.
Gun owners see the benefits of owning guns as generally outweighing the risks. Yes, guns make homes relatively less safe than homes without guns, but better an armed society as our founders an intended than an unarmed one.
