Gun Safety: Rules and Responsibilities for Children

Law Enforcement Officer Kerry Tanner is on the range shooting with his young daughter Cassidy and talking about gun safety rules for children. As an LEO, Kerry has seen many accidents where children who didn’t know how to handle firearms got a hold of them, with tragic results.

Key Gun Safety Rules for Parents and Kids

First, parents should realize that children are curious about guns. Second, parents must make sure children understand that guns can cause damage. Both of these things—the child’s curiosity and the parent’s desire to make the child understand what guns can do—can be satisfied by taking the child to the range and showing them a gun in action. When to start firearms training for your children is beyond the scope of this video, but start with safe and responsible handling.

Families That Don’t Own Guns

A family may not have guns in their home, but their child may still come into contact with them, so children still need to be educated about gun safety rules. Kerry has seen incidents where children brought guns to school for show and tell and another child with no knowledge of guns handled it, resulting in an accident.

In short, whether you have guns in your home or not, education about gun safety rules for your children is incredibly important.

Resources

To educate children about gun safety rules and responsible handling of guns, look for 4-H programs or youth shooting programs in your local area. You may also go to a local range and ask an instructor to introduce your children to firearms safely and responsibly.

For more on this topic, check out this Personal Defense Network video.