Random Musings

Not Even at Daycare

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060124093409990006&ncid=NWS00...

So now, it seems, the kids can't even go to daycare without worrying about a classmate shooting them.

That's pretty bad. Nobody is safe anywhere any more.

When will people learn that if there is a gun in the home it is imperative that small children 1.) not be aware of its presence in the home, 2.) that it be put in a place where there is no chance at all of any child getting a hand on it? It's been said so many times, and yet kids keep getting hurt at the hand of other kids.

Guns have always been fascinating to little boys, just as they are to the big ones. But in the times in which we live, where guns have become synonomous with power rather than with hunting and survival, it is imperative that greater care be taken to keep guns and children separate from one another.

People claim that they have guns in their homes for protection. I am willing to bet that there are more cases on record of guns being a problem than there are of them being an effective deterrent or source of protection in the home. Although we resided in an area where most people probably had guns- and needed them-when we were raising our children, as a parent of three sons, I didn't want one. I couldn't take the risk. Kids ramble, and they are ingenious in doing so. Sometimes no matter how well you think something is put up, a kid can find it and get into it if so inclined. I didn't want a gun to be what one of my children got into. I didn't want a mistake to be made.

The mother of the little boy who did the shooting, I'm certain, had no idea that her child was carrying something in his backpack that would change his life, her and her husband's lives, and the lives of so many others. I am sure that the mother of the little girl who was shot had no idea that she was dropping the baby off to be faced with that horror and pain. When the owner of that daycare unlocked the doors of the facility this morning, I know that she didn't have an inkling that her day would turn out as it did.

The father has been arrested for leaving the gun where the kid could get it. I was surprised to see that he was 56. Way, way old enough to know better.

The thing of it is, though, he should feel blessed; it could have been a whole lot worse.

Will daycare backpacks now have to be searched? Is it time to install metal detectors at the doors of daycare centers? Probably not. But it is time that we become more responsible about what we let our children see, and about what we do around our children. It is also time that we pay more attention to what our children are doing.