David Hughes:

It's not about what I or you or any one person have experienced, it's about that on average having a gun makes people more likely to be a victim of gun violence, rather than making them safer. A law abiding citizen with a legal gun is much more likely to have someone innocent killed accidently, a suicide, or that gun stolen and used in a crime than to actually protect themselves with that gun.

Obviously, we can't create an environment where no one has guns. But gun control can and has created an environment where there are far fewer and people are overall safer.

Not being mean-spirited when I say this, but just because you haven't had an instance in which gun ownership was necessary to protect your life doesn't mean that holds true for everyone. I grew up in a small town in Indiana (definitely not an urban "war zone"). If my father had not been a gun owner, and trained in how to use a firearm, there's a good chance my siblings and I wouldn't be here today. When someone enters your home with a gun, the best guarantee you have for survival is to be able to check that offender with a similar defense. It is something I thank God for everyday. We were not the victims we would have been, otherwise. It is easy to generalize about how guns are useless toys for rednecks until you have had one pointed at you by someone who intends to do you harm. Would the world be a better place if there were no weapons of any kind? Sure, but that's not the reality of it. There are an awful lot of evil people in this world, and even more who have no conscience about hurting others. I own my firearms hoping that I will never have to use them to protect myself or my family like my father did. But if that day ever comes, I'll be glad I had the right equipment and training.

Despite what many here seem to think, guns are not tools. There are no subsistence hunters in our country, for any practical purposes. Guns are at best toys, for people to play with. Others might own them to pretend they make them safer from criminals (or the new world order or societal collapse, for the nuttiest of nutjobs). In actuality, there is no evidence that widespread gun ownership makes us generally safer or that personal gun ownership makes a person safer, outside of emotional ideals of self protection and contrived logic. They put everyone in greater danger.

A significant number of guns will always be used for criminal ventures, and much of the time people who think are protecting themselves end up hurting themselves or an innocent person. Maybe this makes me a horrible person to the NRA, but I am willing to sacrifice someone's desire to make themselves feel safe in order to really protect us all. And evidence shows gun control does make us safer, from criminals, law abiding citizens, and ourselves, irrespective of fantasies about shooting all the evil criminals with guns.

Now, that's not to say all guns should be banned, but we should make it much harder to get one, limit what kinds of guns are allowed, and work to dispel this idea of using guns for self protection.

That said, it is a good idea to teach these students basic gun safety, especially to never touch a gun they find and who to contact, as well as that guns are never something to mess with, to generally demystify them, and that they should never be used or anything approaching being used outside of legitimate target shooting or hunting (which isn't common for people in cities or even more urban suburbs). As far as all the comments on this web site, I don't really have a problem with school rifle teams, but I can definitely understand not having one in a place where gun crime is epidemic.

Are Chicago kids unusually slow-witted?

I started using firearms safely at 5, with my dad's single action Ruger .22LR revolver, had my own shotgun at 7, and my own .30-30 Marlin at 9. Basic firearm safety isn’t rocket science, it can be taught to a 5 year old in one afternoon. Odd that back when most kids knew how to safely handle a firearm long before they knew what a condom was, what it was for, or how to use one, we had far fewer total and per capita firearm fatalities, underage pregnancies, and STD cases. Yet people today are supposedly smarter and more sophisticated?

Kids should at least be taught enough about firearms to be safe around them. If the lefties were consistent in their 'logic,' they would teach firearm safety the same way they teach sex-ed, rather than oppose teaching it at all. Consistency is a bit much to ask of moonbats.

Pfleger sometimes has trouble remembering he’s supposed to be a Catholic Priest, not the saul alinsky grand marshall of a lynch mob. At a May, 2007 protest against a Chicago gun store ‘father’ Pfleger said, “He’s the owner of Chuck’s. John Riggio. R-i-g-g-i-o. We’re going to find you and snuff you out … you know you’re going to hide like a rat. You’re going to hide but like a rat we’re going to catch you and pull you out. We are not going to allow you to continue to hide when we’re here …”
“We’re going to keep coming back, and like Reverend Jackson says, it takes civil disobedience, if it takes whatever it takes … we’re going to snuff out John Riggio, we’re going to snuff out legislators that are voting against our gun laws… and we are coming for you because we are not going to sit idly. Keep on fighting, people. Keep on fighting, keep on fighting.” I can see why he wants us disarmed.

SSHHHHHHHH! Don't go tellin' 'em all our secrets!!

I have to side with David Hughes. I am not a criminal and I can still find the grocery store. I own more guns, ammunition, and reloading supplies than most National Guard units. I am also a Concealed Carry Permit holder and carry everywhere the law allows me. If you wonderful anti-gun liberals want to leave your security to others that is fine. I am sure the police can be at your house in 15 or 20 minutes, but do not count on people like David and I to come to your defense. I usually tell people of your persuasion two things:
1. If world disaster ever strikes (like nuclear holocaust or maybe global warming) people like me will be eating people like you for dinner.
2. Guns will get you through times with no money, but money won't get you through times with no guns.

If we educate our children on gun safety, they will no longer be afraid of guns and will be 2nd amendment supporters. Liberals do not want government education to work against their agenda.

Neal, didn't you once say that many lives would be saved if school children were shown one simple thing? A pistol with the magazine removed can still go BANG!

(because there can still be a bullet in the chamber)

Aim in, brother, aim in

this chicago elitism referring to 3/4 of the state of IL as "down state" reminds me of the french in Paris.

maybe father failure is onto something.. maybe we should legalize some drugs and tax the ever living crap out of it.. it would increase revenues and give people individual freedoms.

Should someone teach these kids that only people that are criminals or too dumb to find the grocery store still use guns?

We had firearms safety classes in sixth grade and shot rifles in junior high. Not one person in our classes ever shot anyone, deliberately or otherwise.

Neal,

I am all for this. It gives the students the ability to effectively defend themselves in the dangerous city run by politicians with (D) behind their names. Also, in the event the students decide to be in gangs, maybe they’ll have good enough marksmanship to only hit other gang members rather than the innocent bystanders on the street.
Also wouldn’t it be great to live in a country where when one citizen is being threatened with bodily harm, four or five other citizens pull out their weapons and blow the threat away. It would lead to far fewer victims of violent crime and would probably lead many practitioners of that art to find another line of work (or assume room temperature…either is good with me.)
Of course we will have a lot of liberal bleeding hearts that would rather be victimized by “an unfortunate underprivileged person driven to a life of crime” rather than suffer the horrors of seeing another human being filled full of holes. “Oh the nightmares,” they’ll cry as they sue the individuals that saved their lives, and they will be right…they wouldn’t have had the nightmares while taking their celestial dirt nap post attack.
Owen

Means hitting your target. I learned to shoot a gun when I was about 5 or 6, and it started with a low power BB gun(red Rider..anyone?) and progressed from there to higher power rifles and pistols and hunter safety course at 12

So let me understand... Teaching kids about safe sex won't encourage them to have sex but teaching them about gun safety will make them felons?

They teach our kids about condoms (and hand them out) in public schools.
What's the difference? They are both guns, of a sort....
The schools are overreaching in both cases.