Kids and Guns

Any ideas to get her interested?

Here's what worked for me. YMMV. EDIT: Sorry for the novel.

Back in April, we went to the Patriot's Day parade in Lexington. I casually asked her if she understood what all the fuss was about and the reason for the parade, aside from getting a day off from school and being able to gallivant about with her friends in Lexington Center. She told me she did; that she studied the Battle of Lexington and Concord in school the week before, and were still discussing the American Revolution. I asked her what she would have done if she were living in Lexington in 1775 - fought with the patriots, even if it meant losing everything, or hiding in the relative safety of the British sympathizers. She said she "would have fought, I guess", but not much else. Typical teenybopper response. No matter. The seed was planted.

About a month later, her school was learning about the Constitution, separation of powers, and system of checks and balances. Most of the lessons were in the context of oversimplified Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, but I was surprised how much she seemed to retain. I helped her study for her test, and went "off topic" inasmuch as her study guide was concerned to ask about what she thought about other constitutional questions, and if, say, the president was right to decide the issue or whether it should be reserved for the supreme court or congress. I could tell she was developing an interest in the political process.

When all the campaigning for the GOP primaries started up, she began asking me a lot of questions, like who I supported in the election, if I voted for Obama in 2008, which GOP candidate I preferred, etc. She had been showing some concern about a war with China, and asked me if I thought we would be at war with China in the next few years. I told her that no, I don't believe that we will be at war with China (as long as they leave Taiwan alone for the time being), and that my greatest concern was conflict at home. Shortly thereafter, the "Occupy" protests came up, and news reports of riots and demonstrations became nightly news fodder. To her, maybe there was some truth to what I was talking about.

We talked about what was going on in this country...a lot. I learned that she does not support Obama, and it puts her in a difficult position with all her friends, because her friends' parents are all Obama supporters. I learned that she thought the "Occupy" crowd was wrong - if you work for it, you should get to keep it - but she thought that maybe the police were being too aggressive in their tactics. I told her what I thought about these issues, and listened to her opinion. The hardest thing was figuring out when to have these conversations. If I tried to bring it up after school, she wasn't interseted. She would rather be online or texting her friends. I realized that in the car on the way to school, or before bed was when I could get her to engage. Try to identify a time to talk, and make it a habit. We now have a almost daily "Government and Constitution" chat every night before bed, where we talk about the news, the campaign, and other nation issues.

One evening, she asked me something along the lines of "how come all my teachers tell me that America is a free country, but when I hear the news, it doesn't seem like it is?" Followed by "what can we do about it". I got a lot of good feedback on that issue from my fellow NES members, and we talked about the importance of voting, taking a stand, talking to her friends about issues, not trusting everything you read, and learning to shoot to defend yourself in case of crime, social unrest, or zombie apocalypse.

We started taking about 2nd Amendment issues, and how an effective way to preserve your rights is to exercise your rights. I showed her that there were other kids on NES (girls, even!) that shot with their parents, and offered to sign her up in a JR Marksmanship program in the spring (Thanks, C-pher!). Knowing that kids her age where learning to shoot made her shed the "guns are just for boys" factor. I think it helped that when she told her friends that she was going to learn to shoot, they all thought it was cool, and wished that their parents would let them do something like that.

Other than that, familiarity with firearms in general helped. When I was cleaning my guns, I would invite her over, and answer any questions she had.

I can't say that what worked for me will work for any of you guys, but I'm happy to share what worked for me.


tl;dr: Talk to her. Even when you think she's not listening, she might be.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom