I hate to say it, but if you create a "cookie jar syndrome", you will always have a problem.
And what is the Cookie Jar Syndrome (CJS)?
- You have a cookie jar and it's full of cookies.
- Your child asks for a cookie
- In your "wisdom" you say "No" and leave it at that, without explanation.
- Upon your immediate departure from the kitchen.....yep, little fingers have gone into the fabled cookie jar, for the sheer reason that you said "no" without telling them the "why" (desert before dinner or some such BS, but at least it's an explanation)
America is great at the cookie jar syndrome and feeding bullshit explanations to it's subjects.
Alcohol: Everywhere else in the world, it's not an issue. Yet here, morons in power have decided on the magic 21+ age rules. What do you think the teenagers are going to do with
that one?
. Yet, in 99% of the rest of the
world, it's a non-issue and kids regularly have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner.
Pot:
This is great because the only BS answer the idiots in power can give are "it's a gateway" and "we can't tax it"...oh, wait. The second one is why, the first one is the nonsense CJS bullcrap the officials feed us. And what do you think created the gangs?.....simply put, CJS.
Guns: Hide what you have and play "secrets" with your kids, and eventually, they'll hit an age where "hmm, what's in that big box over there?" And like someone else said, it really doesn't matter what safe you have, eventually, they will get into it. If you started the teaching early, CJS doesn't come into play, as long as the bullcrap explanations aren't excuses and are instead
reasons (kids are smart, they can tell the difference), you'll have a youngster with respect, knowledge and acceptance of guns from the beginning.
Of course, I could be completely off my rocker. I bring my 4yo daughter to the range nowadays. At 6, I'll give her the same as my father gave me: A .22 rifle and a 3-blade pocket knife.