Safety First

As a retired Law Enforcement Officer [LEO] and a Life Member of America’s oldest (since 1871) operating Civil Rights Organization, the National Rifle Association [NRA] I’d say I am interested in firearms safety. I recall as a small child seeing my father’s tiny pistol and asking about it. My parents tried scaring me out of interest without success, but I did get the idea I was to not touch the device. I inherited the little pistol long years later. My father then took me sport shooting (“plinking”) with a rifle in some woods when I was 12 and I enjoyed that. Upon becoming a LEO, I was carrying a pistol each day, to the apparent disgust of a physician who said I should “leave it at work” and expose myself to shocking levels of criminal & civil liability if I was present and unarmed when a firearm must be used. Thankfully, the agency and the NRA had taught me to always carry while I was active-duty, though I never had the opportunity to become a NRA -Certified Firearms Instructor as I had wished. Do I have a firearm somewhere now? Certainly. Did I provide my children the opportunity to learn about firearms? Certainly. First, II taught them how a firearm would never “make them grownups” nor negate that. I taught them a firearm was a tool of my trade; nothing more nor less. One son expressed interest in sport shooting, so I gave him an NRA firearms safety course as one of his Christmas gifts when he was in High School. He was delighted to quickly become an excellent target shooter with a solid understanding of firearms safety. He has so far not chosen to have his children learn how to shoot, and they have no interest in it at this time. I know IF and when they develop that interest, they will learn safety first, and shooting second. It’s an awesome responsibility.