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By Marcie Young

No matter what country, state, or city you live in, every neighborhood has pros and cons. Most big cities in the United States tend to have “good” areas and “bad” ones, though it is unclear to me exactly what differentiates one from the other. What I do know is that too many neighborhoods are wracked by the (supposed) “gun violence” and abuse of gun ownership.

I had a horrible experience in the past, which made me realize that carrying a firearm for self-defense is vital. I have a two-year-old child and we live in Tolleson, which is among the 10 most dangerous towns in Arizona, so I am fully committed to protecting myself and my family by arming myself and maintaining gun safety.

Regarding firearm safety and awareness, here are two important things to consider:

Mental Health Matters

Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership released the story of a young woman, Shayna Lopez-Rivas, who was denied her Second Amendment rights just because she was seeking mental health help for an ongoing case of PTSD. As a rape survivor, this woman had already gone through many painful experiences, so she was simply looking to protect herself just like any other citizen.

Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Young, DRGO Editor [Ed: no relation], explains the importance of gun ownership very clearly. He describes the right to keep and bear arms, using the words of St. George Tucker, as “the true palladium of liberty”.

As Dr. Young wrote, owning guns is a basic individual right just like all other rights of the American people. He also adds that for society to be successful, it is the responsibility of the individuals to care their own safety and the safety of others.

Shootings are not only a societal problem, they are also a matter of public health. Not just physically, as commonly held by anti-gun academics, but because they can deeply affect survivors’ mental states.

At the same time, you should not want your child to hate or reject guns simply because of the risk of misuse. Teaching gun safety is much more effective than banning guns from the home or society. Every citizen has the right to own a firearm, and this right should not be denied based on someone’s mental health short of dangerous ideas.

Make Sure Your Child is Safe in Other Homes

When my child is older and asks me to spend time at friends’ houses, I will support that. However, I will make sure that neither he nor his playmates come in contact with unsecured guns while they play. I will share my family’s safety measures and will discuss theirs with the playmates’ parents.

Sadly, many neighborhoods have been targeted for their endemic violence, which has led children and adolescents to poor life outcomes and self-perpetuating cycles of deprivation and crime.

In 2019, Everytown Research reported a study of 7-year-olds,claiming that 75% of those who lived in urban neighborhoods had heard gunshots at least once, 18% had seen a dead body, and 61% worried that they might get injured or killed.

Whatever the numbers, to prevent children from developing misconceptions about the use of guns, they must understand the deeper meaning behind gun ownership, which is instilled in the country’s Constitution. Parents have the responsibility to communicate openly with their children, explaining the importance of staying safe when using a gun and what to do when they see one.

As per the US Constitution, citizens cannot be prohibited from firearm possession. However, parents should be aware that kids have a natural curiosity about guns, therefore lack of education about the matter could cost their life.

Parents should explain to children that if they ever come across a gun, they should immediately leave the area and find an adult. As they get older, conversations may be expanded to discuss the difference between gun use in TV shows and video games vs reality.

A good way to keep the topic alive is by using the TV news as a starting point to talk about how dangerous guns can be and how to stay safe.

Among the debates about gun ownership, my focus is on the use of guns for self-defense. In particular, firearm use should be evaluated not by how many people have died in shootings, but by how many lives have been saved because of their defensive use, not even fired in 90% of cases.

As a mother, I will teach my son that defensive gun use is much more than just owning and carrying a weapon. Successful gun defense occurs when crimes are prevented rather than when someone gets killed. Numerous studies have shown that defensive gun use is more protective than restrictionist anti-gun laws.

Finally . . .

Violence can shape the lives of children who witness it, leaving them living in fear that they will become victims. Showing that you are prepared to defend them reassures them that their lives are precious, that they will be kept safe. Teaching them the rules of firearm safety and shooting skills as they grow up encourages them to take their safety into their own hands, as we all must in the end.

 

Mom, wife, and pro-gun writer, Marcie Young live in Tolleson, Arizona where the crime rate has been higher than almost 99% of American cities. A horrible personal experience made her realize the importance of gun ownership and self-defense.

This article originally appeared at drgo.us and is reprinted here with permission. 

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40 COMMENTS

  1. Why is everything on this blog about non-Whites? Whites make up the majority of gun owners, and gun culture is white culture AND white culture defines gun culture.

    It’s ok to be white.

      • no- honest and sincere

        There seems to be a push on this website to say gun control/Brady bunch people are the real racists; PinkPistols, black men with guns… I’m just tired of it. Is hip hop a white thing? No. Are guns a white thing? Yah- maybe they are.

        It’s ok to be white! Is it not? Why does this blog seem so hell bent against it? Every criticism of gun control uses a cultural Marxists framework (the intellectual parent of Critical Race Theory).

        By saying “dems are real racist”, it gives power to the idea that being racist is bad. Maybe it is, but you don’t get to define what racism is. And your white kids are going to loose their jobs because of it.

        • “Are guns a white thing?”

          not exactly. guns (weapons) in the hands of authoritarian governments is a universal thing. guns in the hands of on-the-street citizens is pretty much a white thing.

        • Ahh, we have a new troll moniker in our midst, and his name is Ryan. The not-so-subtle contrarianism will surely provide some good conversational threads.

          Ryan, please proceed. We welcome robust discussions.

          All Hail (or Baaaaaaahahahahahaha, or A True Patriot, or whatever), pay attention to Ryan. This is what true, effective trolling is all about. Learn and grow.

        • No, no, Haz.

          I think this one is a little different. I think he’s a true believer.

        • “There seems to be a push on this website to say gun control/Brady bunch people are the real racists; PinkPistols, black men with guns… I’m just tired of it.”

          If you’re tired of it, just leave. Because that’s how TTAG rolls.

          Please, just go. Buh-bye, now! 🙂

          (The recent influx of racist scum recently like ‘ryan’ here is kinda depressing…)

      • Tolleson, AZ is little Mexico.

        If she was a good mother, she would GTFO. The wages of single motherhood/thot’ery is death.

    • This being America, where freedom of association is a thing, anyone who wants to adopt that culture is welcome. And every single person we can pull away from the “progressive” plantation is a victory. That’s why.

      Also, unless I’m missing something, this article is not “about non-whites.” It’s about considerations of safety, utility, and self-protection that apply to all gun owners.

      • Fairly good article although ragging on this gal because she’s”hispanic” is bizarre. Or the place she lives. Especially that dude with his “it’s ok to be white” diatribe. My neighborhood is going to he!! and it’s not the Hispanics. It’s young black thugs migrating from Chiraq. Duh…

        • “Culture comes from IQ and IQ comes from DNA.”

          Does that explain your stupidity, ‘chris’?

  2. “Most big cities in the United States tend to have “good” areas and “bad” ones, though it is unclear to me exactly what differentiates one from the other.”

    It’s not as complicated as it seems, but, unfortunately, we cannot talk honestly about what “differentiates one from the other.” Such conversations undermine the current narrative pushed by the Biden administration, and most of society.

  3. “It’s ok to be white.”

    No it’ snot. Only an evil, wicked, mean, bad, and nasty white person would say that. C’mon, man. Don’t you read? It’s all over the internet. Every evil committed since the world began is due to white people. Even in places where no white person has stepped foot; white evil is airborne, and extremely contagious. POC everywhere were living in peace and harmony, one with nature, until white people showed up.

    It is settled science that the planet can only equitably support 500,000 humans, and then only if no white things are present. Even a handful of white people would pollute the remainder of the select 500,000.

    • well put.

      “only if no white things are present”

      like math, anti-biotics, flush toilets.

      • “like math, anti-biotics, flush toilets.”

        So very white privilege. You should go stand in the corner, with your nose to the wall until dinner.

      • How is math “white”? Algebra is an Arabic word, and the numbers we use are Arabic numerals, which evolved from Hindu-Arabic numerals. The roots aren’t European, and many cultures independently developed their own systems.

  4. My wife grew up with a loading rifle standing in the corner of every room. neither her or any of the other 5 kids in the family ever touched those guns. They were taught not to.. That being said, you can’t control every environment your child is exposed to. Good mom for owning and carrying a firearm, but statistically , the child is more likely to be struck by lighting that to be shot.

  6. “a study of 7-year-olds,claiming that 75% of those who lived in urban neighborhoods had heard gunshots at least once, 18% had seen a dead body, and 61% worried that they might get injured or killed”

    in mediaeval times this would have been 100%, 100%, and 100%.

  7. “Why is everything on this blog about non-Whites?”

    because if you want to write about bad neighborhoods and violence and frightened children and dead bodies, focusing on white neighborhoods won’t get you very far.

    • Your a hard person to figure out ant7, sometimes I think your full of sht, then other times I think your pretty darned smart.

  8. Just curious. Anybody ever heard of the Eddie Eagle program? Put on by the NRA it’s a child safety program, free to schools to educate children to not play with guns. If you see one, leave it alone, and go get an adult.

  10. Lets face facts, kids will be kids and kids often do stupid things no matter how much training you give them and you cannot train a 2 year old toddler, who by the way was killed when he found a loaded glock laying under a bed. To make it even worse it was not his home as he was being baby sat by irresponsible, shiftless and paranoid moron adults.

    Also kids that come over to play often do not know how to handle guns or even recognize that they are real and not toys.

    No amount of delusion, or outright lies by the Far Right will refute the fact that you have many options in the home to protect yourself with a trigger lock, desk safe or full size safe. I have used all of them and it took me only little more than 1 second to pull a gun out of the safe and slam a magazine into it and I once had to do just that. But it turned out it was a false alarm anyway and that was over a 30 year period. And remember the average crook does not know the layout of your home and he often makes plenty of noise breaking in so you often have way more than a couple of seconds to get a loaded gun out.

    Each year because of lazy, shiftless or out of control paranoid adults we have 1,300 children get blown away which over a decade amounts to 13,000 needless children’s deaths. And before the block heads on the Far Right start screaming that 60 per cent of child deaths are child suicides or teenage suicides lets put all the fking bullshit right on the table. Any sane adult feels as great a loss of a teenager being killed as they would a toddler especially when it was totally unnecessary. The gun makes it too easy and too quick to commit suicide. When a person who is an adult or a child has to plan and think about committing a suicide it does give them time to back out of it or give warning to others that they are planning it. Even rather subtitle questions about suicide can tip off a savvy adult and even brothers or sisters have been know to go to parents and tell them about their sibling acting or saying strange things by asking questions about suicide.

    Yes you can defend yourself at home without being dumb enough or lazy and shiftless and letting deadly weapons lay around the house because you have the option of either carrying the gun on your person or keeping the damn thing locked up but very accessible. To argue against this is nothing more than either a damn lie or complete out of control paranoia or the usual complete stupidity.

    Its a shame Darwinism has to apply to kids as if it was confined to adults we could improve the populations I.Q. in less than a generation. Yes there have been plenty of adults that also shot themselves with guns they thought were unloaded or they tampered with childproof safety caps on medicine bottles or chemical bottles or disconnected back up safeties on riding lawn mowers, never installed or disconnected smoke alarms, removed safety nose caps on chain saws etc. Two things are infinite, the Universe and the stupidity of the Far Right.

    Civilized Nations long ago passed Safe Storage laws and yes if the penalties are severe enough, even in the the land of Morons (Capitalvania) the majority of clear thinking adults have no wish to go to prison, be fined heavily and lose their gun rights for life because they were responsible for a child finding a loaded gun laying around and dying because of it.

      • Yep, he let the veil drop a few days back, it’s ‘vlad’, alright…

      • I’ve been wondering the same…

        Vlad was coherent, albeit long winded. ‘enuf’ tried, but could not succeed performing at the same level.

    • SA-Mann dacian. You’ve never owned a gun. Judging by your facebook you’re probably a prohibited person. How are things in Ohio these days?

      • JWM, watching what happened yesterday in a different article kinda made me sick in the stomach reading that crap… 🙁

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