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“When you hand a child a firearm, you are forcing them to make a life and death decision that they are incapable of, and never should be responsible for.” – Heeding God’s Call executive director Bryan Miller in 10-year-old competitive shooter draws national attention in gun control debate [at nj.com]

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66 COMMENTS

  2. I never asked my kids to make those choices. I just asked them to safely handle the weapon and hit the target.

    Drama Queen.

  3. When you take your child to swimming lessons, you are forcing them to make life and death decisions blah, blah, blah

    Come on. Really?
    This kid is obviously in a sport that she enjoys and that a lot of people enjoy participating in. Nothing more.

  4. Every time you allow your child to cross the street without you, you are forcing them to make a life or death decision.

  5. This is a new level of stupidity and mendacity… even for a Miller, who is a religious fraud on par with Jim Jones.

  6. Same could be said of a steak knife, a brick, a length of pipe or rebar….etc. They have uses besides being murder weapons, as do guns.
    Better a child be familiar and confident than unfamiliar, excitted, and curious. Respect for firearms must be taught, not assumed.

  7. Deconstruction of “Heeding God’s Call” from the perspective of someone who is religious: Life is the most precious gift that God gives us, and declining to defend that life is an insult to God.

    Deconstruction of “Heeding God’s Call” from the perspective of someone who is NOT religious: PFFFFT right, and I bet you think you’ll go to Heaven for funding gun control movements.

    • “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

      If Bryan weren’t such an infidel he’d provide his household with some protection, like a carbine or tactical shotgun. Way to deny the faith, Bryan!

      ETA, because this would be his retort: “Yeah, nice straw man. I said children!” Because you’d bring a firearm into your house and not teach everyone how to use it safely? That’ll work.

  8. der da derderder.
    long before they are ten young ‘uns should be offered the opportunity to learn to aim.
    those that choose not to should continue to be encouraged (to learn).
    bad can! it must be ventilated!
    ah, good choice.

  9. I started shooting at 7. It was part of my dad’s effort to take away the mystery of guns, one of the smartest things he did. I was never interested in messing with my dad’s guns because I wanted to go shooting, not play with a tool I knew first hand was dangerous.

    I was taught to be responsible… so I was. I guess none of this ever really happened since it doesn’t fit the narrative, though. /sarc

    • THIS!!! My parents were VERY anti-gun while I was growing up (Although, in true progressive fashion, my dad kept a sawed off .410 for when he was driving truck, go figure), but luckily, I had an uncle who introduced me to firearms, and dispelled much of that mystery. I try to do my best to do the same.

  10. I wasn’t aware that shooting a piece of paper was a matter of life or death. I know lots of shooters who don’t hunt or even think in terms of self-defense. They are driven by the joys of competiton whether it is bullseye shooting or clays.

    • Exactly. A paper or iron target is inanimate.

      On the other hand, teaching kids safe gun handling introduces them to understanding the danger of a mishandled firearm, and reinforces a healthy respect for life. Learning Rule #3 (never point the muzzle at anything you’re not willing to destroy) teaches that there is personal responsibility regarding what one does with a firearm.

      And if there’s ever a time that one of my girls ever actually does have to make a life-or-death decision with a firearm, those are lessons I damn sure want them to know already – along with knowing that they are competent with that firearm.

    • For shame! Just think of al those poor trees that were killed to make those innocent paper targets she’s filling with holes!

  11. Kids still remain the best judge of character, so if a 10 year old decided to smoke someone, I would have to believe it was the right choice.

  12. I was taught to drive an evil SUV at age 11. Back then you could get a driver’s license at 14. Traveling in autos is the most dangerous thing most people do.

    • Same here. We learned to operate vehicles and equipment young in the country. I wasn’t an option.

      I guess that is child endangerment or abuse now, eh? 😉

      I taught my oldest, at 10, how to operated the jeep (manual), and the UTV, in case he ever had to get my old butt back to civilization due to an accident. I don’t want him driving in traffic, but he can get the manual jeep down the trails and back to civilization just fine.

      And he shoots. OMG.

      I must be a terrible parent.

  13. I read shit like this and I wonder, amazed, at how these kinds of people don’t drop dead spontaneously because they forgot to keep breathing, ran over themselves with their own car, or drown in their breakfast cereal. How is target shooting a life or death decision? Granted the media has trained people to think that any pull of the trigger that doesn’t result in a dead body must be a malfunction, but still. My head hurts when I think of the mental acrobatics required to conflate taking your kid target shooting in a controlled competitive environment with a life or death decision. Although, I bet this guy’s real problem is that competitive shooting is one of the few sports that still only gives trophies to the winners.

  14. Hey! What about “Heeding God’s Call” to: “Do unto others…” Luke 6:31; or “Don’t stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.” Lev. 19:16; or “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Lev. 19:18; or 1 Tim. 4:12: “Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love faith and purity, show yourself an example for those who believe.”

  15. Oh boy, here we go…

    “When you hand a child pencil and paper, you are forcing them to make a life and death decision that they are incapable of, and never should be responsible for.”

  16. I hope Pastor Miller never needs a 10 year old to dial 911. “Gee, the pastor’s clutching his chest and wheezing. Should I call 911 or watch him die? I’m too young to make life or death decisions, so I guess I’ll just hang out and wait for an adult to show up.”

  17. Oh no, life and death of a paper target hangs in the balance..WHAT SHALL WE DO?!?!

    Sometimes I dont know if the antigunners are purposely this stupid or are doing this to mess with us…

  19. Don’t dare teach these kids about firearms, but hey, let’s teach them all about sex and how they should be doing it, because…planned parenthood. Stupid liberals.

  20. Yeah, and when you hand a kid a football you’re sacrificing their mental and physical function for a 0.2% chance they’ll make the NFL, and then retire after 3.3 years with physical and mental problems.

    This is why it’s great for kids to participate sports like shooting, which are infinitely healthier than chasing balls around and crashing bodies together.

    • Ok you have the percentage of youth players accepted into the pro ranks and the average pro career but you pose the mental/physical injury as an absolute? Not just from professional competition but simply by signing up for youth teams?

  21. That’s one 10 year old Id want around me. If Miller has more faith in God and 911 then that 10 year old he is a fool.

    • If I needed help in a life-or-death situation I’d rather have this girl and her 1911 than God and 911 any day.

  22. i think they should start requiring that people who want to say something against guns should go to a class about gun safety and shoot a range for a while before they are allowed to speak about anything against guns.

    its like hating cars when you never drove a car. or a person who hates tv without ever watching TV. i am sure they will enjoy TV after watching it

  24. From the article:

    “Roberts [the girl’s father] . . . did bristle at the CNN article’s implication he coached Shyanne in what to say in interviews.”

    So a bunch of adult morons who make a living reading from a script criticized a ten year old girl for reading from a script. Very interesting.

    • +1.

      CNN will be a footnote in history, and a Harvard Business School case study for what happens when you consciously turn a news org into a propaganda organ.

      CNN jumped the track when producer Eason Jordan admitted they were self censoring their news reporting, at Saddam Husseins PR guys insistence, to get head of the line access to his propaganda.

      CNN jumped the shark when still-in-the-closet Anderson Cooper, head anchor, gleefully tagged the TeaParty, generally retirees and political advocates for lower taxes, limited govt, etc with the homosexual slur of TeaBaggers, and repeated without apology.

      CNN-bagger is a meme I propose as thaat equal to the most despicable twisting of the right to free speech, and total abrogation of the responsibility of the Press to function as a balance of power.

  25. Miller is the same clown who wrote an op-ed defending the prosecution (persecution really) of Shaneen Allen, so he apparently doesn’t really care about kids. He had no problem with her two boys being ripped from their mother, but is aghast that a young girl responsibly participates in the shooting sports.

  26. Fakirs like Miller are an abomination in the Presence of The Lord. Funny how he has multiple armed guards when he is in public, at his “church” and his home. What a f**king hypocrite.

  27. When I ask my 15 year old daughter to slice potatoes with our razor-sharp JA Henckels 8″ chef knife, she’s “forced” to make a life or death decision. She does a great job slicing potatoes. Now if I ask her to slice onion, that ain’t gonna happen.

    • What, you don’t have a mandolin?

      (Not that slicing a potato by hand isn’t a good skill to have – and nice choice of kinfe; I love my Henckel 8″ chef knife.)

  28. And yet there’s no tsunami of emotion and angst when tens of thousands of aging drivers enter their cars everyday and drive with their slow reactions, poor vision and failing memories. They too may be incapable of making life and death decisions.

  29. According to three decades worth of data from the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research (yeah, I didn’t know there was such a thing, either), the top ten deadliest high school sports as measured by annual fatalities per 100,000 participants are below. All are the boys team, except where noted.

    Cross Country .36
    Girls Water Polo .42
    Soccer .45
    Hockey .48
    Basketball .76
    Lacrosse .80
    Football .81
    Gymnastics .95
    Boys Water Polo 1.06
    Baseball 2.89

    These are just fatality rates, many from heat stroke; but injuries, sometimes serious, are out there, too. Lots of life and death decisions at hand, yet shooting sports don’t even make the list. Curious, that.

    Life is all about risk and rewards, and the trade-offs between them. You win in this world first, by more accurately assessing those trade-offs than others do, then by changing the exchange rates of those trade-offs to your advantage.

    Both of those come about from studied experience. Neither comes about from a coddled existence. If you don’t expose your special little snowflake to new and suitable challenges and encourage their efforts to master them, then you’re just setting them up for a lifetime of disappointment, dependence and underperformance.

  30. Perhaps this supposed minister/attention whore should rediscover the old Restoration motto of, “where the Scriptures speak, we speak, and where they are silent, we are silent.”

  31. yup. every time I hand my sons a weapon, I tell’em, “you know what to do boy. time to kill sumptin”. [/sarc]

  32. When I felt she was old enough, I handed my oldest daughter an (empty) BB gun and brought her along pheasant hunting. The next year she got a 20 gauge Mossberg, with which she harvested a pheasant.

    I showed her how to make split-second life-and-death decisions. She made a decision that ended the life of an animal, and she was appropriately sobered by that fact. I couldn’t be more proud.

    Oh, and then she helped pluck and eat what we harvested.

  33. NJ.com just continues to beclown itself, with its attempts at “balance” citing Heeding Gods Call. A simple open source check of the past statements, or its own website shows connections that disqualify it as a nuetral source.

    Here’s the link to their advocasy on LGS ‘Code of Conduct” with disgraced gun-grabber AG Holders videotape transactions meme, and Bloombergs big money sockpuppetting “Mayors against Guns” in second place with “Gun Trace Log and Alert”.

    NJ.com is not about journalism. Its just more progressive propaganda.
    Thanks again, Dan, and TTAG, for the catch.

  34. For anyone new to guns, perusing TTAG for info on help to get your kids started young, with good info, here is a suggestion:

    Just go to the NRA website and find the part that gives info and their search page for new shooter training in your zipcode.

    Or google “Appleseed”. Start with a basic .22 rifle , for Christmas, and go with them to learn, and I guarantee that you and your kids will be way ahead of 95% of the average American adult in ability, self confidence, and safety around guns for your whole life.

  35. I believe the Catholic Church still defines the age-of-reason
    (i.e. the ability to comprehend consequences, including death)
    as 7 years old.

    It sounds like Mr. Miller has a larger issue with the fact many
    younger than he is can still make a rational life altering
    decision that he is incapable of.

  36. Heeding God’s Call? Let’s start with Luke 22:36.

    Also, sweetie, please don’t lay the rifle in the grass ejection port down.

  37. An “ancient middle eastern saying” goes like this:

    Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (AKA Proverbs 22:6)

    This peice of wisdom puts a lot of responsibility in the lap of parents. If parents train a child to behave responsibly around guns, they will behave responsibly around them all their lives.

    If parents train them to be afraid of guns, kids will grow into fearful adults.

    The onus is on the parent, according to the bible Mr. Miller follows. I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like Mr. Miller has no idea how to handle a gun, much less teach a child how to handle one, and is now projecting his fears into his readership, and possibly his children (if he has children).

    I find this somewhat confounding.

  38. So, I’m guessing that besides taking my grandkid shooting they shouldn’t be learning Taekwondo either. My 8yo grandaughter kicks like a girl. VEG

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