Actress Mila Kunis recently shared her parenting choices at eonline.com: Mila Kunis & Ashton Kutcher Keep a Gun at Their House—Find Out Why and What She Said About Baby Wyatt. Mila Kunis displays a high level of firearms expertise in her movies (let’s hope so, considering the extensive training she receives in order to do so), but her view on “gun parenting” are wide of the mark. As a mother about the same age as Kunis and an avid gun owner who can also “take a gun apart and put it back together blindfolded,” I profoundly disagree with this statement . . .
“My child shouldn’t be as well trained as us, nor should she know there is a weapon in the house—ever,” added the actress, who underwent weapons training for the films Max Payne and Jupiter Ascending.
Ms. Kunis is telling the world she won’t EVER tell her child there is a gun in the home.
When it comes to firearms – or safety in general – ignorance is not bliss. Failing to train your children about gun safety leaves them clueless about the proper course of action if and when they encounter a gun – which could be anywhere. Lying to your children about the presence of a gun in the house is the fastest way to ensure that they won’t know what to do if they encounter one. Other than be extremely, dangerously curious.
As Kunis’ nine-month-old daughter Wyatt grows up, she’ll see guns used in movies, like the ones her mother stars in. She’ll see stories about guns on TV and the internet. Naturally, Wyatt will become curious and ask questions about guns. By lying to her daughter about the presence of a gun or guns in her home, Kunis will be telling her daughter half the story. Even if she explains the pro-gun position, she’ll be saying guns are OK for some people, but not for us. Or you, eventually.
As a mother, I instill a healthy respect for guns into my children as soon as possible. My four-year-old daughter has a pink Red Rider BB gun. She loves shooting it and recites the “rules” she’s been given before using it. She knows more about guns than most of those who comment on the CSGV Facebook page (a low bar, to be sure) and she still wears piggy tails to school.
My children know I carry a gun. They understand they are not to touch my gun and they aren’t to talk about guns with anyone but myself or their father. When I take out the BB gun so my little girl can shoot, she wears safety glasses, hearing protection (even though it’s not needed with a BB gun) and knows she does not touch the gun until she is told she can. She also knows she’s not to touch the trigger until she is told it’s OK to shoot.
My children will grow up understanding what a gun can do and why I have guns in our house. They will respect firearms and they will take responsibility should they decide they wish to partake in the shooting sports as I do. Lying about the availability of a weapon is the absolute wrong way to go about it.
Later in the interview, Kunis admitted that she’s a die-hard Democrat and a staunch Obama supporter. Go figure.
I’m in agreement with you 100%. Ignorance is curiousity and a lack of self preserving fear. My 84 year old father still has a revolver hanging in a holster on the corner of the dresser mirror, just like he did when I was little. We KNEW what it was, that it killed, and not to touch it, ever, unless he handed it to us. I can’t speak for my brother, but I never did. Knowledge is power, even for toddlers.
With all due respect, you guys are missing the point. She, or anyone else for that matter, can make up their own mind(s) on how to deal with guns and their children. All too often, we tend to want to tell others what to do but won’t or can’t except that there is no “one way” to do just about anything.
Moreover, preaching or talking down to people is no way to reach them; which is all too common here and other places.
Someone should ask Mila this.
what would happen if your child finds a gun on the playground?
does your child know that guns are dangerous?
how many kids shoot themselves or someone else due to lack of basic gun safety training?
I think you are missing the point yourself. She can do whatever she wants when it comes to firearm safety and education in her own home, but that doesn’t mean we can’t call her out how poor that decision is, or provide a better way of handling that decisions to others.
The problem with Kunis’ solution is that if her child grows up not knowing her parents have a firearm in the house, what will happen if she finds it? The parents might keep it locked up, but one chance is still one too many if she doesn’t teach or acknowledge the fundamentals of gun safety. Ignorance is not a safety measure.
To be fair, here career would probably be over if she admitted to teaching her kids about guns given hollywoods attitude towards weapons. Just as many gun owners refuse to admit anything beyond an unfortunate boating accident I wouldn’t be surprised if she is just trying to placate her overlords.
Yes, because Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have completely vanished from hollywood in the last few after their pro gun stances became known…. or not.
This idea that established actors will lose parts for being pro gun is pretty well debunked at this point.
Or Tom Selleck. Or Adam Baldwin. Or Alton Brown. Or Johnny Depp. Or Vince Vaughn. Or Bruce Willis. And of course, R. Lee Ermey and Clint Eastwood.
You forgot Chris Pratt… I read an article about him once where Rob Lowe joked he was the only person in Hollywood who went out of his way to show people pics of his latest hunting trip.
Michael Rooker too.
Keep repeating the meme, yet outspoken conservatives like Clint Eastwood, Jerry Bruckheimer, etc. are still Hollywood powerhouses.
It’s no “meme” (I really can’t stand that word and find leftists tend to use/overuse it) that Hollywood is dominated by liberals and liberal thought. The FEW who make their political affiliations known and still survive do so because they are truly indispensable. They hate us, our freedoms and ways of life. Soon enough they will dispense of the old white males like Clint who still believe in a limited government based on the constitution.
It MIGHT, repeat, MIGHT be true that a newcomer who spouts off political views contrary to the Hollywood establishment may end up without a job. However, anyone who’s already established themselves as a household name and someone who’ll rake in the viewers has nothing to fear by coming out in favor of guns or the Constitution. Which really isn’t any different from any industry, regardless of political views – newbies need to keep their head down and not rock the boat….but after you establish yourself and have a solid resume, then you’re free to make waves.
what’s a kunis?
a body part
or a body discharge?
One of my biggest disappointments came years ago when a reporter asked charles bronson if he felt the character when he did the movie (DEATH WISH?)shooting shitbums in the city, and his reply was that he was just acting a part.
Actually I think that’s a great attitude. He’s doing his job of being an actor, not a cop, not a vigilante, not a shooter … an actor. If more of them thought that way, then perhaps less of them would spout off nonsense about the way they think the world should be. And perhaps less people would listen to them.
Sara is completely correct; if I had kids, they’d be taught about guns in the much the same way as she has taught hers.
Mila Kunis (along with her hack of a husband) are horrible examples of parents, but are prime examples of over-paid, mealymouthed, leftist tools.
Kids need to be taught about guns and gun safety, simple as that.
To learn about guns at an early age gives you more respect for them, and decreases the chance of an accident.
Although I agree that it’s better for Kunis to teach her daughter about guns, we’re not her daughter’s mother. She is. She can raise her daughter however she pleases. It’s none of our business.
Wait — I need to digest this. Kunis — a global celebrity — puts her daughter and her bold parenting plan out there nationally, publicly, on eonline, and it’s none of our business? She puts it out there, and it’s none of our business?
Put down that bottle of Kool Aid, MJ.
Whule typically i would agree with you, she made the above statement on a consensual interview, which was given with the sole intent to make her opinions other peoples business.
Very true MJ. Right up to the point that she decided to make her views known to the public and become a tool for the Hoplophobes. Now it is everyone’s business. Though I never could figure out how come an actor or actress’s opinions are any more valid or important than anyone else’s ?
She’ll be the first to demand more gun control when her kid shoots her self or a friend or parent..
Maybe by the the time she’s my ex wife, she’ll change her mind.. 🙂
I knew a guy once, that always introduced his girlfriends, as his “future ex wife”
I once described my now-ex wife as “my first wife” after we’d been married for about 10 years or so.
She was not amused. I heard about it for the next 14, until she achieved ex status.
You sound like you’ve been around the block a few times. Maybe we should get together and write a book, all we know about women, and sex.
We could do it on one page, or less.
John Lee Hooker has a song with a line about “. . .when my first wife left me . . .” that says a lot.
I knew a man once who said: “Death smiles at us all. All we can do is smile back.”
… and try to keep the relationship at the pen-pal level.
Is this just clickbait, or is the author serious? Is Sara Tipton saying she’s the authority on parenting? Or, for that matter, a better parent than Mila Kunis? I read on these very pages about Sara Tipton’s parenting skills, and it wasn’t flattering:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/06/sara-tipton/sara-tipton-mommy-life-meets-gun-life-walmart-edition/
What nonsense this article is, calling someone a lousy parent based on something you read on an online rag. Well, congrats, your articles make TTAG an online rag too. Is this petty nonsense really what we’re supposed to come here to read about?
Is this petty nonsense really what we’re supposed to come here to read about?
Actually, no. We come here to read the petty nonsense that are your comments. You’re actually a very big draw, generating hundred of thousands of page views with your sage wisdom. In fact, I’m going to suggest to RF that you get a weekly column, called Sh1t faredotool Says. I think it’s going to be big!
Ralph, as usual you’ve nailed it
Come for the articles..
Stay for the comments…
Personally, I rather like clickbait. A little salsa or maybe mixed with a little celantro and it makes a tasty snack.
One does not have to be an expert parent in order to tell a parent “You’re doing it wrong” in a field you know. Just as an example, as a lifeguard, not on duty but on the water, I would regularly take the time to educate parents when I saw them allowing their kids to do unsafe stuff. In fact, if you have expertise in an area, and see a parent doing it wrong and DON’T say anything, you’ve just made the decision to allow a child to be at risk.
To be consistent, you’d have to maintain that if you were an arc welder, and you knew your neighbor owned arc welding equipment and had no intention of teaching her kid to be safe around it, you’d just sit back and wait for the disaster.
My wife said similar things once. The kids got older, she got more comfortable, and now we all go shooting together.
Give her a break- we don’t need to rip each other up all the time for the stupid things we say. I give her props for admitting (in her line of work) that she’s a gun owner.
I give her props for admitting (in her line of work) that she’s a gun owner.
Why? Everybody who’s anybody in Hollywood owns guns, and most aren’t reluctant to say so. They just don’t want us to own guns.
Because there’s risk to saying it, and no risk to staying silent. She at least said something. You and I can mouth off on the internet all we like, but no one cares. She has something to lose.
Also because it does absolutely no good to trash another gun owner for not sticking to some imaginary script that probably nobody told her about.
Also, because by just saying what she said, she helps the cause. Slowly but surely, gun ownership is becoming normalized in new and usually unfriendly circles. That’s a good thing.
Also, she’s an actress, not our spokesperson. Like I said, give her a break.
What risk? No Obamabot in Hollywood risks anything by admitting that they own guns. Now, if an actor admits to being a Republican, then they might end up in the crapper. But Democrats can do anything that they want.
If you think that there’s one Leftist Democrat POS in Hollywood who has suffered because of their gun ownership, please name him or her so I can send them a condolence card.
I think the optimum transition is an airsoft replica (stings but won’t injure if you’re wearing eyepro) to BB gun to .22. I don’t have kids but I use that work up with new shooters, less the BB gun since I don’t have one. If they can’t demonstrate proper gun safety with the replica, I won’t let them move up to a real firearm.
Seeing as she treads the Hollywood line carefully enough to stay afloat whilst indulging a gun hobby, I’d say she’s doing alright. Beats the marginalization openly pro-gun folks like Selleck receive, even when they aren’t particularly active spokesmen. Career comes first, especially when your life choices have given you exactly one option to find quality employment (Holywood), and I don’t begrudge her that.
Now then; how the hell did Meg get appointed ‘sexiest woman alive?’ Need we more proof that Hollywood popularity is utterly fabricated, and the system run by guys that don’t understand heterosexuals?
This is a rather uncharitable way to interpret Kunis’ statement. She NEVER said she “won’t EVER teach her children the Four Rules of Gun Safety”. Kunis states the child does not need the level of training the parents have. It takes a willfully strong reading to go from “doesn’t have to be as well trained” to “doesn’t have to have any safety training at all”.
The worst part is, you quoted her exact words, so the misreading is blatant. You make good points in the article, blasting Kunis over a strawman version of her statement is not needed.
Honestly, if she will not tell her child there is a gun in the house, do you really think she will teach her kids about gun safety?
“She NEVER said she “won’t EVER teach her children the Four Rules of Gun Safety”. ”
She DID say “My child shouldn’t be as well trained as us, nor should she know there is a weapon in the house—ever,”
Mila, honey?
You’re a (somewhat) famous person. Any kid that hangs around your kid is gonna know there’s a gun in that house.
There’s a local Tampa radio talk show guy who made the claim his kids won’t know he has guns. On the air, no less.
What CRAP.
The kids who go to to his kid’s school will be happy to fill him in on every one of the guns his dad mentions (and a number of them are NFA toys) on the air.
Kids. Ain’t. Stupid.
(Almost none of the ones I knew growing up, anyways…)
Sara, I think calling Mila Kunis a “lousy parent” was messed up. Really messed up. You should consider changing it.
You should have said something more along the lines of her gun safety parenting to limit the attack to her beliefs on the subject instead of attacking her as a parent in total.
Based upon many of the comments above, it’s just a real delight to know that the absurdity of political correctness now infects the pro-gun crowd.
Many, many a time, i find myself looking for the perfect words to convey my thoughts on the TTAG comments section. And typically, i don’t bother because Ralph usually sums them up for me.
Thanks tom12: I got a good laugh out of that comment of yours.
Are you two dating?
Isn’t her kid under a year old? Perhaps a bit young to comprehend NRA’s Eddie Eagle program?
This could’ve been a decent article on children and gun safety, but you’re grasping for straws here, and calling someone out as a bad parent (for one comment that she’s not bringing up guns with her infant) kind of comes off like a douchebag move.
And why do we care what Mila thinks(for the record I find her a fairly good actress)? And Sara the Kutchers ain’t leavin’ California to save $. They can hire round the clock security with ease yet choose to reveal they got a gun-and no I don’t agree all the coolkids in hollyweird are gun owners(see:Sandra Bullock hiding and whimpering). Lighten up…
They are her kids, IMO it is her choice. I don’t agree, but I respect her decisions. If I knew her personally I might, as a NRA instructor suggest the Eddie Eagle material.
https://eddieeagle.nra.org/
I was open with my children about owning guns and the importance of respecting them. When they wanted toy guns I taught them the safety rules,
1. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
2. Always treat a gun like it is loaded.
3. Always be aware of where the muzzle is pointed, and don’t point it anything you wouldn’t want to destroy.
and when they asked why they should treat toy guns like real guns, I told them it was training for when I thought they would handle real guns. It worked well and they are very safety conscious and have grown up and can handle real guns.
Keep in mind she is Russian Jew (not anti-Semite keep reading) and lied about her age to obtain an acting job. She was 14 on the 70’s show making out with future ex-husband, also since her most successful acting role to date has been in TED, she has to act the role of a parent. When Iran drops a bomb on the Israelis will she still support Obama? What is it that attracts the socialists & Dems to California, seriously I would like to know why reality t.v. vidiots & Star’s feel the need to use so called talent as a soapbox.
They feel guilty over their munificent success, and some leftist is there to whisper in their ear to tell them what cause they can espouse to atone for it.
Failing to train your children about gun safety is worse than leaving them clueless. It makes them curious. Children are especially curious about things that are off limits. Teach them the four rules early, get them on a BB gun, and make sure that they know what (not) to do if they fund a real gun. Instilling a healthy respect is all you need.
They can also drown in a pool or at the beach. You are not going to avoid those, right? You will show them how to swim, maybe with floaties.
Guns shouldn’t be “forbidden fruit” to kids. They need to know if their parents own and carry them. The less demonized the objects are, the less likely the kids are going to want to mess with them.
Look at porn. Parents usually demonize it and the first thing boys of a certain age do is go digging for the Hustler mags or these days, trying to beat the firewall on the home internet connection.
the first thing boys of a certain age do is go digging for the Hustler mags
which they usually find in daddy’s garage.
Damn. My pop read Penthouse…
Was there anything gun related on TMZ tonight?
Mila can lie to her 9 month old daughter about the availability of a weapon in the house. Sooner or later the girl will figure it out, and hopefully her parents will teach her about gun safety in general in the meantime. I’m just happy we are seeing another mostly positive example of gun owners in the media. I think Ashton and Mila might be role models in certain circles. Net positive for gun rights.
To respect firearms, one must be familiar with firearms. Without familiarity it tends to become superstitious fear.
Sara, have you considered her statement about not allowing her >child< to have knowledge of the gun? When I read her statement, it does leave the door open for the unsaid potential reconciliation after the child matures to adulthood. You did mention "growing up", but it was under the assumption that the charade would continue through that nebulous age. They all can't be at your level and it might be unfair to judge them as such. Giving people the benefit of doubt isn't that hard to do. Try it sometime?
My child shouldn’t know there is a hot stove in the house – ever.
My child shouldn’t know there is a knife drawer in the house – ever.
My child shouldn’t know there is a cabinet full of chemicals in the house – ever.
My child shouldn’t know there is a pond in the backyard – ever.
(Or be as well-trained as me in any of these things.)
Has a sort of je ne se qois , doesn’t it?
I agree with Sara, and couldn’t care less about the perceived tone of the headline.
Why is it that society at large and first-time parents especially see intentionally retarding their children in ignorance as not only a viable rearing option but the preferred one?
From Santa to sex it’s all about how long you can keep your kid ignorant. Then we wonder why they don’t leave the home until their mid-thirties and can’t succeed in the real world.
Hey parents, you are not doing your kids any favors by trapping them in a fantasy world of lies and misinformation. This should be child abuse yet ironically being honest with your children is what will get you into trouble.
I never thought we’d see the “mommy wars” come to TTAG, but here we are.
To be fair, which of course doesn’t create any buzz or comments, Kunis has a 9 month old baby, 9 months old, and it’s her first as well.
At this point I understand just fine that she probably can’t even fathom that her kid will know about the gun – as a father of multiple kids myself I can tell you, that your views on almost everything changes ad your child grows. Check back with Kunis in 5 or 10 years and I will bet you she has changed her mind.
To use this as a story to implore people to educate their kids on guns is fine, whatever, but to personally attack her as a bad mother because she can’t envision teaching this 9-MONTH OLD girl about a gun is kinda rediculous. Parents learn how to be parents over time, honestly this level of personal attack is kind of rediculous & even back-burners the very good point that children DO need to be educated about gins in the house as they age.
I knew where all the guns were when I was a kid. And so will Mila Kunis’. Especially when she’s old enough to find the godawful crap about her parents on the internet. Fortunately, my dad taught me the dangers of firearms and safe handling so I knew not to do something stupid with them.
No one’s addressed the real problem here: a girl named Wyatt.
This. Lmao.
You’re right!
Urp.
To hell with the gun parts. This is the disturbing quote from the interview: “Kutcher, who married Kunis, his That ’70s Show love interest, over the Fourth of July weekend, is known for his social activism. His latest push is for gender-neutral baby-changing facilities. ‘When my child was born, I was breast-feeding and [Kutcher] said, ‘That’s your connection. I want to change every diaper.’ When we’re in public, if it’s a pee-pee diaper, you can change her at the table, but if it’s a poo-poo diaper, you don’t want to affect the people eating. So he’s like, ‘Err, I guess I’m going to the ladies’ room to do it.'”
First, who thinks it’s OK to change “pee-pee diapers” at a table? Second, how does Kutcher not know that men’s rooms in places where people bring babies usually have changing tables now? Third, who the hell considers advocating for putting changing tables in men’s rooms “social activisim”? Quit pretending you don’t pay someone to change your kid’s diapers.
Give Kunis a break. She appears to be mentally handi-capable.
Sara you’re an idiot. She never said she wasn’t going to teach her kids about gun safety, she said she wasn’t going to let them know there is a gun in the house. That’s her choice as a parent. Who are you to say whats right or wrong in parenting? We should be backing her on the fact that she’s outspoken about being a gun owner.
Ya know, I really like Sara, like her articles, and her photos aren’t bad either. But I don’t give a tinker’s damn about Mila Kunis.
Who cares? Parent your own children.
Sara Tipton, judging someone she doesn’t know over a single vague sentence from an interview. Grasping at anything you can blow up into an article, eh? Leave the mommy wars to the morons on TV, and stick to writing articles of substance.
One always has to be careful about commenting on supposed quotes in the media that a person has uttered. I have been in dozens of stories and I can count on one hand using only my thumb the number of times that I have actually been quoted correctly and accurately.
She’s a moron. The good acting she has ever done is when she is not saying anything at all. She is just looks, IMO. And a airhead to boot. Blah!
She’s done voice over on Family Guy for like 10 years.
I don’t see why everyone feels the need to bash the hell out of every single celebrity. Especially this one, who appears to be more on our side than most. Talking about being armed… with some possible point of contention that some internet people may feel over what she may or may not have been misquoted on.
Good for Ms. Kunis for being armed and it’s not like she’s a Kardashian so… relax?
“She’s done voice over on Family Guy for like 10 years.”
You are making his point for him. That’s not exactly a glowing endorsement. That show is pure rubbish for anyone whose brain development has surpassed the age of 13.
It occured to me that Mila may have meant that she does not believe that her child should be trained to her level.
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