Moms Talk: Should Guns be Allowed in Homes with Kids?

The thought of having a gun anywhere near my children’s hands gives me the shakes.

Equally troubling is the thought of them having a play date in the home of one of their friends if their parents are gun owners. 

Two recent incidents – one of them deadly – in Maryland involving children accidentally firing guns and shooting their friends begs parents to revisit this old question once again: Can gun-owning parents ever guarantee the safety of their children and any other children who visit their homes?

The first incident took place in Baltimore during a sleepover party on Saturday, June 25, when 15-year-old Michael Brooks was “shot and killed by an unidentified 11-year-old who was apparently playing with a gun,” according to police accounts published by the Baltimore Sun. In the same story, police spokesman Kevin Brown is quoted as saying that the gun had been secured, but that the boys apparently unlocked the box or somehow used the security code to open it. Police went on to say that Brooks was shot at least once in the head.

The second shooting involving children happened on a Prince George’s County playground during the afternoon on Thursday, June 30, when a 5-year-old boy apparently shot his 4-year-old neighbor, according to an Associated Press report picked up by the Baltimore Sun. Thankfully, the younger boy, who was shot in the back, is expected to survive. But as of the morning of July 1, police didn’t know how the boy came across this gun – after the incident, they say the scared little boy hid the gun in his family’s apartment.

I didn’t need to read about these incidents to know where I stand on this issue, but sadly they help me make my case against having guns anywhere near our children. There is no safe hiding place for firearms in a home where children are present. There is no lock that a canny and curious child of any age can’t undo, whether it takes a key or password to open it.

Of course, this is a no-brainer for me because I can confidently say I’ll never own a gun. I’m not a hunter. I’ve fired a gun exactly once, which is more than most people I know. I was taking a community police course offered by Baltimore County, and it was more than 10 years ago, when I was a reporter covering the police beat at the Owings Mills Times. Part of the class was to spend an evening at the shooting range, under the careful supervision of the officers teaching the class. I was terrible at it – I couldn’t line up the sites and I repeatedly shot the paper criminal on the target in a zone that amused everybody in the class. I was trying really hard to properly aim the gun, but I found it incredibly hard. It was a valuable lesson in that it made me realize just how difficult it is to handle a gun, and how much damage and pain could be inflicted by such a weapon.

There are so many things that as parents are out of our control in this world, but if I can keep my kids away from guns, I’m going to do my best to do it, even if that means having to ask another parent the awkward question, “Do you have any guns in your home?” before allowing my kids to visit.