Parenting lessons: guns
I'm going to take a break writing about my new life in Tokyo to share a parenting experience.
When Kinori was born, Yuriko and I had to decide many things about how to raise him. One of my contributions to the mix was our stand on guns. I felt that popular American culture desensitized kids to violence and made guns seem glamorous and fun. Kids, particularly boys, shooting for play was just a nightmare to me.
So, I just said no to guns. No toy or real guns in my house. No way. Hah!
Everything became a gun. Sticks, lego, everything was held to shoot humans, animals, walls, bikes. Bang, bang.
But, I held fast, I was not going to buy any toy guns no matter how much he pleaded.
Then he reached an age where he started getting his own money. Our rule was that if it's your money, you can buy what you want with it. That's what puts the "your" into "your money". There came the toy guns. What's more, he got into paint ball, so his guns could actually shoot people and make big colorful splashes.
Obviously, my "no guns" policy had completely back fired.
I was not, however, defeated. For his eleventh birthday, I gave Kinori a special treat. Together, we took a real gun safety course at Wades, the local indoor shooting range. He was in heaven. There were about fifteen adults and one eleven-year-old boy. The instructor loved having him there. He asked the class who thinks practice makes perfect? The little hand shot up. "No, sir!" he replied. "Perfect practice makes perfect."
Kinori learned about the need to treat all guns, even toys, as real, loaded weapons. You don't want to make a mistake. You never walk around with your finger on the trigger - you always index your finger along the side of the barrel. Why? Because the human startle reflex applies much more pressure than a trigger requires to pull. Boo! Bang. You don't look at your target, you look at what's behind your target. That's what the bullet is going to hit. Do you know the muzzle velocity of a gun and how far bullets travel before they eventually hit the ground? Etc, etc.
After one and one half hours of classroom discussion, we stepped into the shooting range and learned with real guns. Kinori even got to shoot a magnum 50 caliber handgun. Dirty Harry. That sucker had bullets 1/2 inch in diameter with a magnum load that cost $5 a piece. Guns don't kill people; bullets kill people. Those were big bullets. The instructor stood behind Kinori with his hands on Kinori's hands to help with the kick. Kinori pulled the trigger. The sound was such an intense pressure wave that it silenced all talking and chatter on the range. After the shot rang out, a young voice shouted "Woah!" People began talking animatedly again.
From that day on, I felt much better. Kinori treated all guns, that is his toys and paint ball guns, with respect and proper gun handling. Gone were the days of blatantly shooting at people and things for fun. His finger was always indexed and the gun pointed down. He was practicing perfectly.
Today, I’m spending the morning watch Kinori play for team FOGO Japan NYC Taxi playing in the totally fast paced Samurai LAX 6-on-6 tournament. So far, they’re in the semifinals against team Wasabi. I couldn’t be prouder; I like this kind of shooting much better.
When Kinori was born, Yuriko and I had to decide many things about how to raise him. One of my contributions to the mix was our stand on guns. I felt that popular American culture desensitized kids to violence and made guns seem glamorous and fun. Kids, particularly boys, shooting for play was just a nightmare to me.
So, I just said no to guns. No toy or real guns in my house. No way. Hah!
Everything became a gun. Sticks, lego, everything was held to shoot humans, animals, walls, bikes. Bang, bang.
But, I held fast, I was not going to buy any toy guns no matter how much he pleaded.
Then he reached an age where he started getting his own money. Our rule was that if it's your money, you can buy what you want with it. That's what puts the "your" into "your money". There came the toy guns. What's more, he got into paint ball, so his guns could actually shoot people and make big colorful splashes.
Obviously, my "no guns" policy had completely back fired.
I was not, however, defeated. For his eleventh birthday, I gave Kinori a special treat. Together, we took a real gun safety course at Wades, the local indoor shooting range. He was in heaven. There were about fifteen adults and one eleven-year-old boy. The instructor loved having him there. He asked the class who thinks practice makes perfect? The little hand shot up. "No, sir!" he replied. "Perfect practice makes perfect."
Kinori learned about the need to treat all guns, even toys, as real, loaded weapons. You don't want to make a mistake. You never walk around with your finger on the trigger - you always index your finger along the side of the barrel. Why? Because the human startle reflex applies much more pressure than a trigger requires to pull. Boo! Bang. You don't look at your target, you look at what's behind your target. That's what the bullet is going to hit. Do you know the muzzle velocity of a gun and how far bullets travel before they eventually hit the ground? Etc, etc.
After one and one half hours of classroom discussion, we stepped into the shooting range and learned with real guns. Kinori even got to shoot a magnum 50 caliber handgun. Dirty Harry. That sucker had bullets 1/2 inch in diameter with a magnum load that cost $5 a piece. Guns don't kill people; bullets kill people. Those were big bullets. The instructor stood behind Kinori with his hands on Kinori's hands to help with the kick. Kinori pulled the trigger. The sound was such an intense pressure wave that it silenced all talking and chatter on the range. After the shot rang out, a young voice shouted "Woah!" People began talking animatedly again.
From that day on, I felt much better. Kinori treated all guns, that is his toys and paint ball guns, with respect and proper gun handling. Gone were the days of blatantly shooting at people and things for fun. His finger was always indexed and the gun pointed down. He was practicing perfectly.
Today, I’m spending the morning watch Kinori play for team FOGO Japan NYC Taxi playing in the totally fast paced Samurai LAX 6-on-6 tournament. So far, they’re in the semifinals against team Wasabi. I couldn’t be prouder; I like this kind of shooting much better.
Comments
Post a Comment