Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/14/powerful-new-psa-reminds-owner.html
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Holy Fuck. Is this what it’s come to, to wake Americans up to their national gun fetish.
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That’s a pretty good ad. An ounce of prevention and forethought can save a lot of misery. Today there are many affordable options for secure but quick access. Education and removing taboos is also something everyone should do.
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My father-in-law keeps his pistol on his nightstand. He wants easy access in case of a break in. We ended up in a shouting match when I asked him to put in it the safe when we had family with kids over. The kids went into his bedroom to watch TV. He did end up putting it away but it was such a crazy thing to get in a fight over.
Fear is a hell of a drug.
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If he isn’t aware of the lockable safes that have quick access, you should let him know about them. It may make a nice Christmas/birthday/fathers day/just because present. They allow quick access while being fairly secure. Make sure there is a high lumen flashlight in there as well. I’d still recommend it is kept unloaded.
My way of thinking if that extra 5 seconds is the difference between life and death, then it is just your time to go.
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That’s not a bad thought. Though it would get me at least a couple more years of stink-eye.
It’s a complex issue. His next-door neighbors were followed home one day and robbed in their driveway. I get why he’s scared. I just needed to vent about how surreal it was that asking him to move a gun away from children turned into an issue. Everyone is so defensive these days. Me included. That’s what I want fixed.
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All these people are ready for the one in 10 million chance that a random violent person will enter their home wanting a confrontation, but no one seems to consider that simply having a gun in your home drastically increases the risk of homicide/suicide occurring there. The risks far outweigh the potential benefit.
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No idea who you people are or how you interact, but older men seem to get more defensive when given advice, especially by younger men, and I’d say being the man who is sleeping with his daughter doesn’t help.
If you were to ask my advice, I’d say to approach it first by confirming that: 1) You love your grand kids, right? 2) You want what is best for them and to keep them safe, right? 3) While you get why he wants something for protection, if it is not going to be actively on him, then it should be locked up/made unavailable while the grand kids are around. Accidents happen. If you remember when your kids were little, they can be under foot one minute, and getting into trouble the next. 4) Possibly use an analogy like, “You wouldn’t leave your pills lying out on the table, would you?”
This may still be met with push back because some people have negative reactions when they see their initial position maybe wasn’t the best one. I hope you guys find some common ground. Good luck.
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I think they just want guns. I don’t think it’s really fear, or any perceived need. I think that those are specious and convenient justifications. I think it’s just that they want guns, no matter what. Tough guy image, too many Dirty Harry movies, I don’t know what the source is of the desire.
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Very powerful message, bordering on disturbing.
Sadly, I think the target demographic will tune the add out the instant they realize it’s about guns and isn’t produced by the NRA.
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Edit (To make clear this isn’t trolling)
Proposal: repeal the second amendment and take away their guns.
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If the NRA would get on board with promotion of safe storage they might gain some credibility.
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Another good one:
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Is that a real stat? 8 kids a day? Not that I doubt it’s true, but my natural cynicism demands that I wonder where that stat comes from.
How many other products manage to injure 8 kids total without getting banned?
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What I find scary is how a couple of the points the kid makes are perfectly compatible with the thinking of some adult gun owners.
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Probably right with the injure rate. Death rate is less. Actually last year had one of the lowest accidental death rates in decades. Possibly an anomaly, possibly the various campaigns for safe storage are working. You can look up the CDC stats. You can also see the other accidental rates and see there are a lot of other common house hold accidents are even more deadly (i.e. falls and poisonings), but I will not digress too much there.
I’ll go dig up the CDC stats on accidents hold on…
Here is the fast stats:
PDF with all the injury/accident causes:
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In which case, of course, a gun in the nightstand wouldn’t have helped. If only that were a persuasive argument.
True, and agreed. Also, I know every family is different and everyone has different sensibilities, but personally if I had kids this is well into the realm of things I’d be prepared to go nuclear over: First, seek common ground. If that fails, you don’t get to see your grandkids in your own home until you fix it, whether you agree with me or not.
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You can also get both raw data and reports on each individual death, including cause of death by geography, year, age, race/ethnicity, sex, nationality/residency status from the National Center for Health Statistics.
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Thanks!
(also, I just learned posts must be at least 9 characters).
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I agree that a man who hallucinates and has long conversations with a family that isn’t there should not have a gun.
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