Make sure home gun safety is on your holiday list!

November 21, 2008 09:16 AM •

As I was mentally making a list of things I needed to buy, do, and remember for the upcoming holidays, I suddenly remembered this: For the first time in many years, we may have a toddler coming to visit! My great nephew, who will be 13 months by Christmas time, will probably be coming to spend a few days with us. “Unload and store all the guns out of reach” went to the very top of my list.

The holidays can be blissfully controlled chaos but in all the rush of the season, which for us often includes extra duty jobs, hold overs and a general increase in activity, we can become complacent about home firearms safety, especially if we’re not used to kids in the house.

Toddlers are surprisingly mobile and resourceful. Putting you pistol on top of the fridge when you get home from work may be your habit, but a motivated three year old can find their way to that gun, especially if the adults are distracted in another room, catching up on the latest family gossip

Grade-school aged kids are extremely curious, especially if they have never been around guns. Knowing you’re a cop, a young guest may ask “Can I see your gun?” If you just push them aside with a “no” that may spark their curiosity and put them on the hunt to find that weapon.

Teenagers can pose another problem. While you’re own kids may have no interest in guns or may be safe gun operators themselves, they may have friends visiting during the holiday break who may pressure them into showing off “dad’s gun” or “mom’s rifle” or they may have an more nefarious motive, such as theft, in mind, for one of your firearms. Make sure all your firearms are secure.

One of the best ways to combat a kid’s curiosity, is to let them (with their parent’s permission of course) see a firearm, touch it, and learn how it works, why its so deadly and why we don’t treat them as “toys.” Go to the NRA’s website and take a look at the Eddie Eagle program for simple gun safety rules for any age, or read the articles we have posted here at Police One.

Lets make it a safe holiday season for everyone!

Off Duty Officer Safety

Betsy Brantner Smith

My column is undergoing a bit of an identity crisis. I’ve been writing for the Street Survival “Newsline” and the P1 Newsletter for several years. As a Street Survival seminar instructor, I write about officer safety and survival, but I’m also a supervisor, a mom, a trainer, a cop’s wife, and dare I say, a woman, so I’ve got a lot to say about any number of topics (what woman doesn’t?!), and I’ve always received great feedback from our readers. So when Police One approached me and asked me to author a monthly column dealing with women’s issues, I enthusiastically agreed. “What a great opportunity” I naively thought “to bring issues to light that both women and men in law enforcement could all relate to, perhaps discuss at roll call, and ultimately learn something from each other.” Yeah, just call me Sergeant Pollyanna…I forgot that by calling it a “women’s” column, not only will most of our male readers skip over it, but so will at least half our female readers. What?! Why in the world wouldn’t women read a “women’s” column?! Because, there are a lot of female crimefighters out there like me who have spent a lot of years just trying to blend in, to be “one of the guys” if you will…to be perceived as and conduct ourselves as “warriors,” not “victims.” We don’t want special treatment; we just want to be cops.