At the risk of sounding chauvinistic, what would you ladies recommend I do to convince my wife that handguns in the house or for concealed carry are not a severe risk to our kids (7, 10, 11, 13, and 15 years old)?
After the 2012 election she was ok with me getting a shotgun for hunting and home defense as long as it was always kept in a safe. When I later suggested getting a handgun for close quarters and CC defense, she was adamant that we not do so.
Two of our kids are special needs kids. Part of their issues are anger/impulse management and also "sneakiness" and not knowing the meaning of "no". One in particular is scarily resourceful at getting into stuff he's not supposed to. Even with lots of gun safety education, his insatiable curiosity and desire to play with anything awesome and destructive is a big problem around here. Her fear is that even with a safe, one mistake on my part of leaving it open (I'm absentminded sometimes) would lead to disaster. I don't feel that I would be absentminded about a gun safe, but that's beside the point. The main issue would be with CC. If one of these boys gets mad or curious enough about something and takes advantage of an opportunity while the gun is on my person, that could get very bad.
She doesn't think guns are evil and she supports the 2nd Amendment. It's just that she, in her own words, has "a very active imagination" about everything that could go wrong and the anxiety about the risks is too great.
I want to respect her wishes on this but with everything going down the way it is with politics and the economy, I want more defense options for my family. Quicker ones for close quarters and CC.
Any thoughts or advice?
After the 2012 election she was ok with me getting a shotgun for hunting and home defense as long as it was always kept in a safe. When I later suggested getting a handgun for close quarters and CC defense, she was adamant that we not do so.
Two of our kids are special needs kids. Part of their issues are anger/impulse management and also "sneakiness" and not knowing the meaning of "no". One in particular is scarily resourceful at getting into stuff he's not supposed to. Even with lots of gun safety education, his insatiable curiosity and desire to play with anything awesome and destructive is a big problem around here. Her fear is that even with a safe, one mistake on my part of leaving it open (I'm absentminded sometimes) would lead to disaster. I don't feel that I would be absentminded about a gun safe, but that's beside the point. The main issue would be with CC. If one of these boys gets mad or curious enough about something and takes advantage of an opportunity while the gun is on my person, that could get very bad.
She doesn't think guns are evil and she supports the 2nd Amendment. It's just that she, in her own words, has "a very active imagination" about everything that could go wrong and the anxiety about the risks is too great.
I want to respect her wishes on this but with everything going down the way it is with politics and the economy, I want more defense options for my family. Quicker ones for close quarters and CC.
Any thoughts or advice?