The well-regulated militia.

[haele]

83. Problem with projectchildsafe is the assumption of maturity of the child.

Most of the toddler incidents we hear about are 2 and 3 year olds. My almost 5 year old granddaughter may be considered precocious, but at 2 to almost 4 years of age, she had problems with rules. "Don't touch" and "run and get an adult" are more like suggestions, if she remembered them. Cause and effect still is a difficult concept for her to understand 100% of the time.
And with TV and video games, picking up and pointing a gun can be normalized in a very young child's mind before "don't touch the gun because it's dangerous" will be. Sure, Mommy and Daddy will yell if they see you touch the gun up and that teaches you it's dangerous when you're 3 years old, but if Mommy and Daddy don't see you touch it, it's as much a play toy as their keys, cufflinks, or other nifty stuff you find on the dresser when going exploring with friends.

I have a strong memory of playing at a friend's house after pre-school during the period where I was 4 or 5, and her showing us all the fun stuff in the drawers of her parent's bedroom while the mom was out with the laundry or something. Including pulling out and playing with something big, long, pink and round that buzzed - that was a big laugh for the four of us. Lucky it wasn't a gun. Of course, playing with a vibrator is much more fun than playing with a gun.
And toddlers finding guns or knives and hurting themselves, friends/other family members, or pets occurred pretty near every year even during the supposedly golden era where children were seen, not heard, and fearfully responsible by not touching anything "Daddy" didn't want them to touch from a very early age on (or they risked the belt, in most cases).

An unsecured gun - you can "just tell" a 3 or 4 year old not to touch it until you're blue in the face, and there's still a good 30 - 40% chance they'll try to touch it when you aren't watching if they have a chance. It's something you're interested in, and that's very attractive.
For many kids, unless they directly experience the hurt or the breakage, danger in the real world with real consequences is a foreign concept. Like puppies, they're more concerned with being yelled at than being safe.

Project Childsafe is a reasonable for a 6 to 8 year old. Prior to that age...well, it all depends on how mature the sense of reality is for the child. But ultimately, leaving it to the child to "learn" and "understand" gun safety is not the most effective way of keeping children safe in a household with guns.

Haele