The Well-Armed Suburbs of Houston (Turkey: violent crime, layoffs, buy)

[MaryleeII]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

I just wish that all gun owners were responsible gun owners. I know that many of you are. But I'm sure many are not. Any households that have children living or visiting there need to be keeping guns and ammo separate and locked... how many are? If you have a gun for protection, I would guess that you can't have everything locked up, or you can't get at it fast enough to protect yourself.

How do you solve this problem? I'm genuinely interested. And genuinely concerned... I hear far more stories about kids being accidentally killed by other kids, than about people saving themselves and their families. I know that's anecdotal and not data, but I have kids, so I'm concerned about them being innocent victims of someone's irresponsible gun habit.

Teach your kids gun safety! Don't make it a "big secret" that will just attract them to "play" with the guns.
Better still, enroll them in a gun safety course.

[ethanw]

BINGO. Sounds like a Gun safety merit badge in boyscouts. My kid just went through that in the scouts summer camp 3 weeks ago.

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

Teach your kids gun safety! Don't make it a "big secret" that will just attract them to "play" with the guns.
Better still, enroll them in a gun safety course.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by MaryleeII

Teach your kids gun safety! Don't make it a "big secret" that will just attract them to "play" with the guns.
Better still, enroll them in a gun safety course.

I am teaching my kids gun safety. Thank you for the advice. But in the face of these statistics, one feels powerless to protect our children from society's guns:

Statistics on Gun Deaths & Injuries | Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence : "In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour."

Guns in the Home and Risk of a Violent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study : Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.

And those are just the top two hits on one google search.

[Gunion Powder]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Doesn't seem to help reduce crime

They're not for fighting crime, silly, they're for Trayvon.

[jerbear30]

The middle class suburban man with his "concealed carry" fantasy and attendant fashion is a bit of a joke, but it gives him some satisfaction to think he might still be the hero in a drama of his own making--or maybe it's the making of all the HDTV he watches. Whatever, the case, I don't care as long as he's not an idiot with his gun but of course, occasionally he will be, just like everyone with a gun.

[Caleb Longstreet]

Originally Posted by Mr. Football

Texas is a 2nd Amendment loving state and the Houston area is well-represented with some of the highest numbers of residents (by zip code) with License to Carry Permits (LTC) - which now allows you to carry your handgun concealed or openly.

Don't Mess with these Houston Suburbs (Top 10 Texas Ranking)

1) League City (77573)
2) Cypress (77429)
3) Spring (77379)
5) Katy (77494)
7) Pearland (77584)
8) Cypress (77433)
10) Humble (77346)

Source

Curious....what's the crime stats like in comparison to the urban Houston area?

[Caleb Longstreet]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

I am teaching my kids gun safety. Thank you for the advice. But in the face of these statistics, one feels powerless to protect our children from society's guns:

Statistics on Gun Deaths & Injuries | Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence : "In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour."

Guns in the Home and Risk of a Violent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study : Results show that regardless of storage practice, type of gun, or number of firearms in the home, having a gun in the home was associated with an increased risk of firearm homicide and firearm suicide in the home.

And those are just the top two hits on one google search.

Smart person. I taught all of my kids:


1) Gun Safety above all
2) Proper handling, loading, unloading, cleaning and SECURE storage of the guns
3) Legal ramifications
4) Moral ramifications
5) The incredibly grave responsibility they have with ownership and carry
6) Demystified the "gun", it's not a laser beam
7) Taught them at a young age PRECISELY what to do if they were at someone ELSE's house and a gun was out in the open
8) Considerable time on the range
9) Situational awareness at all times, gee, who knew they would need it THIS bad, huh?
10) How to evade and avoid all confrontations if humanly possible
11) Sacrifice the car, property whatever to avoid a shooting


They are now incredibly responsible, no longer "fascinated" with guns as adults as they realized early on they were a specific tool for a specific purpose. All the "glamor" was trained out of them. They are probably more safe than some who carry one for a living...probably a better shot too.


If you own them, you must train those who could be exposed to them no matter how unlikely they are to be so. You must secure them at all times. For those that do not own them, you must train those that could be exposes no matter how unlikely they are to be so. You must teach them to call authorities if they find one unsecured.


Guns. They have their place. As does the RESPONSIBLE ownership of them if you elect to own one. Common sense. It's not that hard. And we can all sleep easier if everyone had a modicum of training that owns one.

[texas7]

Originally Posted by jerbear30

The middle class suburban man with his "concealed carry" fantasy and attendant fashion is a bit of a joke, but it gives him some satisfaction to think he might still be the hero in a drama of his own making--or maybe it's the making of all the HDTV he watches. Whatever, the case, I don't care as long as he's not an idiot with his gun but of course, occasionally he will be, just like everyone with a gun.

Narrow minded to call everyone who owns a gun an idiot. Too many people who shouldn't do own them along with responsible gun owners. Guns have always been around. Kids played cops and robbers when I was a kid using finger guns, squirt guns, etc. bad guy always lost. Today kids aren't allowed to play those games -- you know terroristic threats. And their games have now made the bad guy the good guy. Those same kids I grew up with didn't grow up to be psycho, thugs, or even remotely violent. Many grew up in families with guns. The difference is the lack of parental controls, parental guidance and the amount of violence they are exposed to as being normal in media of all types. This provides disaffected young people immune to life.

[Gunion Powder]

Originally Posted by texas7

Narrow minded to call everyone who owns a gun an idiot. Too many people who shouldn't do own them along with responsible gun owners. Guns have always been around. Kids played cops and robbers when I was a kid using finger guns, squirt guns, etc. bad guy always lost. Today kids aren't allowed to play those games -- you know terroristic threats. And their games have now made the bad guy the good guy. Those same kids I grew up with didn't grow up to be psycho, thugs, or even remotely violent. Many grew up in families with guns. The difference is the lack of parental controls, parental guidance and the amount of violence they are exposed to as being normal in media of all types. This provides disaffected young people immune to life.

Guns have not always been around.

[texas7]

Uhh yes they have for all of our lifetime and probably that of many of your ancestors. Hope this source is a reliable enough timeline for you. Granted, Adam and Eve and early man didn't. Gun Timeline | History Detectives | PBS