Re[4]: [at-l] weight/use efficiency & Guns

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

>   Why would speaking the truth get someone kicked off? People
> have been calling
>   me mean, and rightly so, for years.
>
>    My kids did it all the time when I wouldn't let them play in
> the road, go out
>    in canoes without live preservers, get too far ahead of me on
> the trail -- or
>    play with loaded guns. I'm just full of mean streaks like that.

I suppose that is the difference between us.  I teach kids how to cross the
road, I teach them how to swim, and I encourage them to explore on their own
after empowering them with the ability to find their way back again.

I feel the same way about loaded guns.  I taught my frend Jimmy's daughter
about guns when he asked me to.  She was five.  I allowed her to handle it
unloaded, and taught her all about it.  I taught her how to load it, and how
to shoot it, and what happens when you engage that series of actions.  She
sat in my lap while I helped her pull the trigger.  The result?  A year
later when she found a loaded revolver in a state park (she was six), she
picked it up, unloaded it, and brought it to her father.  Why didn't she
just leave it alone and tell an adult?  Because there were other kids around
and she was afraid they'd find it and not know what to do.  I'm sorry that
you think she's a 'dumb, couch potato' kid.

I feel the same way about other dangerous things.  Knives, camp stoves and
fuel, matches, fire, snakes, etc.  I don't believe it's enough to say,
'Leave it alone.'  I believe it is necessary to empower them to exist and
thrive in the real world.

Shane