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

[cleek@cleekhouse.com (Billie H. Cleek)]

<sarcasm>
Dear Shane,

You are obviously a total wacko.  No one in their right mind would ever
teach a child how to be responsible and give them the ability to make
informed decisions which will lead to the appropriate action being taken
in a difficult situation.

Cleek
</sarcasm>
On Mon, Feb 04, 2002 at 02:53:13PM -0600, Shane Steinkamp claimed:
> >   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
> 
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-- 
The opposite of paranoia: The absurd belief that one is NOT being persecuted.