Top Talker:
A Pro-Gun Children’s Picture Book? (Video)
I think it’s pretty safe to say in this day and age that anyone other than a law enforcement officer carrying a gun around on their daily errands might raise an eyebrow. Of course, the second amendment has been interpreted to grant the right of gun ownership to individuals for purposes that include self-defense.
Alright, fine.
But, do we need a picture book to explain this to our children?
I’m not so sure that we do, but Brian Jeffs and Nathan Nephew felt that it was hard to explain to friends and family why they’ve chosen to open carry a handgun so they created My Parents Open Carry for easy explanation. The quote below is part of their reasoning taken from their website describing their book in detail.
“My Parents Open Carry was written in the hope of providing a basic overview of the right to keep and bear arms as well as the growing practice of the open carry of a handgun. We fear our children are being raised with a biased view of our constitution and especially in regards to the 2nd Amendment. Before writing this, we looked for pro-gun children’s books and couldn’t find any. Our goal was to provide a wholesome family book that reflects the views of the majority of the American people, i.e., that self-defense is a basic natural right and that firearms provide the most efficient means for that defense. We truly hope you will enjoy this book and read and discuss it with your children over and over again.”
My issue is not to argue that as Americans, we have the right to keep and bear arms; but rather to question whether or not we need to teach kids how to feel more comfortable around guns.
Children’s books offer an easy way of dealing with life’s complexities and the tough stuff they will eventually experience. Through reading books, kids can feel reassured about things like the death of a pet or how to handle being bullied. But this is too much. Is it really necessary to bring children into the gun-control debate? Do we really want to normalize seeing people other than easily identifiable law enforcement carrying guns?
Take a look at the video below . . .
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