I've come to get irritated at the attack on the Second Amendment with these questions given to me when I go with one of my children to the doctors' office, which is Plymouth Pediatrics in Plymouth, NH.
The first question is whether the home is a gun-free home, along the lines of is it a smoke-free home. Then, failing that question, they want to know if the guns are locked up at all times.
Seemingly fair enough.
Yet, not so fast.
The first question is whether the home is a gun-free home, along the lines of is it a smoke-free home. Then, failing that question, they want to know if the guns are locked up at all times.
Seemingly fair enough.
Yet, not so fast.
Nothing is made of whether or not I'm teaching the child to swim. It so happens that's a much bigger risk factor. Many more children drown than are killed by playing with guns. It's not even a close comparison.
Twenty-four children died in 2004 playing with their father's guns or a friend's father's, but over 900 have drown in recent years. The above-ground swimming pool, to me, is dangerous with a capital D.
As this recent tragedy in Quebec attests, drowning happens so fast, so quickly, that's it's very scary.
I almost had my oldest drown right in front of me. Some idiot had launched a big boat off our private beach where the keel left a good two to three foot gully in the sand under the water. We were playing a tag game and, when four-year-old Matthew stepped in the suddenly deep water--something I didn't know about--he disappeared.
When I emerged from my dive, he had disappeared. In a panic I rush to where I saw him last, and all I saw were fingertips making circling motions.
Luckily, I caught it in the nick of time: water had already begun to go in his lungs.
Even the Talmud talks about the responsibility of teaching children to swim. That's what we use Switzer for.
Twenty-four children died in 2004 playing with their father's guns or a friend's father's, but over 900 have drown in recent years. The above-ground swimming pool, to me, is dangerous with a capital D.
As this recent tragedy in Quebec attests, drowning happens so fast, so quickly, that's it's very scary.
I almost had my oldest drown right in front of me. Some idiot had launched a big boat off our private beach where the keel left a good two to three foot gully in the sand under the water. We were playing a tag game and, when four-year-old Matthew stepped in the suddenly deep water--something I didn't know about--he disappeared.
When I emerged from my dive, he had disappeared. In a panic I rush to where I saw him last, and all I saw were fingertips making circling motions.
Luckily, I caught it in the nick of time: water had already begun to go in his lungs.
Even the Talmud talks about the responsibility of teaching children to swim. That's what we use Switzer for.
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