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Before Arranging Playdates, Ask About Guns (Promoting Paranoia)
ABC News ^ | April 10, 2009 | ERIC M. STRAUSS

Posted on 04/10/2009 3:03:14 PM PDT by Ben Mugged

Stephen and Robbie are typical 11-year-olds who became fast friends after meeting at their local Boys and Girls club in Amelia, Ohio. They discovered a similar love of video games and shooting hoops, so it wasn't a surprise when they asked to start visiting one another's homes for playdates.

But after months of visits, it did come as a surprise to Stephen's mom, Carol, that Robbie's dad, Jan, kept handguns in his home for protection. The families asked that their last names not be used to protect their privacy.

"Stephen's been going to Jan's house to play with Robbie, and I had no idea Jan even had guns," Carol admitted. "It just never came up as a conversation."

"Nearly 1.7 million children live in homes with firearms that are loaded and unlocked, and every day eight children die from guns," he said. "These statistics are unacceptable. Parents can help make their children safer. All they have to do is ask. Parents ask all sorts of questions to protect their children when they go play at the home of a friend, neighbor or relative. But there is one important question that more than half of parents say it never even occurred to them to ask: Is there a gun where my child plays?"

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: guncontrol; guns
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To: Ben Mugged
it did come as a surprise to Stephen's mom, Carol, that Robbie's dad, Jan, kept handguns in his home for protection

Beats the hell out of chinese condoms...

21 posted on 04/10/2009 3:18:16 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: Ben Mugged

Pull my finger, and I’ll issue statistics like that.


22 posted on 04/10/2009 3:18:16 PM PDT by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
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To: Ben Mugged
Q: Are there guns in the house?

A: Why do you ask? Will your children be going through my closets and drawers?

A Freeper greater than I came up with that one! :-)

23 posted on 04/10/2009 3:22:06 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: KarlInOhio
They probably even count some tragic military training accidents

And gang bangers shooting each other.

24 posted on 04/10/2009 3:23:17 PM PDT by Minn (Here is a realistic picture of the prophet: ----> ([: {()
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To: Beagle8U

Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other.


25 posted on 04/10/2009 3:28:41 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Can't get enough of my snarking? http://twitter.com/slingsandarrows)
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To: Ben Mugged

When it comes to sex its “Gonna happen, better show them how.”, but when it comes to guns its “Hide it from them. Don’t expose them. Don’t teach them how to handle a gun safely.”


26 posted on 04/10/2009 3:31:21 PM PDT by SampleMan (Socialism and Liberty are mutually exclusive.)
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To: Ben Mugged
I believe this was a talking point from an American Academy of Pediatrics release a couple of years ago- children shouldn't be allowed to play in a home that keeps firearms and that it should be one of the first questions asked. There were some statistics about "children" being injured/killed while the definition of "child" was um, a bit, vague...


27 posted on 04/10/2009 3:39:21 PM PDT by philled (This 'stimulus money' will stimulate just as 'protection money' protects. -- Rei Shinozuka)
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To: Ben Mugged
I was just reading a Navy safety magazine that had a bunch of stories about weapons safety.

There was a set of figures in this magazine that said in the last decade accidental shootings were down 40% and accidental shootings involving children were down 60%. This is despite the increasing number of homes that have weapons.

28 posted on 04/10/2009 3:40:55 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Ben Mugged

Where I grew up the only people around who did not have guns were in the cemetery and I ain’t too sure about all of them.


29 posted on 04/10/2009 3:46:07 PM PDT by Islander7 (If you want to anger conservatives, lie to them. If you want to anger liberals, tell them the truth.)
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To: Ben Mugged

I messed with one of my friends. She was breaking her arm patting herself on the back because she asked her little girls’ friends if they had any guns in the house before she would let little Precious go over to play. She was so smug and so self-righteous about it, I had to ask her if she asked that question each time her kiddie went over to play. Even if she got a negative answer last week, suppose the family had bought a gun JUST THAT DAY! Little Precious would be IN DANGER if she went to that house!

He jaw dropped and fear filled her eyes.

I imagine she became a big pest in the neighborhood.

I’m probably gonna fry for that one.


30 posted on 04/10/2009 3:46:26 PM PDT by mrs. a (It's a short life but a merry one...)
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To: Ben Mugged
I'd be more concerned about something called play dates, next it is play sex, then at fourteen it's called damn!!!
31 posted on 04/10/2009 3:51:06 PM PDT by org.whodat (Auto unions bad: Machinists union good=Hypocrisy)
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To: familyop

“Pull my finger”

Once a flatulent leper said that to me.

I didn’t think I could pull it off!


32 posted on 04/10/2009 3:51:22 PM PDT by tumblindice ("11 out of 10 anti-gun Democrats are awful liars." Weakly Standard 11/39/1998)
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To: Ben Mugged

No problem here.

If you’re an 0bama supporter send your whole damned leftist family over to play with my guns, please!


33 posted on 04/10/2009 4:09:34 PM PDT by Boucheau
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To: philled
That was before people realized that doctors kill more children each year than guns do.
34 posted on 04/10/2009 4:29:19 PM PDT by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget (July 4, 2009 see you there))
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To: Ben Mugged
...and every day eight children die from guns,


35 posted on 04/10/2009 4:41:35 PM PDT by Popman (One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three is a Congress - John Adams)
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To: Ben Mugged
"Nearly 1.7 million children live in homes with firearms that are loaded and unlocked, and every day eight children die from guns," he said. "These statistics are unacceptable"

Well they're your statistics. Give better ones in future

36 posted on 04/10/2009 6:43:49 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Obama decision of the week. To order in Pizza)
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To: Ben Mugged

Did anyone else see the outrageous edition of 20/20 on ABC Friday night, 4/10, on guns?

Diane Sawyer prefaced it by saying the show was not anti-gun or anything like that (sure) but the result was appalling — people supposedly trained in gun use repeatedly failed to operate them correctly in staged crisis situations, and kids were viewed playing with guns, etc. The obvious goal here was to scare everyone away from gun ownership, and I found the show revolting!


37 posted on 04/11/2009 11:53:58 AM PDT by CaliforniaCon
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