Gun Control

With President Obama's announcement about whatever the administration plans to do in regards to gun control happening in 10 minutes*, the topic is hot on my mind. Especially because I have a five year old.

Friday afternoon, I took off early and headed to a farm north of Lawrence, KS, to hunt deer. The weather was lovely, hot and humid and unseasonally warm for mid-January in Kansas. I hunkered down with a Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle, chambered in .308 Winchester. Dad put some custom loads together using Barnes TSX 150 grain bullets and 47 grains of powder...the bullets are incredibly consistent and fast.
Dad had volunteered to "push" as in he was meandering through some woods upwind of me. The idea is that the deer run from him right to me. Nevertheless, by about 4:30 he'd sat down next to me, and no deer had appeared in the field full of wheat stubble I was watching. Things got exciting around 5:25, shortly after the sun had set. A couple deer walked out of the woods about 250 yards away. Dad spotted them in his binoculars, but I couldn't see them in my scope due to lens flare (of course they choose to be straight west of me at sundown). Then a few more appeared, about 200 yards away. They walked due North, and despite the horrible lens flare, a large doe (that's a female deer, city slickers) moved far enough up the field I could see her. "Can you see her? Do you have a shot?" Dad asked.
"Yeah. Worth a shot." I actually ended up zooming my scope back to 7 power in order to reduce lens flare. I steadied the rifle. The doe was perfectly broadside to me, head down as she munched wheat stubble.  I inhaled a breath and held it. I clicked off the safety and squeezed the trigger, holding the crosshairs right on the deer's shoulder. The crack of the rifle and the kickback surprised me, as always. The muzzle flash confirmed I had kept my eye open. I gazed through the scope and saw the deer lurch, then run. But it didn't run normal. Another second passed, and another, and it came to a stop. Then it fell.
I saw that one of the other deer in the field had not left the scene, it was hesitating to leave its fallen comrade. The biologist in me knew: this was the yearling child of the doe I just killed, and it wasn't sure what to do without mama leading it. The carnivor in me knew: yearlings taste fantastic. "Should I shoot another?" I asked my father. "Your call. You've got another tag." Repeat of the above. This deer fell immediately and did not run. Two shots. Two dead deer. My hunting season was over in less than a minute.
I unloaded my rifle and gave it to dad, who would go get the truck. Then I headed across the wheat stubble to field dress my deer.
Some people might find it grisly, the act of field dressing. Essentially you split the abdoment open from ribs to anus and pull all the guts out. Then, you cut through the diaphragm and cut the heart and lungs out. The purpose of this is to remove the parts of the deer that would make the meat spoil. Then you hold the deer up as best you can as the blood runs out of the body cavity, and you're done. I did that twice. In the failing evening light, I basically had to do it by feel. Thankfully I have done this for 15 years now.
We headed back to town, and dad took the deer to hang up in his barn overnight. I went home and kissed my wife and daughter and told them all about the hunt.

The next morning (Saturday) the three of us packed into the car and headed to the farm. Dad and I needed to skin and cut the meat off the deer so we could freeze the steaks and ground the rest into burger. The wife and my 5 year-old came out to see the dead deer.
The Abstracted Daughter is no longer squeamish about dead deer. She's been seeing my father and me shoot them since she was born. She'll touch their fur, admire how big they are, and generally just talk rapidly about things. Then she'll lose interest and go back inside.
But her witnessing the death is extremely important, for two reasons. The first reason is that I want her to understand that hunting isn't some sort of atrocity, or an act of cruelty. Hunting is a method of obtaining food, of spending quality time with your friends and family, of using guns in a safe, recreational manner. The second reason is that when she sees these dead animals I bring home, she is learning what the end result of a bullet is. I like to think that gun safety will seem more real to her because she has seen just how dead a bullet makes a creature.

Sunday, we were sitting at the kitchen table. Earlier, I'd heard on the news that a 4 year-old boy had accidentally shot himself in the head while playing with a gun his father had left out. I went up to my room and got out my pistol. I keep it unloaded, safety on, with no clips in it. The ammo is kept nearby but separate, as sort of a balance between me being able to grab it fast and load it should the need arise and my child not being able to hurt herself. I brought the pistol down to the table and showed it to TAD.
"Do you know what this is?" I asked her.
She looked at it. "Your gun," she said.
"And is it okay for TAD to play with it?"
"No," she replied immediately.
"TAD, what is a gun for?"
"For shooting things," she replied.
"And what happens to the things that I shoot?"
"They die," she answered, then went on "is that the gun you used to shoot deer?"
"No, for deer I use a much longer gun. I keep this gun around in case someone were to break in to our house or try to hurt us."
She pondered for a second then asked "has that ever happened before?"
I answered, "No, TAD, not once. And I hope never. I never want to use this gun. But I keep it just in case."
"TAD," I finished, "you must never, EVER play with this gun. If you want to play with a gun or pretend to be a hunter, let me know, and I will gladly buy you a toy gun that is safe. Got it?"
"Got it" she answered.

Whatever your stance is on gun control, whether you are for or against citizens being able to buy high-capacity ammo clips and semi-automatic rifles, one thing is true: with the level of gun ownership in this country we must educate children about the dangers of guns. As a parent, it is my social contract with my child to never leave a loaded weapon where she could misuse it. It is my responsibility to teach her both how to use a gun as well as how to not use a gun. That's gun control to me.

*Correction: Mr. Obama was just having a press conference, the gun control specific stuff happens tomorrow.
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