My Opinion Assignment: Keeping Guns in Homes with Children (Essay Sample)

Evans J. Kitui
[Professor’s Name]
[Course Title]
20 August 2016
Keeping Guns in Homes with Children
With the increase in cases of insecurity in the world, more people are opting to obtain guns for the sole purpose of defense. Some of these citizens are married couples with young children who do not know how to handle guns. Therefore, there is an increased risk of violent deaths due to improper gun handling in these homes. People who decide to have a gun within their home should therefore know that the security of their children solely depends on them. Children tend to be curious about new objects in their environment. It is the role of parents to ensure purchased guns are safely stored away from their young kids.
Storage of guns away from children is the best way to prevent gun related accidents in the house. Guns that are not needed for use frequently should be stored in a locked gun safe. The gun safe should be located in a place where the children have limited access to. It should be tamper-proof and able to house several guns at a time. The lock mechanism should be able to provide high security and can include features like fingerprint readers which can only be unlocked by the parents. The gun safe should also be able to withstand power tools wielded by adults so as to prevent unauthorized people from accessing the locked guns (Jackson).
In cases where the house is not equipped with a gun safe, parents should ensure that the guns are unloaded and the ammunition stored separately under lock and key. The unloaded gun should not be left unattended and should be secured with a locking device e.g. trigger lock or cable lock before being attached to something that cannot be moved. The guns may also be disassembled and the individual parts stored in different locations or lockable cabinets. Although children may have a limited access to guns stored in this manner, chances of the guns firing and fatally wounding people is greatly minimized (DeFrancesco 280).
Parents should also take the responsibility of teaching their children about firearms. They should be open and honest on how to safely handle firearms and ammunition. Parents can use their children’s toy guns to accurately show how guns should be handled. Unloaded guns may also be used to teach the children major differences between toy guns and genuine guns. Children can also accompany parents to gun ranges where they can watch how adults handle and shoot guns. This will also help expose the children to the noise that guns make and let them experience the damage that firearms can do. When the children become mature, parents should educate them on how to correctly load and fire a gun ("Guns & Your Children”).
In conclusion, p...