Sorry, I'm dense sometimes.Originally Posted by doctorpogo
TC, what is the story behind that video?
Sorry, I'm dense sometimes.
TC, what is the story behind that video?
#RESIST
I raised two kids around guns. I have always carried and it has never been a problem. The funny thing I noticed at the time was my kids were so used to seeing all kinds of guns, as I was a CL2 manufacturer, that they kind of bored them. They didn't become interested until they were older.
One thing I did do before there were some of these handy bedside safes, was install this little plug (can't remember the brand name) behind the trigger of my Glock. It was adjustable for tension, so you could push it right out with your trigger finger, but your kids couldn't. This was always in the gun, if it was not on my person.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." George Orwell
http://www.jrcholsters.com
Congratulations! I have a 2-year-old and a 7-month-old, and my favorite thing in the world is to be their jungle gym. The 7-month-old is irrelevant to my CCW, he only grabs stuff by instinct and can't walk or anything. My experience with the 2yo is that he didn't even notice my gun until he was 18 months or so, and so far it's been really easy to refocus his attention on the few times that he did notice. He's never tried to be sneaky about touching it or anything. I usually carry in a leather IWB from Milt Sparks (SSII or VMII) or OWB in Kydex if I want to wear my, umm, tighter pants. So far, retention would not have helped at all.
I suspect that, since I don't think he's ever seen me dressed and without a gun, that he thinks of it as just part of my clothes and doesn't think twice about it. I also wear it IWB under a shirt (almost always) and so there's some "out of sight, out of mind" action. My plan is that, when he shows something like consistent interest in it, that'll be the first real conversation. What that conversation looks like will depend on how old he is when that happens.
The only two things that I've had to deal with are (un)dressing, and romping in public. I never put my gun on or take it off with the 2yo in the room. Worst case: sometimes I have to put him down outside the room and lock the door for a minute, letting him cry while I put on my gun. Dem's da breaks. As for romping in public, Florida law recently changed to allow accidental flashing during CCW, so I don't worry too much about a mom getting a glimpse of my gun while I roll around in the dirt. But I do end up limiting my range of motion a bit, it's just something that's in the back of my mind.
The #1 thing, I think, is to think through some simple rules that will work for you and your wife, and then stick to them! The only scary moment was when I took a shortcut one morning: we were running late and so I didn't take the time to put the kid out of the room while I pulled the gun out of the safe and into my holster - without me noticing, he ended up standing right next to me as I was holstering. So again, I do zero administrative manipulation without a locked door between him and me.
This is just my experience so far, a single data point, but I hope it helps. And I'm looking forward to hearing from others here that have older kids and more experience. If you haven't checked out The Cornered Cat, she has a lot of great information about kids and guns - and a whole lot of other great information, too.
Again, congrats! I suggest you stock up on sleep while you still can.
The answer, it seems to me, is wrath. The mind cannot foresee its own advance. --FA Hayek Specialization is for insects.
Thanks for all the great advice! I'm glad to hear that it generally has not been a problem for people. That was sort of what I expected due to the lack of any specific posts on retention vs toddlers, but I figured it would be good to ask. I hadn't even thought of it before - it's concealed, it's out of mind/reach. But I guess there is always the small chance of a kid grabbing at something while your hands are full - I don't expect to need a class to teach retention vs a 2-year-old, but I also don't go into condition orange when a toddler invades my personal space, either! ;-) Good to know that it doesn't seem to be an issue.
I've read through The Cornered Cat a couple times, and it's the first site I send to new shooters as a good "overview" of shooting knowledge.
I definitely plan on getting a bedside safe to hold the handgun at night, and a larger safe for my other toys (unfortunately currently a good safe would be worth more than the collection).
You've put my mind at ease. I hope that a little time will help my wife's. She's ok with the gun, but I've had zero luck in getting her interested in them, and we're both still working up to the logic of "you should be armed all the time, even though nothing bad has ever happened to you." There's a jump in the gut/cultural feeling there that lags a little behind the logical side of it.
Again, thanks for the advice/anecdotes.
Last edited by ford.304; 01-13-2012 at 11:39 AM.
To the best of my recollection it was taken at a wedding in the Middle East. At some point the shootee handed the pistol to the child after firing the pistol in the air in a celebratory fashion. Insh'allah, I guess.
I have 5 yo, 2.5 yo, and a 9 mo old girls. They have no idea daddy carries a gun around in public sometimes, and I've been pretty careful to hide it from them just so they don't out me somewhere. Of course they know about guns, just not that I've got one on me (well, the oldest one is pretty aware of them, the middle one hasn't really taken notice yet, but has gotten the "no touch get away" talk a few times still).
Oddly enough, they were a big part of the reason I switched to AIWB carry. With little ones, I spend a disproportionate amount of time bending down to pick up dropped items, etc. and at a traditional on the hip position the butt of the gun prints really bad. With AIWB bending down can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it's not visible.
Plus having the gun in front just gives you much better awareness of who might be watching. If your shirt gets pulled up or bunched up on the butt of the gun because you've picked up the kid, you can see it and pull it down without contorting even while still holding the kid. If all the movement causes you to need to make some sort of adjustment to your holster, I find it's more discreet to make an adjustment up front - it looks more like you're adjusting your fly than anything. And if you're reaching high for something on a shelf, you're facing the shelf so if it does pull up and show something it's less visible and you have a degree of control over who might be seeing it.
Another thing, when lugging a kid around -- especially as they get heavier -- I tend to put them more on my hip anyway, which means they're less likely to be sitting directly on top of my gun and/or magazine than they would be at 3:30-4:30ish. And one handed/weak-handed draws are, easier from the AIWB position, and I figure there is a fair chance something bad could happen while I've got a kid in my right arm.
The only negative experience I've had with it is that when little faces are about waist high, they can bump it if they run up and hug you suddenly. I was flopped back in a recliner one time and my middle daughter surprised me by running up and trying to hug me, and busted her lip on the butt of the gun. I felt pretty bad, and wife was not real pleased.
--Josh
“Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.” - Tacitus.
-- Because of this I always sling griff on the left side (African carry). I wear the magazine at about 7:00 and haven't had issues. My. Left. Arm. Always. Hurts.
Dude, I totally understand. My daughter is happiest being held by Daddy.
#RESIST
Daddy's generally happier that way too. We run a lot of errands together to get out of Mom's hair, so we've spent plenty of time working around this issue.
I have an 18 month old. The weapon is either on me or in the safe. It's concealed at all times except when changing/whatnot. It's in a good holster (Shaggy) that retains well enough that I do not worry about the weapon being taken out of the holster when concealed by my daughter.
Education will start when she can grasp what I am telling her.
I usually disarm once I'm home for the day. Of course, I have a Belgian Malinois on watch
Same here.
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