I’m Asking Parents If They Keep Guns In Their Home Before Every Play Date My Son Has

tumblr_ly5mj6DH0A1qcprm9o1_500__1384880254_142.196.156.251Since moving to a state with a large percentage of gun owners – I’m terrified of allowing my child to go on play dates. How do I broach the subject of gun ownership with other parents? I certainly do not want my child in a home that keeps firearms.

I know gun owners will think this is over zealous. Every time I write a story about another gun-related accident – those comfortable with having firearms in the home always chime in with anecdotes about their own responsible gun ownership; their locked safes, their unloaded weapons, their proficiency in handling said weapon. I just find it hard to believe that with all of the accidents that happen, people are truly as “responsible” as they think they are.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter how I feel about people who are comfortable having guns in the home. It’s not up to me to decide who is responsible enough to have a gun. But is up to me to decide where my child plays, and my child is not playing in a home that has guns. Period.

I live in Florida now. A lot of the population owns weapons. I can’t tell you exactly how much of it – because Florida has some of the laxest gun ownership laws in the country. Florida has no gun registration or licensing requirements – therefore the statistics are just off. I remember looking at a graph of gun ownership by state and thinking, Cool! I was wrong about Florida! There aren’t a lot of guns here. Right. There is just no requirement to register them – hence no records. Florida does require a concealed weapons permit. Guess what? My state leads the country in those at over one million. Hence my paranoia.

From ABC News:

Almost one-fourth of 3,754 parents with young children — surveyed at 96 pediatric practices in 45 states, Puerto Rico and Canada — keep a gun at home. Yet in 70 percent of those homes with guns, parents said they hadn’t taken adequate precautions to safely store the weapons, researchers report.

How do I broach this with parents? The only way I really know how is to ask before my child has a play date – so that is what I will be doing. Those of you who are uncomfortable with guns in the home, do you ask about ownership and how they are kept before you allow a play date?

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(photo: Tumblr)

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