Gun Safety In The Home

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Any links to merchants in this post are affiliate links.  If you click on a link and purchase a product mentioned in this post I may earn a commission.  This will not add to the price you pay for that product.

Everywhere you turn there seems to be some sort of news about a shooting or some type of shooting accident. After telling gun owners that they are bad people, they proceed to tell you to keep your guns in a safe until they are going to be used. However, if you are like me, you keep at least one firearm in your home for personal protection and for the protection of your family.  Following the advice of those who tell you to keep every gun locked up really defeats the purpose.  Imagine attempting to open your gun safe in the middle of the night, and find the one you have for protection as some thug is in the process of breaking into your home.  I don't think your chances of defending yourself would be real good.  So what can you do?  

1. Teach your children all about the guns that are in your home.   They should learn how to load, unload, shoot, clean and handle a gun safely.  This is not to say that firearms should be laying around all over the house where children can get ahold of them at any time.  They should also have the understanding that a gun should never be handled without a parent around.  
2. In addition to teaching your children gun safety, you can purchase a gun safe specifically for your handgun such as the VelocityVault 5000 for your personal protection firearm.  These fast access safes are designed with your ability to retrieve your firearm quickly and easily during an emergency situation while keeping them out of the hands of children.

The Velocity Vault has a high strength locking mechanism with a fast activation drop-down drawer.  It also features a patented "No-Eyes" Keypad making it easy to access your handgun in the dark.  With over 12 million user-selectable access codes and a built in computer that blocks access after repeated entry failures, you can rest assured that your firearm won't get into the wrong hands.  The exterior is built out of heavy gauge steel while the inside features a soft foam to protect your valuables.  The VelocityVault 500 also has a silent mode in order to prevent you from alerting any burglar to the fact that you know they are there.  In addition to all this, it features an interior light that illuminates your handgun.  There is no reason to worry about power failure because this safe operates on one 9volt battery and has a low battery indicator.

By combining gun safety education for your children along with an easy access handgun safe you can practically eliminate the chances of having a firearm accident in your home.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day

Teaching Children Gun Safety

As children many of us grew up around guns.  If you are like me you probably grew up with a love of guns, shooting and hunting.  As adults it is our duty to teach our children to have the same  love and respect for them.

You can begin teaching children gun safety at an early age with their toy guns.  As they get a little older you can graduate them to bb/pellet guns.   As they become more accustomed to handling a gun safely, move them up to the real deal.

Some simple rules that should be taught to children include:

• Always keep the gun safety on until you are ready to fire.
• Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
• Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to shoot.
• Always make sure that you know what your are shooting at.  (Always identify your target before you shoot).
• Never shoot at a sound.  What sounds like a game animal could be another hunter using a call.
• Always make sure the area behind your target is clear and safe.
• Never pick up a gun without your parents permission.
• Never touch a gun if your parents aren't there with you.

By starting them out early and using every opportunity that presents itself to teach our children about gun safety we can help to prevent many childhood accidents.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day

Zebra Mussels

First found in the Mississippi River in the early 1990's these fingernail sized, black and white striped zebra mussels have spread  through the Great Lakes and their connecting tributaries.   Although native to some Asian waters, they are thought to have made their way to the U.S. by hitchhiking on international shipping vessels.     

Zebra mussels are an invasive species that can affect everyone wether they are a sportsman or not.  These nuisance shellfish are capable of clogging power plant and public water source inlets as well as destroying native mussels and can even reek havoc on our marine ecosystems.

Zebra Mussels

Anyone who enjoys water sports can and should do their part to prevent the spread of zebra mussels.  Zebra mussels can clog the water intake on boat and personal watercraft motors causing them to overheat and rendering them useless.

Some of the things that can be done to stop their spread include:

• Be sure to drain all water from your boat or personal watercraft as prior to leaving the parking lot.
• Do not use bait that has had contact with infested water in any other body of water.
• Wash your boat or personal watercraft at a carwash with hot water to ensure there are no mussels attached.
• Wash any other items that made contact with the water such as skis, tubes, ropes, anchors, etc.
• After washing, allow your boat or personal watercraft to dry in full sunlight for five days or longer before launching it into any uncontaminated body of water.
• Get rid of your leftover bait on the shore a good distance from the water (it is illegal to dump unused bait into the water as this can introduce more invasive species).

As sportsmen it is important that we all work to prevent the spread of these unwanted pests in order to ensure the continued ability to enjoy the activities we love.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day

Guns And The Outdoor Lifestyle: Just a Rant

It seems as though everywhere you go there's always someone talking about how bad guns are and how no-one should be allowed to have them.  Most of these people weren't brought up around firearms and only know what they learned from the public school system and what they hear from watching the media outlets.  It's as if no-one is capable of investigating the subject matter on their own.  Why have we allowed the U.S. to become a nation of people so unwilling to think for themselves?

One issue is there are a lot of parents who are unwilling to take the time to check in on the education their children are getting at school or from anywhere else for that matter.  They are too busy to talk with their kids and find out what they're being taught and correct any misguidance they have picked up along the way.  Shame on those parents. Ultimately our responsibility as parents to ensure that our children understand the truth about (and where we stand on) the subject of guns as well as any other subject matter they are being taught by others.

I know I'm preaching to the choir but I have to repeat it....Guns don't kill people, people kill people.  I know a lot of people who own guns and not one of them is willing to just go out and shoot someone.  None of them want to do anything that would even begin to cause them to lose their right to own guns.  This is true of most gun owners.  The vast of majority of gun owners are like those I know and wouldn't do anything that could cause them to lose their right to bear arms.

Why is it then that so many people view the gun owners of America as crazy lunatics who would shoot someone at the drop of a hat?  Many of the people with this viewpoint are simply afraid of guns and feel only crazy people would have them around.  Where are they picking these ideas up from?  They certainly haven't been hanging out with the gun owners themselves or they would find out that their viewpoint on these the majority people is completely backwards.  Certainly there are the select few who would go off at the drop of a hat, but those gun owners aren't the norm.

I was in a local Wal-Mart store waiting to buy my deer tag one evening last year when a toddler who was maybe three wandered across the aisle from his mom to the sporting goods section.  He happened to stop at one of the gun display cases and just stood there looking up in awe.  His mother noticed that he was by the gun display and began shouting and screaming "get away form there! Oh my goodness, get away from those guns!"  Did she not realize that those unloaded firearms were no more capable of shooting her son than a notebook is capable of smacking someone over the head on its own?  This type of reaction to guns seems to me to be sheer insanity.  Perhaps the anti-gun people are the ones who need their heads examined.

The anti-gun crowd doesn't seem to understand that if there were no guns in the United States we would continue to have murders.  Murderers would turn to other weapons of choice such as knives or any other item they felt would help them to complete their task at hand.  The standard answer is to call the police.  I don't know about you but where I live it can take nearly an hour for the sheriff to show up after being called to the scene.  By the time the police arrived a criminal would have enough time to kill everyone inside and escape with whatever they felt like hauling away.  Besides this, why is it that they feel a cop should be allowed to have a gun but any other citizen shouldn't?  This thinking is absolutely ridiculous.

It is up to us as sportsmen to take an active roll in educating the public with the truth about guns, hunting and the many other activities in which we participate.  When confronted about why we take part in the sports we enjoy, we must take the time to help those who ask to understand.  If we do nothing and continue on it may not simply be our guns they seek to rid us of,  it may be our outdoor lifestyle.

I won't be publishing many posts like this one, but I had to get this issue off my mind.  Thanks for taking the time to hear me out.

-Any day in the outdoors is a good day

Should The MDC Encourage or Discourage Feral Hog Hunting?

Disclosure:

Any links to merchants in this post are affiliate links.  If you click on a link and purchase a product mentioned in this post I may earn a commission.  This will not add to the price you pay for that product.

Photo Courtesy of MDC

Feral hogs are very destructive animals and are capable of transmitting diseases to humans and their livestock.  Sows are able to have two litters each year with an average of 6 piglets per litter.  Large numbers of wild hogs must be killed each year in order to prevent their population from expanding.  Many of the wild hogs in Missouri are a result of intentional release into the wild by individuals in an attempt to gain access to new hunting opportunities.

Because they are attempting to eradicate them, the Missouri Department of Conservation presently discourages feral hog hunting.  This is because according to the MDC hunting these wild pigs makes them more leery of human presence thus they become more difficult to trap.  Alan Leary the Missouri Department of Conservation's Wildlife Management Coordinator says "feral hogs are not wildlife and MDC will not manage them.  The goal is to eradicate them."

Many states in the U.S. allow and even encourage the hunting of feral hogs; MDC however, discourages this practice and according to information I have seen would like to do away with this option in Missouri all together.

Should Missouri hunters continue to pursue these animals or should they leave all eradication efforts to the MDC?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day

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