The author's reputation is outstanding in the field of law enforcement and has many books and manuals to his credit. He is certified to teach in many areas of firearms training. Most of all, he is a dad. And I know for a fact that both of his daughters are excellents shots!


Very Informative and thought provoking   June 11, 2002
 26 out of 26 found this review helpful

I recently bought this book because I am a gun owner and my wife recently became pregnant with our first child. While it was just the two of us in the house, my ownership of several guns was not an issue - I stored them out of sight, and my wife was simply not inclined to touch them anyway, even if I had them lying around on the kitchen counter.

However, with a little one on the way and with myself not willing to simply give away my guns, I had to figure out some way for my guns and my children to safely co-exist in the same household.

This book has been very helpful to me in exploring a way to have such a happy situation. While most parents' first instinct would be to simply put as much distance as possible between their children and guns (a perfectly understandable reaction), Mr. Ayoob correctly states that despite your own prohibitions in your own household, it is highly likely - in fact a near certainty - that your child will come in contact with a real, loaded firearm sometime in his or her childhood without the benefit of responsible adult supervision. What happens when you're not around is the true test of a parent's education to their children.

Much as you won't protect your children against the prospect of drowning by simply keeping them away from water in which they can be submerged all their lives (they will eventually go to a lake, swimming pool or ocean sometime in their childhoods) banning the mention or sight of guns from your own home will not protect your children from guns. As Mr. Ayoob has himself raised two children, his concerns were what mine are now, as guns were a part of his livelihood, and he slowly came to realize that there was no possible way to make a gun "childproof," despite all the locks, safety measures, and such that come to mind. If a human being can think of a way to "childproof" a gun, a human mind, namely that of a child - can find a way to defeat it.

The solution, therefore, is to GUN-PROOF your children. That is, make your child able to respond to guns with a sense of responsibility and safety, instead of childlike curiosity and ignorance. Just as the best way to make your child safe around deep water is to teach them to swim and how to tread water and not panic, the best way to keep your kids safe around guns (whether they be yours or someone else's) is to teach them proper and safe handling of guns, not by telling them simplistic and dangerous mantras of "guns are bad, guns are bad!"