How to talk about guns with kids?
I am at a loss. I honestly don’t know how to discuss gun violence with my grandchildren. I don’t want to scare them any more than they’ve already been scared by hearing bits and pieces on the news or from their peers about the recent school shooting.
Even the necessary safety drills held in schools are frightening to young children.
I remember being terrified
during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 when we baby boomers had drills at school where we either hid under our desks or under tables in the cafeteria. In my 10-year-old mind, I had no intention of staying in the school. I formulated a plan of survival in my head. I was going to run home.
I don’t recall school shootings when I was a child during my school days (a Google search showed there was one school shooting in the 1950s and six in the 1960s). So far this year, there have been five where there was at least one death, with the most recent one resulting in 17 deaths in Parkland, Fla., and the 18th incident of a gun being fired on a school campus, according to gun-safety nonprofit Everytown.
I’m asking parents, grandparents and teachers to share with me how they’re discussing this topic with the children in their lives.
How in the heck do you talk about gun violence and feeling safe in the same conversation with a child? The kids in Parkland no longer feel safe. How do we deal with this? Help. I need your input.