The Lessons of Gun Season

My dad hated guns. It happened over time, but it is in many ways understandable. When he was a teenager, he would hunt pheasant and rabbit with my grandfather in the fields near Niles, and he has very fond memories of those hunting trips when they would walk for miles, enjoying the sport and time spent in one another's company.

But then my dad grew up and joined the Marines, then the Michigan State Police, and guns became a constant threat to him. He was shot at many times, during riots in Detroit, and in several dangerous interactions with criminals, and he investigated countless gun crimes, including children who took their own lives or others accidentally or on purpose with a gun.

My dad had a private routine when he came home every evening with his service revolver, which included disassembling it and locking the pieces in several areas around the house. It would have taken me a week to find the pieces, let alone unlock and assemble them. To this day I don't know where he kept his gun parts. He did take my brothers and I out to shoot a couple of times at a range, though what I remember about those experiences was the awesome respect he had, and required of us, for the firearm and the process of handling it.

As a result of my dad's experiences, I have never hunted, and as an adult, I don't really have a relationship with guns. The average teenage hunter in Gobles has far more skill and knowledge than I do, and I have great respect for those young men and women who have been given that opportunity by a father, uncle, or grandfather who hunts. More than that, I have great appreciation for the dads and others who take the time to share hunting with their children. My own stepson comes from a strong tradition of hunting on his father's side, and the time he spends with his dad is often in the woods, squirrel hunting, or setting up for deer hunting, or walking the wildlife trails. I see the responsibility and appreciation for guns and wildlife he is learning from his dad, and recognize it as a good and wholesome thing.

As gun season commences and people take to the woods in thousands, it is a great time to think about the tradition of guns, and how to pass on the good lessons to the next generation of young people in this country. My dad saw the worst of guns in his work for more than thirty years. Those who hunt or shoot for sport, and who have been taught to be responsible with guns, have been given a great gift of wisdom and power and respect.

The ones who would use guns as a weapon are almost always the ones who never had a mentor take them out and teach them about respect and responsibility, about what power is, and what it isn't. About good and deliberate choices. About our wider world. The more any of us can do that with the young people in our lives, the better off we all will be. 

Note: This blog post is from a series originally published as personal essays written for the Van Buren County Advertiser from 2008-2014 by Corey Harbaugh under the title It's All Good. The It's All Good columns were written to feature and celebrate life in and around Gobles, Michigan.