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 the 1967 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.
