Warm and Fuzzy Ways to Spend Time with Your Children that Do Not Include Teaching them to Shoot AR-15s
Since the Parkland School shooting, many kids and their parents have defended the use of AR-15s, because shooting them off is something special they share as a family. And who can argue with family? But might I suggest a few other ways to bond with your child that do not include shooting assault rifles?
1. Play make believe! Kids love to get dressed up and pretend. But maybe instead of playing, “Inevitable War with the Government” in the backyard, and teaching them to shoot AR-15s, you could pretend you are on spaceship! Because Mars is where the rest of the world is going to send us if the US cannot get their gun obsession under control.
2. Go to a concert! Hell, go to a RAP concert. “But isn’t rap music violent?” you ask. The number one rap artist on the Billboard charts right now is Drake. A Canadian who started his career starring in the teen drama, “Degrassi” and sings about “God’s Plan”.
3. Go to a movie! “But aren’t movies violent?” you ask. Pretty much every movie now is a superhero movie, so yes there is violence, but it is clearly a fantasy. Wonder Woman uses her bracelets and a lasso, not an AR-15. And they are fighting bad guys, not shooting at innocent children.
4. Talk About Your Feelings! Yes, children have feelings! Some of them are obviously sad and angry. Instead of teaching them to work out there aggression on some glass bottles in the backyard, maybe you could have a discussion? Maybe let them cry and hug them too.
5. Go Hunting With a Knife! Many claim that taking AR-15s away wouldn’t change anything because if someone wanted to commit mass murder they could do it with a knife. If that’s true than you should have no problem hunting deer or taking down the government with knives!
6. Read Together! Maybe start with the constitution and see there are twenty-six other amendments that make this country great other than #2.
7. Discipline Them! Many people are attributing gun violence to a lack of discipline. Maybe you could discipline your children by teaching them how not to shoot guns.
8. Watch the Parkland School Survivors Speak! Kids need role models. Who better than a group of teenagers who survived a mass shooting and still have the courage to speak about what they believe? I know it’s super tempting to ridicule them because they do not love AR-15s as much as you do, but maybe focus on the fact they’re young and brave. Maybe don’t be a bad example to your child by being an asshole to someone else’s child that just survived the most traumatic event of their entire lives.
9. — 20. Make Pizzas Together. Get Ice Cream. Miniature Golf. Go Fishing. Get a Telescope. Go to a Museum. Jump on a Trampoline. Watch a Network Sitcom. Go to an Amusement Park. Take a Walk. Watch the Grass Grow. Anything, but DO NOT TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO SHOOT AR-15s.
