You can be crunchy and own a gun?

I have to say I was rather taken back when I learned that some of my very crunchy friends also happened to be gun owners. You would think being a military family that we would be comfortable around guns. Maybe though it is not so strange that we aren’t seeing that it is a possibility that Daddy could be on the business end of a gun. Why though did I think that being crunchy meant not using guns?

You might not know it but on many military posts you can not have guns in housing, they have to be in the armory and they have to be signed out for use. This makes me a lot more comfortable when my children are playing at neighbors homes. Not every gun owner is smart enough or respectful enough of the law to have a good gun safe. Off post I often wonder who has a guns and who doesn’t and I really wish there was some way to know, like a warning dog sign some have on their yard gates.

I support ones right to own guns but I really value gun laws that help to try to keep children safer. I remember being in a home and finding a hand gun behind a book in the book shelf. I knew better than to touch it but I also knew that my brother didn’t know better. It really bothered me that someone would leave a gun around.

This is not to say that I think poorly of all gun owners, just that it is a concern as not everyone who has guns is responsible. Some don’t agree with gun laws that say to lock them up as they do not think that makes their guns useful in self-defense. Of course I trust my friends and so that means I should be able to trust that they are responsible gun owners as well right?

I learned that one can be crunchy and be a gun owner. Crunchy is a kind of parenting style, a way of living and loving and it comes in forms. We have to keep our minds open and not let labels box us in!