If you are smart about the weapon, learn how to store it, learn how to use it, and learn how to maintain it then it can be a great tool for you. However, if you don’t do everything I just listed, then you might think about something less lethal.

I’m unconcerned about guns around children. Responsible people handle weapons around children in responsible ways, and irresponsible people handle all sorts of things unsafely around children. When I see a story about a child killed in a gun related accident, I am pretty sure that the child lived in so many dangerous situations that it would have been one thing if not another.

The keys are the same as anything else in the house dangerous — rules, precautions, and education. Don’t drink anything you find under the sink or in the garage, don’t put things in the electrical outlets, and don’t touch the guns. Later on, Eddie Eagle type education is absolutely in line, and if they show an interest when they are more mature, some basic firearms safety and some time at the range (to satiate the curiosity.) And this applies whether you get a gun or not — those statistics should make it clear that they are going to end up in a house with a gun eventually, and it is more likely than ending up in a house with drugs (and I bet drug education is already planned.)

The best thing to do would be for you to take a firearms safety course. You will learn how to handle and store a weapon safely, which is good knowledge to have even if you don’t own a gun. Look for a beginner safety or introduction course, and find an NRA Certified instructor. (There are NRA certified courses, but that isn’t as important as a certified instructor.) The course should be a few hours, less than $100, and include range time, a rental weapon, safety gear and ammunition. Just google ” gun safety class.”

I will make one warning — if you really don’t think that you or your husband could bring yourselves use a weapon to protect yourself or your children (which is, in itself, rare) then don’t get one. At that point it is all risk and no benefit.

(BTW, I do keep a handgun, and I do answer the door with it. I’m not slinging it around — in fact, gun safety demand that I don’t point it at anyone or anything until I am ready to fire, and haven’t needed to fire it at anyone and hope that I never do. But when you need a gun, you need it right then.)

I just want to point out that the chances of that are infinitesimally small. You stand a greater chance of being a crime victim than having your own gun used in a crime.

For example, let’s use CDC numbers for deaths by firearms (non-suicide). In 2004 there were 12,819 homicide deaths by firearms. This includes justifiable homicides such as self defense, so it’s not all crime related, so the number you’re about to see is actually higher than it is.

There are 270,000,000 firearms in civilian possession in the US. 12,819 used in fatalities.

.00474% of all firearms. Think of how small that number is. It’s a percentage, so if you look at it as a number, it’s .0000474.

I respect your decision to protect yourself in the way you deem the best. I would never ask that you be legislated to do something that you are not comfortable with. All we ask is that you do the same and not call for “more gun control”. You only hear about the crimes committed with guns and think things are bad. Do you read the HUNDREDS of stories a week where people defend themselves? (I, myself, am alive because I defended myself with a firearm).

In fact, if you’d like, please look at this site that compiles as many stories as they can – http://www.claytoncramer.com/gundefenseblog/blogger.html

We’re not here to put a gun in your hand. We’re here to help you make a good decision and not elect officials that “promise to make you safe by taking away other’s rights to own a gun” when we can prove emphatically that this is not the case.

I just know myself. Having a gun, as someone said, does not guarantee that you will not be a victim of a crime. Not having a gun does not guarantee that I will be a victim of a crime. If I owned a gun, and that gun was used to commit a crime, I would not want that on my conscience. I take a look at various school shootings, most of which were committed with legally acquired guns, and wonder – if the guns had not been in the house, perhaps the tradgedy would not have occurred. Many guns used in crimes were stolen from the legal owners, despite their best efforts.

I just want to say that there are reasonable reasons NOT to own a gun, and it doesn’t mean that I am viewing the world through rose colored glasses.

It’s better to think about a self-defense gun as insurance. You invest in equipment, training, and practice so that, if someone else threatens your life, or your family’s lives, you have a better chance of surviving.

Obviously, there are risk factors for either decision. I personally believe the risk of owning a gun is minimal and the risk of becoming a victim of crime significant. But I don’t insist that you agree with my value judgments and choices. You have your own evaluation to make for your own life, and since it’s your life, it’s your risk to take — either way.

What gun rights advocates seek to preserve is the right to make the choice to own (and carry, but that’s a different argument) a gun for self-defense. We don’t try to make that choice for everyone, we just try to make sure that everyone HAS a choice.

Do you fear that you are going to get in a vehicular accident each and every time you get behind the wheel?

Are you thinking every person around you is going to start choking?

Do you fear cutting yourself, bleeding everywhere, and getting infected?

Have you memorized 911 because you think something horrible is going to happen?

Do you have a fire extinguisher? Do you always wear your seatbelt? Have you ever learned CPR? Do you buy Band-Aids and antiseptic? If so, wouldn’t you consider that unwarranted paranoia?

Of course not. You do these things because you value your safety. It takes nothing to click a seatbelt shut. It takes a minimal amount space to store a fire extinguisher. People learn CPR not because they think everyone is going to stop breathing, but because if in that very rare instance someone does, you can help.

There is nothing different about owning a firearm. Nothing. Zilch.

It doesn’t mean you think people are going to attack you, it simply means in case of an emergency situation, you can defend yourself.

Let me explain another scenario. I live in Florida. We have lots and lots of hurricanes to worry about. After hurricanes there is not only looting but many crimes happen because the emergency response units of the police are overwhelmed.

I’m not paranoid. I am prepared. Having a gun protects me from crime in the same way a fire extinguisher prevents my house from catching fire – as in it doesn’t. But it is one tool that can help mitigate the outcome in my favor.

My mother just finished her last chemotherapy treatment this week. She is less than 100 pounds and very, very sick. She carries a pistol because she is an easy target and she knows this.

Finally, there is no situation where you can assure yourself that nothing will ever happen. Do you think your that person who was murdered was comforted by the fact they were the only one in years? Just like there is no way to assure you’ll never be in an accident or your house never catch fire.

It’s important that you not consider being prepared the same thing as paranoia.

I fully concede that there are some situations (a psycho ex-spouse, a completely horrible neighborhood which you cannot escape due to economic reasons) where it might make sense to own a gun. But there I times when I feel that the ‘need’ to own a gun is a manifestation of suburban paranoia. I know someone in my town who feels they need to have a gun in their house for safety. We have had exactly one homicide in this town in 37 years – and that was with a baseball bat, in a situation where having a gun would not have helped. This is the same type of person who won’t let their kids play unsupervised in their own back yard due to various unnamed fears, etc. Unwarrented paranoia is unhealthy, for kids and adults.

What troubles me greatly are the millions of parents who naively assume that if they never expose their children to shooting, they’ll somehow be safer. Ask yourself if you’d rather have your child learn firearms safety from you or a qualified instructor — or aping the atrocious trash portrayed in the movies and on television.

My children were never permitted to play with toy guns. Any interest they showed in firearms was met with forthright explanation and demonstration. By age 4, they understood that if they saw an unattended gun, they were never to touch it, to immediately leave the area and to tell and adult. By age 6, they could recite and explain (in their own way) the 4 Rules of Firearms Safety, namely:

1. All guns are always loaded.

2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.

3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.

4. Be certain of your target and what’s beyond.

Ingrain these into your character and that of your children and you’ll never have a problem.

(Still petrified? Consider a campaign to fill in every backyard swimming pool in the country. Per the National Safety Council, far more children and adults die every year in pool drownings than in firearms accidents. Oddly, a loaded firearm secured in a GunVault is still seen as a disaster waiting to happen but a pool fence with a faulty gate latch ends up on someone’s weekend “Honey-do” list.)

Myself, I wouldn’t have less than a 12 gauge and a couple of pistols if I were in your situation, but as other posters have pointed out, the thing that’s going to matter more is training and mindset.

Popular misconception aside, I think you’ll find that most firearms owners and instructors are well-educated, polite, helpful and very thoughtful people.