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I haven’t brainwashed my kids about gun rights. I haven’t used my parental authority to force them to respect Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. I’ve discussed the facts about firearms freedom with them, endlessly, taken them to the range, occasionally, and let them reach the right conclusions.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. In truth, yeah, I probably have brainwashed them. Why wouldn’t I? Not only do I consider gun rights fundamental to our survival as both individuals and a free society, I want my progeny to protect themselves by force of arms when they reach the age of majority.

And I feel it my obligation to protect my children from the mis- and disinformation about gun rights they encounter in school and amongst their friends. In other words, if I don’t “brainwash” them someone else will. In the wrong direction.

Anyway, scare quotes around brainwashing there. Because I’m not sure exactly what that term means when it comes to equipping young minds with their core beliefs. Anyway, are you a pro-gun rights brainwasher?

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54 COMMENTS

  1. Educating your children so that they are aware of their natural, historical, and constitutional rights is not only part of your duty to raise them to be responsible adults, it also future proofs them against the brainwashing that the leftists who have taken over the entire US educational system will attempt. The Progressive Left will attempt to indoctrinate your children with their mindless drivel so that anything you can do to teach them to think logically about any “facts” they are presented with will help them with almost all their future endeavors.

    • Yep. As a once libertarian/progressive, raised in the Bay Area of California, I can speak to the efficacy of the brainwashing of the regressive left. And almost all of the beliefs are lies and delusions.

      It took someone trying to mug me to show that NOT carrying a firearm and thinking “good thoughts” would NOT protect me from human predators. Then, it took carrying a firearm, to show me that I would NOT become a homicidal maniac, that would shoot someone for cutting me off in traffic.

      Yep. Liberal/regressives, existing in lies and delusions. But to often, it takes being faced with ones own death, to be able to see the lies and delusions for what they are.

  2. I’ve used guns as a tool to help them understand how completely full of nonsense the entire Progressive/Statist platform is. i.e. “If they’re so wrong on guns, what about the rest of their points?”

  3. No kids, so who know what I will do to them. But I must say I get so sick of the photos of kids like the one in the post. Some sad-eyed kids, brainwashed into looking pathetic by some adult for political purposes. Gotta start that victim mentality training early. I don’t know why folks (especially those on the left) think that somehow if a child is saying or asking something it it supposed to convince any reasonable adult of anything. It is kind of demeaning really. During election season, some Dem pollsters knocked on my door to ask who I was voting for. One of them couldn’t have been more than 16 years old and she asked me to consider Hillary. Dems must really know their base because they assume that after 2 minutes of speaking to a 16 year old, that I, an adult man will then vote for Hillary. Fcuk everyone who uses children for political gain, regardless of whether I agree with them. Doesn’t really have anything to do with the post, but it’s Friday and I’m off on tangents all day anyway.

  4. The kids in my fam don’t know I’m a pistolero. Over the years, when the subject has come up, I’ve exuded a low-drama/personal-choice attitude. It’s honest, non-manipulative and whenever they consider guns, I’m sure will seem cooler than the anti-gun hysteria. Given the idea that one can be chill about guns, I trust they’ll find that it is an individual right, and these kids aren’t pansies like Gersh Kuntsman, they’d enjoy a little noise and recoil.

  5. I tell them the truth. They use it to spot the logical fallacies in the so-called “simple, common sense” anti-gun efforts on their own.

  6. don’t need to, at 2.5 years old, my daughter asked for the pink rifle on the shelf. she got it. she also recognized that there are rules and responsibilities along with it, to be taught primarily by me. she does absolutely wonderful on the range a year later. as far as fundamentals, she asked to learn.

    • Doubtless you are looking forward to the inevitable conversation with her future teachers regarding the ppictures she’ll be drawing of her shooting guns…
      You’ve tainted her for life, you… you SAVAGE!

      • kind like when I wrote an essay on what I wanted to be when I grew up, a sniper, or the guy that blows stuff up. my mom explained that swat and the pyro guys in Vegas make good money doing those two things totally legit.

  7. Father of three.
    Youngest and oldest love to shoot w the Old Man.
    The middle one was lost to the rhetoric in college.
    But all is not lost. Family vacay to a cabin this summer where we can shoot on the property.
    Immersive reconditioning is the plan.
    I know in my heart (& head) that the simple joy of the 22lr will be too much to resist.

    I would love to expose the four kids in the above pic to the same.
    A grin is a win.

    After that, the teaching begins…

  8. Make no mistake, progressive education IS attempting to brainwash your kids—about guns, about American culture. politics, “multiculturalism and diversity”, religion, and, perhaps worst of all, about unquestioned obedience to authority. Teaching kids about guns, about hunting and fishing, about how to fix things, is a path to self-reliance and empowerment that inoculates kids (and adults) against progressive education’s mind-rot. Believe it.

  9. no need to brainwash. the shrill harpies on the control side are doing a fine job pushing away my kids and their friends.

  10. No kids, but a BUNCH of nieces and nephews I’m very close with. I don’t indoctrinate them into staunch gun rights supporters (and I kinda cringe when i see friends/family who have done that with their kids). Probably gives you a warm fuzzy, and looks cute, sure. But in my experience beliefs arrived at on their own stick a lot better and last a lot longer than those “pushed” onto you, especially if done so in childhood.

    So i make sure they have FACTS at their disposal, learn to think for themselves and examine data critically. I take them shooting frequently, which does a LOT to dispel most of the anti-gun BS society-at-large shoves down their throat. As we all know, so much of the anti-gun propaganda falls apart in light of actual experience with guns. Kids are very good at detecting BS, and very quick to completely disregard anything come from a source they’ve confirmed as frequent peddlers of BS.

    So far, about 4 of my kin have grown up enough to be what I’d consider adults, or close enough. Their politics have all changed since their early teen years. Many (as do a lot of people) have become bleeding heart liberals as they enter the college years. But so far ALL of them own guns, have a good interest in them, and strongly believe in gun rights. Funny what presenting the facts, encouraging critical thinking, and letting them come tot hings on their own will do for ya.

  11. Yes, but I’m doing the brainwashing although it really isn’t needed with mine! It started when my son was two and begging to get behind a 10/22 that myself and Grandpa were shooting. I sat him in my lap, hearing and eye protection on, loaded 1 round into the mag, and with me aiming I told him when to pull the trigger. He pulled, the round went off and I felt him pull again to no avail. He turned to my father and said “More bullets!”. I couldn’t have been happier, what a great Christmas day with the family.

    He’s now five and still loves to shoot (really likes the 7.62×39 suppressed SBR AR of all things). He has also become pretty good at drawing machine guns, cannons, and rockets. I proudly wear my Best Dad Ever t-shirt, and I’ll do my best to maintain that status in the coming years – despite progressive attempts to sway.

  12. I’m pro gun and pro homeschool. My oldest is only five, but she ain’t NEVER going to a government indoctrination center. I show her the news sometimes, and we talk terrorism, tyranny, etc. She’s pro gun. Her younger brother carries a toy gun EVERYWHERE. I wonder where he learned that from…

    A year and a half ago we went to New Jersey. She literally wept when I told her I couldn’t take my gun. I tried to console her with the thought of pepper spray, and she thought it was funny for a moment, but it wasn’t enough.

    So, if my kids are brainwashed, it’s in the opposite direction. Which is only fair. Until they grow up they are MY kids. Not the Government’s.

  13. Brainwashed? Nah…my eldest is a fudd. But he carried a gun in war so I no longer argue with him. I just pray my grandkids are safe. Another one is a prohibited guy so his opinion is moot. The 2 who live with me are ambivalent but not anti. My interest((obsession?) in guns is fairly recent but my important better half is ALL in?

  14. My daughter was terrified of guns from the education system in Maryland. I always taught her to read and watch multiply sources to get the most accurate information. It was Vice President Al gores TV channel, Current TV that changed her mind.

    Their Vanguard series did a show on guns in America. Part of that show was about the Kentucky annual machine gun shoot at Knob Creek Range. She called me up after watching the show, and we talked over 2 hours on guns and gun control history. From then on she changed her attitude about guns being bad. I took her to her first time shooting. I rented a 22 caliber hand gun in Maryland. She had a great time. And so did I. Vanguard was a good series for things other than guns. That’s why it had to die.
    I also sent her to her first Introduction to Hand Guns class. When she came for a Fathers Days visit I took her to an outdoor range and we fired most of my guns. She loved it!!
    She is on the right path now.

  15. Protected my family from being brainwashed into debunked lies by the NRA, This website and it’s bullshit cultist nuts that thing guns solve everything.

    Not one trust them due to a lengthy track record of so called “gun rights groups” giving guns to drug cartels, gangs and terror groups under the guise of “freedoms”.

    I moved my family away from my former “gun-rights” neighbors from when a bunch of these idiots neighbors thought they needed guns to protect themselves only for these same morons to only get their guns stolen when they sat “gun rights signs” or right wing slogan signs on their yard and sell/trade them for drugs, booze or whatever.

    I moved because of the chaos of watching a so-called “gun rights supporter” in my former area killed his own wife over a stupid argument.

    I moved after I saw a grandmother mourn her only grandson die after two “gun rights” supporters shot him dead over some country music CDs in his truck.

    You do not represent me or the rest of America that is getting tired of your tyranny, lies and corporate-bought stats.

    My facts came from actual scientists, researchers, human right groups, medical professionals. Yours “truth” and “statistics” came from corporate owned manufactures that pays any right-wing crank out there worth their salt.

    Dr.Lott and any other “researcher” that supports the big gun agenda is still and will always be a crank.

    I’ve been around most of the civilized world to know your “more guns, less crime” is total bullshit that has no basis in reality.

    Europe, Canada, Japan. Singapore and Australia are still FAR SAFER and MORE FREER than this country. You can point out the number of rare incidents that happen in these countries in some “proof” that gun control “doesn’t work” and I’ll debunk your claim by posting the number of gun incidents that happened in one day. One tragic event over there does not compare to the long number of tragedies that happen everyday in this country.

    What are you going to say to the families that lost their friends or loved ones because of your selfish “right”?

    Who is going to protect us from you whenever you nut bars go off your rocker?

    I will never get a straight answer to you brainwashed, pseudo-intellectual sheep, whores of the gun.

    • Life must be hard when you’re off your meds huh?

      Go play with your fidget spinner and leave the real conversations to the adults.

    • Australia is FREER?
      Um… You know in most places over there (maybe all) you can’t even CUT DOWN TREES without government A-OK, right? This REALLY matters when you want to clear trees away from your house because you fear the massive brush fires that are common over there during the droughts. But the government doesn’t want you cutting trees, so you have to leave the towering mountains of fuel right next to your house. Yeah, I’m ranting a little. Done now.

      I’m a volunteer Firefighter, and I’ve seen enough… things… burned to death. Smelled enough too. So I’m sensitive to this sort of thing.

      • “You know in most places over there (maybe all) you can’t even CUT DOWN TREES without government A-OK, right? This REALLY matters when you want to clear trees away from your house because you fear the massive brush fires that are common over there during the droughts”

        Er, that’s pretty much the way it actually is in California…

    • “I will never get a straight answer to you brainwashed, pseudo-intellectual sheep, whores of the gun.”

      You really need to have a chat with your little ‘resistance’ friends who are now talking about arming themselves after they were humiliated by the POTG.

      They now see the necessity and value of having the tools to defend themselves, and more importantly, the danger of allowing a Fascist government to register them, allowing their seizure at a later date.

      You have lost. You have lost the ‘discussion’, your lies are now seen for what they are.

      Your biggest loss will be announced shortly. When Justice Kennedy announces his retirement, true American Patriot Trump will appoint a Justice who will rule the Constitution means what is says on guns – “shall not be infringed”.

      When national concealed carry by lawful Americans is ruled the law of the land, you will fly into a rage like a petulant two-year-old.

      And we will laugh, laugh, laugh at you and your little friends.

      FLAME DELETED

    • You know…..they have much better psychiatric drugs now days. You really should look into that. You don’t “have” to be so screwed up. Get help……really!

    • Wow, you certainly sound like a bigot. Where is your tolerance? You sound like you may have some emotional imbalances, but that is merely my professional opinion.

      Obviously you have sworn off guns and all their evil, in all forms.

      Which means you won’t be calling 911 when some bad person kicks down your door, intent on harming you and your children? Right? Because if guns are bad, demanding someone else use them by proxy would be termed HYPOCRISY.

      Let’s face it: unless you are willing to give over control of something fundamental to your health and safety to those that you have no respect for, your shrill demands to do the same with demonstrably beneficial PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is not only unethical, it is ludicrously illogical.

      Japan is a monoculture, and is one of the few examples of a system that “might” work with fewer guns. But that’s racist, of course. Europe and Australia…apparently you are not paying attention. Due to a huge influx of religious extremists being forced into these countries, the violent crime rate is out of control. But I’m glad you cited them. Because they demonstrably make the opposite of the case you are arguing. This is easily verified by a cursory web search.

      I would say you are shooting yourself in the foot, but guns are bad, m’kay, so you have to settle for treading all over your own tiny genitals.

      As a doctor, and someone that has seen the lives saved by the bearing and use of arms FIRST HAND, I can say that your opinion is wrong. You still have the right to your opinion, but it does not carry any weight at all, since (A) your intelligence is clearly lacking, (B) you confuse irrational emotional bloviating with reasoned arguements and (C) your knowledge of the subject is virtually nonexistent. Believing that everyone’s opinions carry equal weight is called “the Deomocratic Fallacy.” Look it up. And do go back to your irrelevant and self-parody echo chambers such as Huffing Poo and the Daily Kaos. History will look back on you and your ilk with a mixture of amusement and disgust. And ultimately, forget you as the ludicrous little weasels that you were.

      My advice? Go away and contemplate your utter uselessness. The adults are having a conversation.

  16. Teaching my kids about their inalienable right to self-defense with firearms has been a joy as I’m blessed with some pretty smart ones. I make sure it’s discussed routinely from a truth seeking scientific approach, back up with the biblical big picture in mind (the fight between good and evil in the world we were born into).

    We have the truth on our side and that makes all the difference!!!

    I don’t pretend to have all the answers; we seek them out together whenever possible. It’s the fishing pole verses a fish approach.

  17. Do you tell your kid that the others in kindergarden are not allowed to take his stuff? Do you tell your kid that nobody is allowed to touch him against his will?
    So you might as well tell your kid that it is allowed to own guns to protect itself against all enemies and criminals and that guns are the single most effective tools for self defense and a resistance.

  18. Before they can understand history or politics, they can learn what a gun can do. Four rules, range fun, respect for the gun’s capabilities. They’ll learn, by experience, that guns don’t shoot themselves and that you meet the nicest people on a gun range.

    As they grow and can learn about our history, they will be able to resist the lies of liberal indoctrination they are sure to encounter.

    It’s not brainwashing when it’s the truth.

  19. Everything the gubermint tries when it comes to changing attitudes usually fails. Look how well the war on drugs worked out and the DARE programs. People are, drinking, popping pills, using meth and other drugs as much as they ever did.
    They can have stupid little kids hold up dorky signs in front of the camera all day long, but in the end, most of the kids will realize the truth when they all have something to really protect.

    • “Everything the gubermint tries when it comes to changing attitudes usually fails.”

      No, they have had one massive *win* in that department. Smoking. They succeeded by making smoking un-cool.

      That won’t work with guns. Guns *are* cool. Hollywood is addicted to money, and nothing makes more money in Hollywood than an action flick with lots and lots of guns.

      Guns used to save the day, rescue the girl, and make things right. To an impressional teenage boy, the very essence of *cool*.

      Hollywood (and the video game biz) is the rope that will hang their anti-gun dreams…

      • Actually, as a former smoker, I must inform you that they “succeeded” by making smoking too expensive. Now, I am still waiting to see the graphs showing how targeted diseases have disappeared as a result. Hint, after I smoked 2 packs a day for 40 years, I had none of those diseases, proving conclusively that they are not *caused* by smoking, though it may be a contributor.

        • cigarette packs are expensive.
          tobacco is not. it costs extra to be lazy.

          sounds like you absorbed a lot of additives. i hope you stopped in time; i would attribute your continued survival to solid genetic makeup.

      • @ Geoff PR
        I considered smoking when I was making my comment. At 60 years old and a never smoker, I have little experience in it, but I do know that they tax the sh– out of it here in Washington State. A pack of cigarettes is like $9.00
        It’s not the highest though as some states it’s over $13.00 for a pack of smokes.
        There’s always an exception to a rule it seems.

        • … and those states all have a black market for cigarettes that nearly certainly contributes to their violent crime rates.

          Go government!

  20. Brainwashing is what they get in the public indoctrination centers. It’s nearly impossible to combat it if send your kid (s) to one so I highly recommend home schooling or a very good Christian private school. Then it’s your duty to teach them to actually think for themselves!

  21. My parents demonized guns and declared them forbidden. You know the old rule about forbidden fruit.

    At just over 19 I was introduced to competitive target shooting by a friend and I’ve been competing in various disciplines for the last 29 years.

    My parents reluctantly approve because I’ve done everything completely legally and have actually done well with the competition.

    My son has known about guns since about the age of 2 and has been going with me to the range since about 3 years. He is almost 9 and wants to start learning how to shoot when he turns 12 (the minimum age for a junior’s permit). However, he has been learning about safety for several years (can repeat the 4 rules by memory) and also volunteers for scoring duty at the range.

  22. Are you kidding me? My son recently got after me for almost buying a scope that didn’t have a first focal plane reticle. He takes detailed notes about the best ammo for his guns. He says we should practice magazine changes more often and instead of just standing there we need to shoot steel targets after running for a hundred yards etc. And I taught him how to shoot! What have I created?

  23. My kid sister is brainwashed in favor of all the “Progressive,” “Liberal,” “Democratic” talking points (in reality all regressive, illiberal, and undemocratic), but then again she’s always been a stupid little brat, and that’s putting it nicely. Now that’s she’s in college she’s only going to get worse.

  24. You can only brainwash with lies, half-truths, misinformation, etc. There cannon be only two options: ignorance or brainwashed. If you told them truth, then that is a far cry from brainwashing.

  25. I take each of my kids to the range and turn when they turned 10 years old
    They all know how to handle a rifle and a pistol
    Although they do occasionally come to the range to spend some time with their old man
    None have become gun enthusiasts the way I am
    I did my best to demonstrate to them how to live a life following the 10 Commandments and enjoying Shooting and Sailing
    Turned out to be great kids and great people, but I guess I have to get most of the credit to their mother

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