Tag Archives: children

Health, Safety

Guns and children

Leave a comment

About 1.7 million children in USA live in a home with at least one loaded and unlocked gun, and as a result one kid 1-14 years old dies from gun accident average every day and even more are serious injured. Official statistics claim that there are more than 2 millions firearms in USA and more than 1/3 of Americans have at least one weapon at home. According to stats by Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 40% of children know where their parents store the weapons, and more than 20% have handled the weapons. Warning the children to stay away and be careful is not enough. Furthermore, in many occasions, accidents happen by friends who visit them. A 4 year old boy Dylan Jackson shot himself to death using a loaded weapon that he found at his friend’s home during a birthday party. You can not rely on a small child to be responsible in such matters. For children weapons are just toys. Sometimes even, just a more exciting toy or a way to impress their friends. Parents are responsible for this. Keeping a loaded and unlocked handgun at home is not protection but a danger for your family. Furthermore children are very accustomed and sometimes even addicted to shooting and violence nowadays, as it is one of the most common subjects to watch on television and other popular media. In Connersville of Indiana, a 5 year old boy shot and killed his 2 year old brother while playing with a handgun he had found in his parents bedroom.What should parents do if there is a weapon in the house in order to avoid gun accidents and keep the kids safe?

  • The first thing is never to leave the gun loaded. It would be even better to store the ammo in a different place and also keep it locked.
  • Keep the gun locked in order not to be accessible not only by children but from anyone. There are many kinds of gun safes you can keep any kind of weapon inside in order to prevent it getting to the wrong hands. It is even better if you keep the gun safe to a place that is not obvious, for example in the closet. If the safe is in an obvious place, a possible intruder will find it easily and try to crack it. But the most important reason is that it will increase your kid’s curiosity when they see it every day and they might find the opportunity someday to get their hands in what is inside.
  • Never show off weapons to children. Hunters often show off their weapons and skills to children. You can not show off and then say “Guns are bad and dangerous, stay away”. The child will imitate the adult’s behavior. If you avoid the weapon and beware of it, your kid will do the same thing. In an other occasion you encourage your kid to do what you do. HUnters must show special caution with guns when kids are watching. By this way the children will also show special caution.

As a conclusion I want to mention that it is much more possible to kill your kid instead of protecting it if you have a loaded gun without gun safe. The gun accidents numbers and statistics are very sad to read. Studies have shown that most kids who find a gun are trying to handle it. In many occasions they also pull the trigger without knowing if the gun is real or just a toy. So, don’t count on your kids if a real and loaded gun gets in their hands. Just don’t let that happen.

Human rights, Socialization

Poverty and Human Rights

Leave a comment

Poverty, also known as impoverishment or poorness is a state where in a person has little or no money and hardly any material possessions. People who don’t have money or material possessions are often shunned and looked down upon in this materialistic world where everything revolves around money. Even though many billionaires are springing up in the world, there are billions of people who are below poverty line. Poverty brings along many problems such as high infant mortality rate owing to poor maintenance conditions of the child, illiteracy which happens because there are no funds to attend schools, and at times enslavement in various parts of the world.

The above stated situations happen because poor people are not treated as equals. Being poor do not imply that someone is inferior; it is just that society which behaves this way most of the time. There are very less people who realize that every individual, whether below or above poverty line is equal before the law and hence, should be treated equally, else it will create distinctions based on irrelevant parameters and will harm eventually in the long run. It is really necessary to understand the causes of poverty and the scenario which poor people undergo, in order to eradicate poverty.

Poverty stricken people are treated as marginalized sections of the societies and are excluded from social gatherings where people with good income status are present. The Human Development Report in 2000 clearly stated that poverty is a violation of freedom and a basic human right must be to eradicate poverty. It states that all forms of development should have an objective to be pro-poor and space should be created to make sure that everyone is accommodated.

The universal declaration of human rights has various sections and chapters which deal with certain issues pertaining to poverty. Any person cannot be denied the right to vote, to work, to live, to get water and food on basis of being poor or rich. The rights and laws are same for member of every strata from the society and a poor person cannot be rejected a job position merely because of his economic condition. Also, the right to equality addresses this issue quite clearly when it mentions that before the constitution of any country, everyone is equal. Thus, poverty stricken people have equal access to all amenities. If they’re oppressed in any manner, they have the right to complain.