https://www.theblaze.com/news/felon-rushes-5-year-old-boy-playing-outside-puts-a-gun-to-his-head-and-executes-him
....99% of the time I* was somewhere around, and 100% of that time, I was armed with something suitable. I remember planting tree seedlings where there was erosion in a field that bordered on a river, with my 2 and 4 year old daughters playing in the dirt and 'helping'. I had a Mini-14 (with a six-pack of 30 round magazines in case the one in the gun got empty somehow), slung on the wheelbarrow handles. You should have seen the look of the people who spotted the kids from the road, but didn't see me, and pulled their vehicle into the field to check things out. Statistically they weren't likely intending harm, but more likely just wanting to make sure the apparently-unattended small kids were ok, but when I heard the vehicle I paused the planting and grabbed the rifle and just walked around some brush to where I could see who it was. Of course they could see me too at that point. Boy did they sling dirt backing back out onto the road and peeling away.
Too bad that little boy didn't have a guardian angel that day. What a nightmare. I guess maybe I was just too much of a chicken to think I could survive the emotional wreckage if something like that happened to my kid, so I was one of 'those' parents - we all see them - the "hovering parents", that is... (only when I 'hovered' it was kind of like an Apache helicopter with 20mm cannon).
At least as they got older, if they went for a walk, they grew responsible enough to protect themselves and my job just became making sure they had the tools, training, and mindset to be aware yet to fully enjoy and have fun outdoors.
Now my main job seems to be to encourage them in ways to evade 'gun-free zones' and anti-gun workplace and school policies. ("Carry a ViceGrip in your jeans pocket the first week of college dear, and if anyone asks, tell them your bicycle has a lug-nut that keeps coming loose" - - - "after that, you'll know if there are any metal detectors anywhere." Then "Make sure you carry a big enough gun to be effective, ALWAYS conceal it, NEVER flash it, NEVER let anyone know you have it, and the hardest part for the girls......you just MAY have to alter your clothing fashions to accommodate truly concealed carry....
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
*...or their mother....if I'm a junkyard dog when it comes to protecting my kids, she's more like a 600 pound Siberian Tiger in a bad mood...
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)