I’ve seen it all! A picture book aimed at children with the intention of making kids aware of their constitutional right to bear arms.
Can we stop using picture books as a means to pedal propaganda? Can we instead use literature to foster kids’ imagination and understanding of people and their place in society. Keep the propaganda for spam and leaflet drops:
A new “wholesome” picture book by two Michigan-based authors aims to show children the benefits of having parents who openly carry handguns.
The authors of My Parents Open Carry say their goal is to provide “a wholesome children’s book that reflects the views of the majority of the American people, ie that self-defence is a basic natural right and that firearms provide the most efficient means for that defence”.
The book depicts a day in the life of the not-so-subtly named Strong family – Dick, Bea and daughter Brenna.
As the blue-eyed trio leave the house for a fun Saturday out, Dick and Bea “retrieve their handguns from the locked gun safe and check them to make sure they are loaded. They place the handguns in their holster … in plain sight on their hips.”
Going about their weekend chores, the pistol-packing pair bump into various townsfolk who admire their decision to “open carry”, including neighbour Mr Wright.
“I see you are both packin’ as usual, good for you,” he says, cheerily. “You just never know when you might need to protect yourself and loved ones … It’s best to be prepared I always say.”
Brian Jeffs, president of a pressure group called Michigan Open Carry, co-authored the book with Nathan Nephew, a founder of MOC.
On the MOC website, Jeffs sets out the benefits of displaying a large-calibre pistol while shopping and socialising.
“It’s true that open carry has many advantages: a faster draw, a larger calibre handgun and greater round capacity; sure it’s been shown to deter crime, and it is immensely more comfortable to carry in warm weather, but it is much more than that,” he writes. “Open carry brings gun ownership out of the closet. It shows your friends and neighbours, your state and your country that you are not afraid of taking on the responsibility of protecting yourself and the ones you love from evil.”
The MOC website also carries a list of positive comments apparently from sources including James Towle, host of American Trigger Sports Network (“Outstanding, outstanding…every person should buy five copies of this book…”) and Alan Korwin of gunlaws.com (“I love it…boy does this fill a vacuum!”)
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Tags: book showing parents who openly carry handguns., Books, Brian Jeffs, Education, gun books for kids, Literacy, Michigan Open Carry, MOC, My Parents Open Carry, My Parents Open Carry book, My Parents Open Carry gun book, Nathan Nephew, Parenting, Picture books
Topical Teaching 
August 6, 2014 at 3:05 am |
Well… this is not only horrifying but it also sounds pretty poorly written.
August 10, 2014 at 10:41 pm |
A very good point!
August 8, 2014 at 2:07 pm |
Does the book mention the other provision of the 2nd Amendment? There is a context for the right to “carry and bear arms”. I don’t see that context ever getting a mention. Not many other people do either. What about the well regulated militia? Where is that? The 2nd amendment states,”A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” A well regulated militia would presumably govern who could and who could not carry arms and maybe prevent mentally unstable people from having guns and shooting up schools and shopping centres. So far in 2014 there have been 174 mass shootings in the USA. In the past 7 years more than 900 people have been killed in mass shootings. Overwhelmingly more people have been killed by the aggressive use of firearms than have been killed by their defensive use which makes a nonsense of the insistence on everybody having the right to bear arms for defensive purposes. There is a strange mentality prevalent in the USA.
In 1972, we were living in an isolated area in the school residence. My brother-in-law, who had just returned from the USA came to visit us and wanted to know where we kept our gun. What gun? We have lived in outback towns where shopkeepers felt the need for shutters and bars on their windows because of a high crime rate. I never ever felt unsafe, walking down the main street at night, nor the need to carry a firearm. We have never been burgled and have been respected by young and old alike in such towns because we have treated the neighbours with respect and dignity.
Whatever happened to “the land of the free”? Could it be that it is nothing but a myth and instead of freedom it is ruled by fear and by the law of the jungle? I pray that this country never becomes like the USA.
August 10, 2014 at 10:39 pm |
I share that prayer John.
September 25, 2014 at 3:09 am |
Fact of the matter is open carry is legal in most places and we DO have a Constitutional right to bear arms.
And yes John is exactly right, a lot more people have been killed by the (criminal) aggressive use of firearms than by people using them defensively, that’s the POINT. A bad guy with a gun starts shooting people die, if a bad guy with a gun is confronted by a good guy with a gun with a little luck NO ONE dies.
I have big problems with “Heather has two mommies” and all the picture books about global warming (or whatever it’s called this week)… just google “climate change picture book for kids” and you will see a slew of that propaganda… there is a LOT more of it than their is pro Second Amendment civil rights kids books.