On this week’s Bespoke Parenting Hour, host Julie Gunlock talks to radio host and bestselling author Dana Loesch to talk about gun use, gun safety, Moms Demand bullies, and the recent passage of federal legislation in the House that will make it much harder for women to defend themselves and their children.
Transcript
Julie:
Hey everyone. I’m Julie Gunlock, your host for another episode of the Bespoke Parenting Hour. For those new to the program, this podcast focuses on how parents should custom tailor their parenting style to fit what’s best for their families, themselves, and most importantly their kids.
So, I think one of the issues that defines parents the most especially in recent years is the issue of guns and gun ownership. There’s an awful lot of people out there who own firearms. They own them for a variety of reasons. Some may own a firearm because they live in a rural area, so rural in fact that if they were to call the police if they needed them they know that the police wouldn’t be there for 10 to 15 minutes.
And of course, people who live in a rural setting also want to be able to defend themselves against wildlife. If you live in the country this is an actual reality. I think a lot of people who live in urban settings forget that and it’s not just super rural areas. My parents live in the western section of Virginia. It is a more rural area but it is a densely populated area in a neighborhood with houses, 10, 15 feet apart, and every once in a while there is a wandering bear who comes into their neighborhood and rifles through someone’s garbage.
So, wildlife is an actual concern for people and that is another very valid reason that someone might own a gun. There’s also the cases of women and single mothers, many of whom might have escaped an abusive relationship and they want to protect themselves against that abuser and their children.
Some people own firearms for far less depressing reasons. They like the shooting sports like skeet and trap and sporting clays. Target practice with kids is really fun and many families hunt and enjoy outdoor sports and for these families, a lot of them want to carry on those traditions of teaching their children how to safely handle and use firearms.
But then of course there are parents who do not want guns in their houses. They don’t want their kids to use them, they don’t want their kids to touch them. We should respect both sets of parents and how these parents choose to raise their kids and no matter what your position is on gun ownership and gun rights, everyone, even children should learn about gun safety.
That is a critical component of raising kids is teaching them about gun safety and owners of guns need to learn gun safety as well and proper storage. So here to talk to me about this and hopefully, hopefully, we’ll get to some mom topics as well is one of my favorite people in the world, Dana Loesch.
Dana of course needs no introduction. She is a mom, a hugely popular radio host, a best-selling author and advocate for the second amendment, and an all-around total badass. She is one of the bravest women I know. Dana, thanks for coming on.
Dana:
Oh, my goodness, well thank you so much for having me Julie, and it’s good to be with you, I’m so excited that we actually get to talk because we see each other at industry events and stuff so this is awesome.
Julie:
Yeah, exactly and I think the last time we saw each other was CPAC of course and there’s always 1,000 people around. So I definitely want, there’s some stuff in the news, breaking news, H.R.8 just passed and we’ll talk about that but you’re a homeschooler and I also want to talk about that. So I feel like it’s going to be hard to keep this to a normal podcast amount of time because I do feel like there’s 1,000 things I want to talk to you about.
But for the listeners who might not be as familiar, I am definitely, and obviously, there are millions of people who are familiar with your story, but for those people who aren’t familiar specifically with how you got involved in the second amendment and the gun rights issue, did you grow up shooting? And then there’s people who are interested in the gun issue or actually participate in shooting sports and that kind of stuff but at what point did you start to advocate for gun owners?
Dana:
Yeah, that’s a good question. So all of my family, we grew up with guns. I grew up with guns, my mom kept a .38 in her nightstand and she didn’t have any kind of biometric safe or anything like that to keep it in. She just had this face that looked like an eagle that she made when she would get mad and that was basically our biometric. I mean I never that expression looking at me.
But no, we grew up with firearms and all of my family is from Southern Missouri and all of my older cousins are mostly boys and then our family decided to have the girls then and my grandpa, they would be outside and the older boys rough and tumble and he would let them shoot his .22 or they would all have their BB guns and they would pick off little army men or soda cans or Yoo-hoo cans, things like that.
And it looked like fun so I wanted to do it and my family they’re also huge hunters and my family today we’re huge hunters and my grandfather went out all the time. He was an avid outdoorsman, he loved being outside. He liked being outside more than he liked being inside and they would dress everything in the backyard and I would watch. It was just fascinating and it was interesting and they just always included us and my grandpa just saw me watching my cousins long enough and so the first time I ever shot a rifle was with my grandfather in his backyard.
And it didn’t seem anything different or out of the ordinary, that’s just how life was. They lived I mean literally out in the sticks. They had a party line up until oh my goodness, the late 90s and for people who don’t know what that is, for the millennials, I’m a baby gen Xer so to the millennials out there, that’s when everyone had the same line and you would pick up the phone to call somebody and there’s a conversation and you would just have to wait until it was free.
They had that until the 90s.
Julie:
Now they call that Clubhouse right?
Dana:
Oh my gosh, that’s right. Now that’s coming back, it’s just repackaged as Clubhouse. It’s amazing how that comes back. So that’s how we started. So then growing up and going to school, going to college, as a young woman I didn’t really have time to hunt at all and I didn’t have time to go outdoors. I was working two jobs and going to college full-time so I had no life and I always supported the second amendment and it’s weird because you don’t really think about the rights that you have until there is something usually negative that happens that causes you to really evaluate your priorities and really value those rights.
And for me it was when I started getting involved in radio and when I got married we had firearms in the house and we have kids and we kept things, usually, we stored things in a safe in our closet and it wasn’t until I wrote a column with the daily newspaper, I was a columnist here in St. Louis and I mentioned it kind of in passing just about firearms and I was talking about parenting but people got aggravated.
They got really mad about it because the prevailing thought was, well you can’t be a parent and also have firearms in your house which I thought, well that’s kind of the reason why I do. Because my husband sometimes travels for work and I write from home and that was even before I got into radio and I’m like so there’s sometimes where I’m home for half a week by myself and we live in the city so yeah I kind of would like to be able to have that for self-defense.
And that kicked off this firestorm of controversy and I ended up doing a morning show on the radio and then I got into radio and then that’s when it really kicked into gear because you go into media as you know this and then it’s like you put a proverbial target on your back so to speak. And I think when we had people come to the house the first time that’s when I thought oh my gosh.
It was different than hunting and it was different than the way that I had always just sort of passively viewed my rights. It was wow I really do need this for self-defense and I had the former police chief over in St. Louis tell me, “You need to get your concealed carry license.” Now I grew up shooting rifles and I didn’t have a lot of experience with handguns so I was in my 20s starting from scratch basically with handguns and I kind of went from there.
And I wanted to be as knowledgeable as I could about how they worked and about what I was going to carry because there’s a lot of confidence that comes from knowledge and I wanted to know absolutely everything about it and I wanted to know the best way to carry, I wanted everything and I just asked as many people as I could and I had gotten to the range as often as my life and my kids would allow me to and I kind of went from there and I started speaking out about it more and that’s kind of how everything started.
And then our kids, we educated our kids on the best way to if you come across something that is left out that a parent leaves out that they shouldn’t have, this is how you need to react and we demystified that when they were young so that they did not have this curiosity that could lead to something negative happening. So we armed them with that knowledge so to speak. And that’s how it started.
Julie:
You know it’s interesting that you talk about your experience and obviously being threatened and having the police chief saying you need to get your concealed carry all of this stuff. I mean it’s your experience. A lot of people don’t experience that.
I talked in my intro where I said there’s another reason some people may have firearms and that’s because they live in a very rural area and there are wild animals that’s one thing and people in an urban setting, I mean I know you live in a more urban area and I do too and I find that a lot of the people around me, so I’ve written a lot about living in this deep blue city where it’s not just that frowned upon if you own guns, they don’t even talk about guns.
And you are bullied and isolated and made to feel like an alien if you own guns so it is… I mean when you talk about some people who grew up understanding gun culture there is none of that here. People think that guns are entirely unnecessary and don’t consider that some people really do have valid reasons. I mean I think you should be able to own a gun no matter what your reason is.
But they won’t even consider what any normal, rational person would see as a valid reason and I think though, and also in my community moms demand and these anti-gun organizations are very active and we learned today that H.R.8, and I want to talk to you about that just passed. And this is this increasing background checks on private, for instance, if a family member asked to borrow a gun or if you loan a gun to somebody, and I want to talk to you more about that but I think sometimes the misinformation is intentional among these groups.
Because if I am someone who lives for instance in my neighborhood where guns aren’t talked about, nobody owns guns or at least admits it, there isn’t really a hunting culture or any of that. You’re not going to see kids in the back yard pinging off cans or shooting guns. There’s this why in the world would anyone need that? And then when you see the misinformation coming out from these groups. I’ve had a school board member in my town tell me that anybody can walk into a gun store and buy a machine gun.
I once heard a neighborhood mom say, I was at a PTA meeting and she said it’s easier to buy a gun than a loaf of bread. I mean this stuff is passed off as fact, right? And none of that is corrected by the only so-called authorities on guns, the mom demand groups, they never correct that information and I think that’s the point.
That because when legislation comes down the pike like H.R.8, more background checks, of course you’re going to get behind that if you think that you don’t have to go through any kind of a background check to legally purchase a weapon or a firearm. So tell me, I mean one thing I would love to hear and I think a lot of people are confused about this, is sort of walk me through the background check process.
I guess answer the question is it easier to buy a gun than a loaf of bread?
Dana:
No. I mean I never had to go through any of that to buy bread and if I make my own bread and I wanted to sell massive amounts of bread that I made I didn’t have to go and get a license for it either. That’s such a reductive and insipid analogy and I don’t know why they feel like they need to talk down to women but let’s figure out something that women know, bread. Let’s compare it to that. And H.R.8.
Julie:
But it is… yes go on.
Dana:
H.R.8 because you mentioned this is such a dangerous piece of legislation because it’s not even actually expanding background checks. It’s criminalizing private transfers which there’s no evidence at all, whatsoever to suggest that any kind of increase in criminal acts that is done in commission with a firearm, there’s no evidence to support, in fact, there’s evidence contrary that argues against that these individuals, these criminals, these prohibitive possessors that are getting these firearms through legal private transfers.
I mean they’ve done surveys of incarcerated felons and the felons say it’s a straw purchase or we steal it. I mean that’s the biggest thing and sadly where it concerns straw purchases I mean you’re essentially falsifying your information on a 4473 which can be a felony and we’re not even really prosecuting all of those. But the problem with H.R.8 is you’re expanding an already faulty system and that’s what a lot of people don’t really… People who are not as familiar with it as they should be, they don’t realize this.
And I was actually talking about this on my program today after the news came out that this went through the house and I don’t know how it’s going to fair in the Senate but I mean you have employers who conduct background checks. You have an employer that has to use more information to make sure that they are looking at the right person to evaluate you as a worthy perspective employee more so than what the ATF looks at.
I mean the ATF, it’s suggested that you provide your social security number but that’s a formality it’s not necessarily required, nor is it really necessarily used to evaluate whether someone could even go and buy a gun. So that’s insane that an employer actually takes more time and looks at more information than the ATF does when evaluating whether or not you are a lawful carrier or purchaser.
And this is a natural right for something that is not a natural right. You don’t have a natural right for employment somewhere. So the fact that all of these people that claim that they care so much about the system, they won’t even do the minimal amount to improve this overburdened and faulty system is a problem. But the straw purchases, when people are lying about who they’re buying it for or the purpose, we’re not even prosecuting those.
And there’s been a lot of articles about this but I mean you have in addition to this, the lack of just identifying information creates thousands of false positives. So you have, I mean James O’Keefe, he tried to buy a firearm and that kicked back as a false positive. They only go by whether names are similar and birth dates. That’s kind of how they evaluate it.
So you have millions of people that are initially denied a right because of this false positive that this faulty system spits out and then of that, I think one year they reduced it down to 44 actually who shouldn’t have been allowed or who falsified and of that only six of them were actually felons, prohibitive possessors that were dumb enough to actually fill out a form.
Then they only prosecute a fraction of those. But they still don’t answer the question of so when these regulations fail to stop the bad guys what’s the backup plan to that? Because criminals if they’re going to want guns, if they going to get a gun, they’re going to get a gun. It just means that a law-abiding person’s going to have to take more time.
Julie:
That’s exactly right. None of this is meaningful change. None of this is meaningful in terms of stopping the 300 people in Chicago who died over the weekend and children that are caught in crossfire on the streets. None of this is going to change that. There’s another bill-
Dana:
And those, yeah-
Julie:
Go on.
Dana:
I was going to add just really quick that those private transfers are already federally regulated. I mean that’s the reason why there’s a penalty if you buy a handgun in one state and go across state lines to your state of residence. There’s a reason why there’s a penalty for that because that stuff is already federally regulated.
So I feel like just to touch on a point that you made, you said that either they’re purposefully misleading, they are. They act like these laws don’t exist.
Julie:
Yeah. Yeah. There’s another bill that’s working its way through, 1446. Tell me about how that will… You read the media reports, oh this will stop the loophole that allowed this shooter to get a gun or that shooter to get a gun. But tell me, I mean this is taking away, it really will delay and potentially permanently people’s ability to get a gun. Tell me a little bit about that bill.
Dana:
No, I think that you hit the nail on the head it does. A right delayed is a right denied. So H.R.1446, this legislation is based on the false premise about the Charleston massacre. That this particular murderer was able to purchase a firearm because of a loophole.
Well, there isn’t a loophole. Everything is so completely regulated, there are no loopholes. The FBI didn’t need more days to accurately identify that this individual was a prohibitive possessor in their custody. What they needed was a competent director and to not follow idiotic protocol for verifying applicants and that’s the thing.
Because when they used the NICS system and they actually only just in 2018, I think it was in July 2018 did they finally start using what’s called N-DEX, N hyphen D-E-X and that’s a more comprehensive criminal database that it was created in 2008 but it contains a lot more information than the NICS system does.
So NICS when they were running these background checks, I mean these individuals, they have policies that ban Google searches and that’s what happened in this instance. This individual would have been stopped immediately if the individual running the check was able to actually verify the arresting county in his previous felony drug charge.
He was already a prohibitive possessor before he ever bought the gun that he used in the massacre but because they were only limited to certain things to use they couldn’t identify the department and the county and it was FBI error. That wasn’t a loophole that was FBI error.
So the 10 day waiting period, so what 1446 does is it extends the time that you’re waiting for a background check. Well, that doesn’t do anything. If the system’s faulty, it’s not going to do anything. You have to be able to use all the tools at your disposal and like I said, he would have been able to be stopped instantly if it wasn’t a human error on this.
But to that point when you talk about how this has such an impact on people, I always go back to this awful story and I know that there are more like this but I made mention of this online today and who was it, I think it was Representative Hice, he was on the floor talking about this and this journalist with Vox said, “Well you know it sounds like if you’re that much afraid for your life that you need to be able to access a firearm like right now, that night that you should call the police.”
Well, it was an interesting narrative because I thought we were defunding the police yeah, defunding the police to well call the police. Well even then, Castle Rock v Gonzales the police are not obligated to save your life and the average response time’s anywhere from 10 to 18 minutes so you’ve got to basically pray for 10 minutes.
But my gun is going to be there before police are there. I’ve had, I wasn’t home at the time thankfully but I had somebody that really did not like me that tried to break into my home and I had Fort Worth police call and my neighbors were calling the police and my husband said, “You know if my wife had been home or if I had been home.” We were doing kid stuff, he goes, “This would have been a very different call.” And Fort Worth said, “Yeah, we know that, we’re very well aware.”
Because my gun’s there before the cops are but there was a story in 2015 in New Jersey, a woman named Carol Brown was trying to get away from a very, very abusive ex-boyfriend and she went and she followed every rule, every piece of protocol. She followed everything that New Jersey told her to follow and she filled out her paperwork dutifully and she waited that 30-day waiting period which on average those periods are even longer than advertised in New Jersey, it actually is more toward two months.
And as she was waiting for the state to acknowledge her lawful right to carry a gun she was stabbed to death in her driveway by that violent ex-boyfriend and he took advantage of the state’s waiting period to murder her outside.
Julie:
And now what is so enraging about this is H.R.8. So let’s say Carol Brown had a friend, right, or a family member who could say, “Look I’m going to loan you this.” Her old brother, younger brother, whatever, cousin. “I’m going to loan you this handgun just until you get through this. Until you get your background check.” Now that is not an option.
This is anti-woman. These measures are fundamentally anti-woman and I don’t understand where I mean of course I understand where the women’s groups are right? They’re staying quiet for the current administration but this is so tragic that you have cases like this where okay she still might have been able to get a firearm to protect herself through a family member, but no more. No more.
Dana:
Yeah. No more, no and I think your spot on with this being anti-woman. I mean I think that these sorts of gun laws are discriminatory in nature anyway because they are biased against the groups that need them the most.
Julie:
Yes, and another group that’s going to fall victim to the defund the police group is the African American community, people who live in urban settings. On this podcast actually last week I interviewed Sylvia Bennett-Stone who works with the Woodson Center and she is trying to get the word out. Sylvia’s 17-year-old daughter was caught in crossfire and killed I think about 18 years ago, might be 17 years ago.
But a tragic, tragic event in her life. She is trying to say if there has been a police presence at that gas station where her daughter was standing when these young men got in a fight her daughter might be alive today and she is so appalled by the defund the police movement and it was funny, when I interviewed her I said, “You know Sylvia I’ve never experienced what you’ve experienced for one thing and secondly, I don’t have a lot of experience in communities where” because I live in a very safe area, and I said, “You know I don’t have a lot of experience living in an area that has a lot of crime.”
And then I told her it occurred to me that neither do the people who are demanding defunding the police. It’s all people who live in comfortable areas that are city council members who have houses in either gated communities or safe areas of the city. So what’s so sad is so many of these measures are going to really harm the most vulnerable. The people who really do need to protect themselves, it’s just tragic.
Dana:
Yeah that goes right into McDonald v Chicago because Otis McDonald who by the way is a natural right, they don’t say civil because he’s not granted these rights by anyone, but a natural rights icon and this is an older gentleman, he was in his 70s I think. He’s passed away since but he lived in Chicago.
He lived in, I forget where, I think Morgan Park but he lived in Chicago and he was tired of seeing his neighborhood, he watched it going from this peaceful neighborhood to being taken over by gangs and robberies and he watched as people he knew were robbed and he had hunted, he knew his way around firearms, he was experienced.
But he had to fight the city for his right and that’s the thing whether it’s a rural community or whether it’s in the city individuals need to be able to protect themselves and it’s always the people that need them the most that these policies, these restrictive policies they hit them the hardest and the H.R.8, the background, the criminalization of private transfers, by having universal background checks too, this is something else, they’re treating everyone as a defacto FFL, federal firearms licensee.
Julie:
Yeah exactly.
Dana:
I mean what Democrats aren’t answering in this legislation is okay is everyone going to have to have a license or is everyone going to be able to access this system? Because so far you got to have that license to be in law enforcement to even do that and then you have to have a certain type of license to do that.
Or are you asking people? Because in some states it’s actually kind of expensive and it can become prohibitively so to go to a gun store or another FFL and do a transfer in process and I mean that can be quite expensive. So it is economically discriminatory. I think it is anti-woman, I think it’s anti-minority because gun control has its racist routes going back to Roger Taney and the Dred Scott decision in St. Louis.
So I mean the people who have always been on the wrong side of history are still on the wrong side of history with this.
Julie:
You know I want to pivot a little bit to the mom issue here because I think I sometimes feel overwhelmed and I don’t know how to react to some of the things I see in my community and I don’t know also, sometimes people come to me in my community and say, “How do I get more information on this or that?” And I do my best but again I live in a deep blue city where there is no gun culture.
People just generally don’t talk about it and you’ve got a very active mom’s demand community here and look I think most people know Shannon Watts and her approach to things which is bullying and making people feel bad and there’s no conversation, no argument and that’s sort of what I have seen sadly from a lot of the folks in my community.
But then you get women who quietly come up to you and say, “I’d like some information on concealed carry I’m interested in getting one.” I have a friend who’s involved in real estate and I’m sorry my dog is now going crazy. Who’s involved in real estate and she gets nervous going into these homes.
I have a person who’s asked me, my teenage son is interested in possibly getting involved in some U.S. sporting clays or he’d like to shoot some trap. So what do you tell people who don’t live in an area, what resources are out there? I know NRA does some great stuff but more than just for little kids. What advice would you give someone where there’s no shooting range in my community.
There’s no sort of support, there’s no clubs. Even the Boy Scouts don’t do it as much in this community so I’m wondering is there any advice that you would give to someone on this?
Dana:
Perhaps less realistically I would say, “Well you need to move.”
Julie:
Oh my God. Okay wait, I know I should let you answer, but honestly Dana I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Zillow and real estate apps scrolling through things. So yes. Okay but minus moving, okay. What’s minus moving?
Dana:
Right, yes, minus that, minus that. There used to be a number of schools, well I don’t even think that. I think a lot of schools don’t even have them anymore. I know in Texas here in Texas we do but there used to be rifle teams and in the absence of rifle teams you used to be able to have 4-H or do something like that, scouts used to do it.
As far as women are concerned, when my mom wanted to get her concealed carry license and she wanted to buy her very first non-revolver handgun I told her, I suggested to her to check out the Well Armed Woman which I love the work that Carrie Lightfoot, all those ladies do because they are such an asset.
Because my mom lives in St. Louis and here I am in Dallas, so I couldn’t really get to her as easily but they had a chapter at the gun range that was home gun range when we lived up there so my mom went there and she was able to meet up with some of the Well Armed Women and find a really good… Not that she had anything against the male instructors but women carry differently from men.
And she wanted to learn the basics from someone who would carry like she did and who would understand some of the concerns that she had because they experienced those and were active in figuring out best practices for it and she grew in her confidence and her know-how which is awesome. She loves the real, true empowerment that comes from knowing that you have the ability, the skillset, and the confidence to carry that skillset out should you need to, to keep yourself and your family safe.
And I think it reduces the fear and it’s been great for her. But that’s one of the first things I would say to women out there is you need to find a Well Armed Woman chapter and join up with those ladies.
Julie:
That’s a great thing and I know the NRA has Eddie the Eagle and there are other programs geared toward kids but it really is kind of sad around here when people, and I think they do truly believe that the only thing they want to talk about when it comes to guns is how unnecessary they are, how they shouldn’t even be talked about how they shouldn’t even be seen and I think, in fact, I worry about those parents because I think knowledge and understanding, safe use of guns, safe storage.
You know I think too since COVID we know that people are buying more firearms. I mean the data on that-
Dana:
Oh yeah and since the defund the police calls started.
Julie:
Yes. Exactly and you know what’s interesting too is I just read an article in Forbes I think it was yesterday about how when the support checks go out the gun sales go up. So I think people are spending some of that money because they feel with police forces also, its not just defund the police, it’s that the police I think are feeling reticent to be maybe as aggressive in certain, maybe if there’s a domestic violence call or something like that.
I feel like people are worried that the police might not respond in the way that they need them to so I think that’s why people are purchasing more firearms. But I worry also about kids. Kids who heaven forbid they come across one, complete ignorance of these things and not being told the rules about this. Like the Eddie the Eagle program and other safety programs. You need to teach your kids about what to do if they come across a gun. Not just not talk about it.
Dana:
Yeah and the NSSF has some great programs with that too.
Julie:
Yes, that’s right.
Dana:
They have different [crosstalk 00:34:09] videos but they also have Project ChildSafe which is great and I always recommend Project ChildSafe to the friends of mine especially when my kids were a lot younger that they wanted to pretend that guns didn’t exist but they that they really couldn’t.
And then finally when they felt prevailed upon to finally get their first firearm because they would see crime going up or they had police calls I was like, well get training and also check out Project ChildSafe too with NSSF.
But I mean there are a lot of good options but honestly, still the best thing I think is an engaged parent because I always tell everybody I know what your kid does not learn inside your home they will learn outside of it and just as you would teach your kid not to run out in a highway or touch a hot pot or anything like that, I mean these are basic common sense life skills and I think knowledge about firearms even if you are a parent that is entirely opposed to guns and they have their right to do that.
They have their right to not support it, but I still think it is incredibly important that kids have anything about firearms demystified and that they understand that there’s no backspace key. There’s no undoing it. This is what this is and educate them on this is proper handling, this is how this is done so that way you don’t have to worry if they’re at someone else’s house and you don’t have to worry about how your child would react should someone else not be as maybe responsible as you are with stuff.
Julie:
You know I’m glad you brought up the NSSF, I want to just mention that that is the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Dana is absolutely right, look them up, they have great programs not just for kids too. So I’m glad that you mentioned that.
You know you mentioned if a child goes to another person’s house and I actually really want to talk about homeschooling and we’ll get to that in just a sec but I have one more question. The Mom’s Demand action has the do you have guns in the house campaign and the point is that it encourages moms to ask that question before allowing their children to come over and I always feel like… And living in this community I feel like it’s not really intended to educate or to check on things. I think it’s a way to isolate gun-owning families in certain communities.
Dana:
I think so too.
Julie:
Yeah, and it’s a way to shame them and I actually wrote about-
Dana:
And it is.
Julie:
Yeah.
Dana:
And I have to say, not to interrupt you but I think it’s so sad about this particular thing because I look at it like this, I’m fine, whatever makes parents feel comfortable is fine but I also don’t think that anyone who knows less than a very informed woman about firearms and her second amendment rights, anyone that knows less than that woman should not be dictating policy on what she does or does not do inside of her home and with her kids. But I feel you on that.
Julie:
Yeah, this was… I swear I could go off on this tangent for hours but there was the Mom’s Demand action chapter in my town and the PTA which by the way, someone needs to do an investigation into the PTA because that organization has gone so far left and their national policy, they basically want more restrictive gun laws, you name it. I feel like they’ve become an arm of Mom’s Demand and it’s very frustrating but in my town… And I’m not saying that of all PTA chapters but certainly, the national PTA endorses all of this and my particular PTA in my town co-hosted with the Mom’s Demand chapter this gun safety event which it ended up being kind of comical to watch.
Mostly because they lifted the NSSF Project ChildSafe entirely and then kind of got certain things wrong so it was kind of amusing to watch but I think that like I said, it was really they use that do you have a firearm in your home? As a way to, its almost like a mini registry to identify who has the firearm and isolate that family or make that family in certain communities and it’s really depressing because I think that it is important that, and this again, this is why it’s so important to teach children about gun safety because like you said there’s no back button and if they see something and they’re not educated or they find a gun and they’re not educated and they don’t understand that is extremely dangerous.
So I just really hope that parents who might be anti-firearm and they are all excited about H.R.8 and H.R.1446, I hope that they at least are teaching their children these safety measures because I think too often it’s like I’m against and we’re not going to talk about guns and that really frightens me.
Dana:
With some of these Mom’s Demand, I think and to this point, I think that some of these members of Mom’s Demand I think concern me more than what law-abiding parents do when they have firearms. What was it in Harris County they had that one, she was the, I think it was the leader of the Texas chapter?
Julie:
Yeah.
Dana:
She ended up actually getting charged with disorderly conduct because she was screaming at two young girls in a cookie store because they were wearing Trump shirts.
Julie:
Oh my God, that’s right.
Dana:
She was screaming slang for women’s genitalia that I will not repeat in polite company on this podcast.
Julie:
This family-friendly podcast.
Dana:
Yeah. Yeah and this woman was one of the heads of it and I’ve watched as Mom’s Demand try to ironically advocate for disarmament of women by actually trying to collude with abusers to do so. I mean there’s a whole story there too.
Julie:
Oh, 100%. Yes, yes there is. Yes, there is.
Dana:
Yeah, I mean that to me and I’m glad you mentioned that they ripped off Project ChildSafe. They ripped off Project ChildSafe and then while they were giving this demonstration about firearms they ended up flagging everyone in the room in watching some of the video for that. So it’s like their people who are leading this safe handling and safe storage actually needed lessons on it.
Julie:
Yeah well in the lobby at my PTA event they had, I should say joint event, they had gun locks in the lobby that they were just saying, “Hey take one. Take them.” Which was hilarious because I thought they didn’t want us to have guns, but fine, and the locks were just a generic lock. They don’t even it. You have to have a lock that fits the firearm.
So they were handing these things out like refrigerator magnets and I’m sitting there and I’m asking, I said, “Hey what does this fit? Which gun? Is this for a Glock?” I’m asking questions and of course, they get this scared look on their face and I’m like, “This is not safe to give out to people to suggest…” it’s just this is what we’re dealing with here.
They don’t know anything and again I feel like that was actually unintentional because they didn’t know but I feel like that group intentionally misinforms so that when legislation comes down like H.R.8 people are like, “Oh since it’s as easy to buy a gun as it is a loaf of bread and anyone even felons can buy guns then wow we need this.” It’s just intentional. It’s creating a need when there isn’t. It’s creating this false sense that there’s a need when there is no need at all.
Dana:
Exactly.
Julie:
So see I love talking about this stuff but I cannot, this is purely personal. I want to have a conversation about this because I am homeschooling this year. It is my first year but you, you’ve done this for years.
Dana:
I did, yes.
Julie:
Yeah, I want to hear because see it’s so interesting. I feel like it’s very the in thing to do now, everybody’s homeschooling, right? But you did it for years so why did you do it? What happened or what made you think okay I’m going to homeschool my kids? I’m always interested in people’s stories.
Dana:
I can’t remember where it was that I read it my memory is failing me now as to who actually said it but something like the first seven years of a child’s life that’s when you really reinforce their character and you set in stone that foundation that’s going to shape how they grow and who they are for the rest of their lives and for the most impressionable years of my children’s lives I’m like I am the parent. I carried these children for nine months.
We were up with these kids, we as their parents are going to be the biggest influences in their lives until they become their own adults and they’re able to handle things on their own. And I also think that as a parent one our jobs is to find that skill that our kids are blessed with and have them nurture them and help them recognize it and just act as a facilitator so that they can do what they need to do to grow with that.
And just because I enjoy being with them. We joined a co-op in Missouri and so from my oldest was homeschooled up until eighth grade and then when we moved to Texas the church that we went to, my son was interested in checking out this Christian school so we did and he wanted to go there and then my youngest son was not going to get left out so he was home educated for less amount of time than my oldest one was but he was up until about fourth grade.
And then they went to their Christian school. My oldest son is in college now, he’s going into law which makes some sense. My youngest thinks that college is a racket and he’s my National Latin Scholar and he’s an honor roll kid and he thinks that honor roll is dumb because it’s just conditioning kids for acceptable behavior and it doesn’t mean anything when you’re an adult. And he’s hysterical so he’s going to go and be a computer programmer. That’s what he wants to do, he has his life all planned out.
But no we did it and I mean my kids are immovable mountains which is good and that’s what we wanted. We wanted kids who knew the difference between right and wrong who honor their parents and treated others kindly and stick up for those who need defending and defends their ideals and to be absolutely immovable when everyone else was malleable. So that’s what we focused on and I’m really proud of the young men that they’re becoming.
And they’re also super smart. I mean it’s a lot of fun and not everyone can do it and it’s definitely not for everybody but if people can and it is for them, I mean families know how to best adjust to what their kids need and the lessons are so fun.
Julie:
Well, they are so fun but I will say one thing. I think that since I just started this year I’ve come into a homeschooling environment that has really, it’s really developed. There’s a lot that sort of provide you with a lot of guidance and when I talk to people who… When I was going through this journey to decide I was talking to some women who did it way back in the 80s and 90s and homeschooling their kids that are now my age and they said that there weren’t these sets of curriculum.
They had to put it together themselves so it was a lot harder, so I always mention to people that homeschooling there are what they call school in a box. It comes with the entire curriculum and a guidebook and it really helps you through it so I feel like people who did it years ago, even 10 years ago didn’t have as many resources but I think homeschooling has taken off to a point now that they make it much easier on people who want to start. So I hope more people look into this and I think your right, it’s not for everybody, but I think there are an awful lot of people who think it will be too hard, but there are systems out there that make it very easy.
I appreciate you coming on this parenting podcast, it means a lot.
Dana:
No this is good, a fun discussion Julie. I enjoyed it.
Julie:
Well, and I hope you’ll come back on. Certainly, the Biden administration will be giving us a lot to talk about in the gun space.
Dana:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Julie:
I hope to have you on again soon. Thanks, Dana.
Dana:
Thanks, Julie, take care.
Julie:
You know I mentioned several times during the discussion with Dana that in my community you just don’t talk about guns it’s just not something… There’s even reluctance for kids to play with guns. I always nervous when the kids take their Nerf guns up to the school or up to this park near our house I get kind of nervous because that’s the culture up here.
It’s just guns are just frowned upon in every form. So it’s interesting, I was reading this article a couple of days ago and it was really interesting, they showed a picture of very little kids, probably in kindergarten, first grade and the picture was from 1925 and the article was saying that it was a scene from Hobby Fair at Burroughs Elementary School which is somewhere in Minneapolis and again this is 1925.
And what the Hobby Fair was, was it was show and tell. It was an opportunity for the kids to share their hobbies with their classmates. So the image shows one little girl on the end painting, there’s another little girl decorating a cake. Another little boy is tinkering with a radio set but then there’s this little boy in the middle who is clearly showing off his firearm collection. He has a couple of firearms.
And he’s holding up what looks like a rifle. So it’s kind of a shocking picture. When I saw it I was sort of shocked. Now the person who wrote this story said it could have been a Red Rider BB gun like the one in A Christmas Story but who knows and that doesn’t really matter because the idea of bringing either a real firearm or even a toy gun into a classroom today is so foreign a concept.
And not just in densely populated urban areas, I’m talking about anywhere in the country that is just such a no-no. It’s just very interesting to think of how the culture has changed toward guns and how it’s become this… It’s foreboden of course on school grounds and I’m not saying that’s bad, I don’t really want kids running into the classroom with a gun but certainly, a little boy showing off either a toy or a real gun maybe he hunts with his father seems a little bit young to be doing that.
But it does show again how far that we have gone. So I really thank Dana for coming on and chatting on that issue and on gun safety, gun storage, and other issues of concern particularly with the legislation that just passed this week.
Thanks, everyone for being here for another episode of the Bespoke Parenting Hour. If you enjoyed this episode or like the podcast in general please leave a rating or review on iTunes. This helps ensure that the podcast reaches as many listeners as possible. If you haven’t subscribed to the Bespoke Parenting Hour on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts please do so, so you won’t miss an episode.
Don’t forget to share this episode and let your friends know that they can get Bespoke episodes on their favorite podcast app. From all of us here at The Independent Women’s Forum thanks for listening.