What is the problem with an infant in a gunshop? Wouldn't it be worse parenting to leave it outside? Or do you advocate people leaving their infants on the sidewalk if the parents are to buy guns, cars, cigarettes, alcohol, prescription drugs, or anything else potentially hazardous?

And as for the fathers knowledge about weapons, he seems to be doing fine to me. On the photo above he is apparently checking the bore by sticking a flashlight up the magazine well and looking through the barrel. There is no magazine in the gun and the cocking lever seems to be locked open proving a lack of round in the chamber.

Also, the other people in the picture seems to be clerks surveying the store rather than be distracted by an infant. Notice how theya re behind the counter looking out. I am quite assured you could walk in with a chicken suit on and they would just give you a passing glance - after all they know one clerk will help you, and their job is to make sure no shoplifting occurs and that other customers get help.

If the kid inherits his fathers talents with guns... oh, then he is probably going to be a weaponsmith, a cop, a bodyguard, or one of the other professions that would be closely inspecting a heckler and koch mp5k SMG (sub machine gun).

Drawing conclusions from pictures is bad practice - there is always another side to the story. But the author of this entry seems more interested in jumping to conclusions.

It is difficult to spot the difference between satire and true opinions on the internet, and for mistaking your intentions I apologize.

As for the serious note, I personally grew up with a pacifist mother, and did not even have - or miss - a toygun for most of my adolescence. She was however very clear on one thing - a gun is a tool. It is used for killing things, and it is very good at that. She taught me that even a toygun should be approached knowing what it was emulating. A killing tool.

No, I do not believe kids seeing parents handling guns increases the chance of them believing it is toys. Sure, an infant would be hard pressed to know the difference, but the same goes for drano, knives, cigarettes and so on. A parent being irresponsible with weapons will definitely have a bad influence on their children, but a parent being responsible with weapons is likely to teach their children that same responsibility.

In the end it doesn't matter whether the parents visit gunshops with their kids or not, or even whether they condone guns or not. In the end it just matters what they teach their kids about guns. It matters if they are responsible parents or not. And not even my mother, pacifist as she was, would say that visiting a gunshop was irresponsible.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this picture was Liquor World. I live in a dry county so when I go to the liquor store it is a big affair. The store has carts. I felt a little guilty the first time I took my 4-year-old in for the monthy booze stock up. I didn't know if that was socially acceptable or not, but at the register they gave her a lollipop. It's all good. The baby in the gun shop makes me want to hurl, but I'm sure there are gun owners who'd feel the same about my kid in the Tequila aisle. This is America!

If only every parent had the common sense you so graciously share... "Kids are taught no to guns, no to drugs, no to alcohol, no to walking in the streets. When they grow up they find out guns are tools, alcohol is a tool, drugs are tools (even though the tools we favour are from the pharmacy), and sometimes to get where we are going we walk in the street. Kids need to be taught the underlying difference between use and abuse, so that when they grow up and out of your home, they will be able to make a choice based on that very basic guideline, instead of learning the hard and possibly lethal way." I couldn't have said it better.

If you want to live idealistically, fine. But the world would have succumbed to evildoers a LONG time ago if good people didn't have weapons to defend themselves.

So, I really don't see your point about how a baby in a gunshop is awful. Would you rather the parent leave the child outside in the car?

You fail.