The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Does teaching gun safety help stop accidents?

Lakota considers cutting 69 teachers
2/13/12
Budget includes $476B highway bill
2/13/12
Lack of land bank may impact funding for Butler County
2/13/12
Obama unveils $3.8T spending plan
2/13/12
President wants to boost U.S. manufacturing
2/13/12
> More headlines

Beth Varley, who is involved in a Concealed Carry Weapons class, stands with her husband, Oxford Police Sgt. Jon Varley, in the gun safe room in their Trenton home. Staff photo by Nick Daggy

Staff photo by Nick Daggy Beth Varley, who is involved in a Concealed Carry Weapons class, stands with her husband, Oxford Police Sgt. Jon Varley, in the gun safe room in their Trenton home. Staff photo by Nick Daggy

By Everdeen Mason, Staff Writer Updated 7:42 AM Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Jake Varley, of Trenton, learned to shoot a gun when he was 8 years old. Now 11, Jake has his own .22 rifle, and is pursuing a Boy Scout badge in rifle shooting.

In the wake of two recent accidental shooting deaths in the region — involving a 5-year-old Hamilton boy and a 3-year-old Vandalia boy — it may seem counter-intuitive to some people that exposing a child to guns may actually be the way to prevent such accidents.

But that’s the point of view advanced by Oxford police Sgt. Jon Varley, who takes his family’s gun education very seriously.

“There are guns in the house,” Varley said. “I have approximately 12 handguns and six rifles. I think (my family) ought to know how they work. By showing them, it takes the mystique out of it, and the curiosity level goes down.”

Nationwide, there were 154 unintentional firearm deaths among children 19 years old and younger in 2006, according to the latest data available from the Centers for Disease Control National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Five were in Ohio. The CDC reported 4,165 unintentional nonfatal injuries from firearms for the same age group in 2007.

Varley’s guns are locked away in a safe. The ammunition is locked away in a separate safe. Only he and his wife, Beth, know where the keys are.

“By educating everybody, they get a healthy respect (of guns) rather than fearing them,” he said. Varley takes his family out to a friend’s farm in Indiana and teaches them about guns one on one. His son Nate, 8, is just now learning how to shoot.

Beth Varley also is learning. She recently took the Hamilton Ladies Only Concealed Carry Weapon Class.

“They kind of scared me (at first), but he took me out and showed me,” she said. “We have guns in the house, and I need to know how to use them. (Jon is) not always here with me.”

Share this article