Preschoolers Thoughts About Guns

After the infamous You Tube clip about the Invisible Children went wild last week, my kids started to pay attention.  Caleb saw the Today show talking about it while he ate breakfast and it really got him thinking. 

On the way to school that day, we picked up Caleb's carpool friend, Izzy.  In the midst of the kids singing silly songs and picking on each other, Caleb said, "Mom, can you tell Izzy the news?"

At first I did not understand what news he was referring to.  As far as I knew, our family did not have a baby on the way (I promise!) or had plans to sell the house and that is usually the first two things to think of when hearing "news."

He said, "You know, about the kids in Africa."

Now, it is one thing to explain the Invisible Children to my own kids in my own way, but to explain it to someone else's child?  Um, a little uncomfortable. 

I explained to Izzy that in some parts of Africa, there is a bad man who takes kids from their homes and teaches them to use guns to kill people.  I also explained that we should pray for the people in those countries. 

Caleb chimed in with, "He even makes them kill their own parents!"

Thank you, Caleb.  And thank you, Today show, for announcing such things at 7 a.m. 

Izzy thought about this for a moment, and then had two profound statements.

"My daddy uses a gun, but he doesn't use it to kill people."

And...

"There is going to be a lot of pets in Heaven.  Every time our pets die, they go there because God likes them so much."

Okay.  We went from Invisible Children, to dads who use guns to pets in Heaven.  I simply love preschool children.

Later on that evening, Caleb came up with a plan.  He said, "Mom, if that bad guy takes me and tells me to shoot people, I'll just shoot him."

Ah, the logic of my five-year old.