Here Sweetie, Have a Gun for Your Fifth Birthday
March 13, 2009 
A few years ago, I was speaking to group of about twenty Australians. We were deep in the heart of a state forest, surrounded by pine trees and listening to the sounds of the breeze rustling through the pine needles and the ever-present birds. I had just concluded a Dharma talk and people were raising questions and discussing what had been said in the talk. It was a safe environment, one in which everyone felt comfortable with one another as most were friends and the strangers had soon felt at ease.
One newcomer raised a question about parents and after my response he replied that he had been abused as a child. After he spoke, another person said she too had been abused. As each person spoke, it was gradually revealed that with the exception of two people, myself and a gentleman from the UK, every person had experienced some form of abuse, neglect, or abandonment as a child.
The gentleman spoke fondly of his mother and of the wonderful meals she had cooked for her children. I remembered forays into the woods like the one we were in with my father who taught me to identify various leaves and who had posted his property with “No hunting” signs. But apparently we were very much in the minority, the two people who had good childhoods. Eighteen others had experienced very different childhoods.
Amazing.
And terribly frightening. And sad.
Since that day, I have had several discussions with this gentleman about the high level of family abuse here. Was it because of the isolation of few people in a large country and the absence of a good support system? Was it related to alcohol and drug abuse? A failure of public education? Is it something built into the culture since the arrival of Europeans and even before as suggested by Carolyn Worth from the Victorian Centres Against Sexual Assault (CASA) Forum in an ABC interview?
On March 11th on the Herald Sun website is an article “More Victorian families taking children hunting.” There is a poll on the page with the question: Should children be encouraged to shoot animals? It’s a simple poll with only two choices: “Yes, it is character building” and “No, it's too brutal.” I checked the latter, clicked submit, and saw the current results.
And was horrified.
Out of a total of total of 15280 votes, 89% (13648 votes) said “Yes.” Only 10% (1632 votes) said “No.”
Almost ninety percent of responders thought it okay to encourage children to shoot animals, that it built character. As the person who emailed me about the poll said, this was probably not an accurate representation of Australians as a whole, but due somewhat to the newspaper’s demographics.
But whether the number is 90% or 50% or whatever, children as young as three years old were going out with their fathers and watching as animals were killed. One person interviewed for the article said “You do get a lot of kids out with their dads as it is a traditional family activity.”
A traditional family activity. That "builds character."
(Picture from the Herald Sun)
Reader Comments (10)
As your friend said of the news poll and story, probably it as much to do with demographics as fact. Ofen in these "straw polls" responses are stacked by those passionate about an issue,and in my wide experience as an aging Aussie, I suspect this is the case here.
As you may have heard, there is another voluntary morotorium on the surrender of illegal or unwanted firearms about to commence (or has it already started?..such is my interest in weaponery!).
This has stirred the very vocal, but in the minority, pro gun lobby to action, and I can see the loaded question (pun intended) being answered multiple times in the affirmative by members of this group to try to weigh the arguement for fewer gun laws in their favour.
As to the astonishing 80% of your group claiming to have been abused as children...Huh???
Again, in my almost 70 years, 40 of those spent as a health care professional, I have never seen or heard any evidence to support such an epidemic of abuse.
I am not saying the group were lying, but perhaps indulging in the very pecular Australian habit of 'one up-man-ship", or "anything you can do I can do better" syndrome.:-)
Down here, it seems, everyone has a caught fish bigger than his mates, has driven a car faster, has recorded more rain, gained higher marks, received more injuries at sport, had more problems in childbirth etc etc. So if Joe says 'I had a frightful childhood, I was belted every week-end", you can be sure that others in the group will have embellished tales to top this experience. Sadly Australians love to "stretch the truth".
I am sure that in the over 50 years old demographic,(was your group in this range?) most kids would have suffered what we now rightly consider abuse.
The stick and strap were weilded with righteous vigour both at home and school! Many fathers,and lots of mothers, were very strict and even cruel disciplinarians. Not the right thing to have happened, but as you surmised, although for a different reason, it was part of the culture.
Pre Second World War, Australian child rearing methods were,with few exceptions,still based on the harsh old pre 1920s British/Irish traditions.
Such beliefs as " children were seen and not heard", must be disciplined severely to build characters (the stiff upper lip thing) and raised on tthe premise that to "spare the rod was to spoil the child prevailed.
Parents raised on this regime, as happens, used the same methods to raise thier children, right down to our generations, those born between 1940 and 1960/70.
Fortunately this is now the exception.
The introduction of immigrants of other nationalities with kinder and more tolerant attitudes toward their children, the advent of more information and education, better living conditions and greater wealth, bringing less stress, and children being more aware of their "rights" have all tipped this behaviour away from abuse (and often to the other cruelty of over indulgence.). At least I hope and believe, through my experience and observations, that this is so.
Most of us hate what guns do, and don't want any easing of gun laws (ours are amongst the world most stringent for private ownership), fewer persons per capita of population hunt than do in most other countries, and we do love our kids and treat them with kindness and respect.. :-)
I would hate to see Aussies branded as child abusing, red-necked, gun toting,peoples because of the sins of the past and the few.
I am so sorry that you were distressed by these stories and "polls". Amituofo
It's disturbing that so many people voted "yes" to taking children hunting AFTER reading the comments in the article by psychologists who warn of the harm to children from this.
Yes, the group was comprised mainly of those 50 or over. I knew almost everyone there, but only knew in detail the personal history of three and those histories were very different from the ones I and the gentleman had enjoyed. I sincerely hope there was some upmanship, but knowing the people there, I'm not sure how much this would have contributed.
Also, I wouldn't say that 80% were "abused." As I mentioned it was more "abuse, neglect, and abandonment." Regrettably abandonment is very much a problem in our world today as more people opt for moving in together or temporary partnerships than marriages. And in the marriages, more spouses opt for shorter-term marriages. Fortunately, I know some wonderful examples of "long-term" marriages like yours.
You bring up an interesting point on the immigration of people from other cultures. When reading the other article mentioned in the entry, I had wondered about this. Since the second author felt the problems went back to early days, it seemed that with Australia's now very multicultural society, (I think about 25% of people living here were born in other countries. I'm due at the retreat and don't have time to check that number!) the arrival of people from other cultures would have influenced the habits of prior arrivals.
I have to leave for the retreat now, but there will be two more entries in what is becoming a "mini-series."
http://www.toshogu.blogspot.com
However, it could be the case that members of hunting or gun associations are being rallied to the cause to cast their vote. I hope this is the case.
Personally, I think histories of child abuse would be very common for people in Australia over about age 45. In my family we were belted with a strap regularly and for the slightest infraction. As Judy said, that was considered normal and acceptable then, but it was, nevertheless, abuse, and no less damaging for its supposed normalcy. Thankfully some things have changed for the better. At least it's no longer socially acceptable.
I would like to bring up another understanding of this situation-- survival. I spent my summers on a farm in Southern Georgia. Our closest neighbors were at least a mile away. There were no animal control officers or police. Any situation meant YOU were going to deal with it IMMEDIATELY. No 911 was available. There were 13 varieties of deadly snakes, bobcats, panthers, etc. If you were to go boating, two people "rode shotgun" to prevent water mockasin snakes (deadly and aggressive) from coming in the boat. I was taught to shoot--in self-defense. My guess is that those living in the Outback might have a similar situations with dingos and rabid animals. I personally encountered a deadly rattler on my front door knob. I ran and fortunately, was not followed. I also encountered wild dogs (maybe rabid) and saw large cats.
I offer up the perspective that those parents may feel this is a way of teaching their offspring survival. There is no stronger emotion than protecting the young. They have built this into their "traditions".
What city dwellers, who do not often face the same situations, see as deplorable violence, they see as keeping their families alive. Although, those in the violent inner cities may also see guns as a necessary tool for surviving.
Understanding is the first step. Would you tell them to not defend themselves or their children from harm in this type of environment? Would you be okay sending your children out with no survival skills? I think these are the questions they would present to you if they were a part of this discussion.
I was raised this way. I do have a gun. I do know how to shoot it. I do not take its power or consequences lightly. I was taught it is for defensive use only. It was presented as a tool. A bow and arrow or a knife are also tools. Yes, we understood we would be killing a living being if we shot it. We also understood if we did not, we may be dead in short order.
Are Buddhists allowed to defend themselves? Do those who protect the Dalai Lama carry guns? Knives?
I don't know. I always think a discussion is healthy and hope those reading this will increase their understanding without first condemning. Fear and survival are powerful motivators.
Thank you for allowing me to present a different viewpoint.
Sue K
Some of the Australian attitude was certainly linked to the harshness of our country during settlement of the country areas (away from the heavily settled coastal fringe) in the early 1900s, where earlier this survival relied on hard work, self reliance and growing up fast, but that was also pre WW1 history.
Development here lagged maybe 20 yrs behind that of Europe and America because of our isolation.
This continued up to the end of the second World War,when communications and travel were much accelerated, and then was slowed again until the 1960's by the slow economic recovery and "credit squeeze" which made money for housing, development, education, harder to come by.
In this period many Mothers returned to, or started to ,work outside the home by economic necessity,and children had to take on more household tasks and be more responsible, . Some children rarely saw fathers, who often worked 2-3 jobs.
I was one of these kids, having to prepare evening meals from age 9-10 and watch my naughty sibling (and bear the whacks if either of us did wrong!) I guess I could have felt neglected, and I probably did, but as i grew older I understood why these things happened, accepted it and moved on.
Sure sometimes I get resentful that I had such a lousy relationship with my father,but I have learnt that it is what has made me who I am. for good or bad :-)
As for firearm use, we really don't have very many dangerous animals ready to attack down here, or have a need to carry weapons to fend them off. Dingoes are not really vicious or likeles to bite unless encourage to seek humans food scraps by irresponsible campers, they are by nature man-shy beasts, and we have no rabid creatures in Australia.
I am sure the firearm lobby rounded up all friends family and other allies to vote, and those cyber savvy who have several email accounts can sign on to the web site under several identities and vote again too. I also hope this is the case, becasue if not, we are seeing the explosion of a previously minor group. Which is terrifying. Amituofo.
,I am sure, though, a lot of country kids are still being given rifles far ahead of their common sense and ration thinking quotents! A sad indictment at times of the IQ and responsibility of their parents,
Thank you for your comment. I understand what you're saying but it feels like you were taught to defend yourself whereas the article is talking about killing as a means "to build character." Respecting another being’s right to life, having compassion for those who suffer, understanding that what happens to us is a result of our past karmas and that current karmas will create our future lives are ways to build character.
Judy knows the history and living conditions in Australia infinitely better than I, but I do know a little bit about living in a small town with a few thousand people. I would imagine the biggest risk could be a brown snake (like water moccasins in the U.S.). But in the local news article I read where a man grabbed his gun and was trying to shoot a snake but tragically killed his wife, one of the commenters asked why the husband hadn’t just grabbed a shovel. What was he doing with a gun?
As for the Dalai Lama, I have no personal knowledge, but cannot imagine anyone who accompanies him or any other Buddhist master ever carrying a knife or a gun.
If someone or some animal threatens me, this is a karmic connection from the past. The Buddha showed us how to react to those trying to kill us in the account of Angulimala (it's on the blog, just enter the name in the search box) as well as in other sutras. The Buddha did not fight back. In the second account; the bodhisattva did not fight back as he was killed. For those not at this high level, we can try to escape, or if necessary just injure the person to allow ourselves time to escape. Essentially, try to do the least ha
But the above are not the issue here. I'm not writing about defending oneself, I'm writing about children being taken hunting. From the Herald Sun article: “One photo shows a boy, 5, holding a pig while dogs destroy it. Another shows a mother in front of a dead pig with her toddler son strapped to her back.” Such images and experiences plant seeds in the child’s consciousness that will one day mature.
And seeds of violence mature as even more violent results.
Being raised in the country, she has also slaughtered and watched the slaughtering of many animals. When I asked her how she felt at those times, she just shrugged and smiled and said that "It's a bit like a prostitute having sex - you just cut off. It's just part of life". She didn't seem to have any awareness that there had been anything damaging to her about cutting off and shutting down. She has children of her own now who appear to be having the same experiences as she had as a child. She said that it was good for the children to "be exposed to the realities of life. To know what's what". It makes me think of those people who say "My dad gave me the strap every day and it didn't do me any harm" and then just continue the cycle. Very sad.
I grew up gutting chickens and sheep.You never think about them as animals. Growing up on a farm, animals were never really sentient beings to us: they were always a dollar value, an investment.In childhood, Australian kids would get punished for even suggesting that the animal might hurt, as this would be seen as stupidity and repulsive weakness of character.
I remember one of the most shocking things I read when I first encountered Buddhism was that animals can suffer too. I'd never realised this before, and it was like an enormous cultural veil had been lifted from my eyes, and for the first time in my life I was able to feel the emotions that are taboo in my culture- namely, empathy for animals. The power of culture and upbringing to blind is very deep.
Moreover, on a slightly different note, I found what Ven. Wu Ling's comments about Toowoomba amusing, as up until a year ago, Toowoomba has been my home. As a native Toowoomba-ite, I see nothing strange at all in a man having a gun and shooting a snake with it. In rural places, every house will have a rifle, because you 'need' it to shoot kangaroos, which are 'a threat to your income and livelihood'. In places where there are wild pigs, these 'need' to be shot too. The aforementioned dingoes 'need' to be shot as well, because they eat your sheep. Guns are just an unquestioned part of life out here.
It's what we do, it's what we've always done, and it's what we're going to do into the future unless there is a change in the way we as Australians view our relationship with animals. All it takes is education.
Namo Amituofo,
Jack