I’m writing a book and one of the kid’s dad is a cop. There are some moments where he’s potentially around potentially dangerous people potentially involving guns. I’m not sure how he should realistically react.
Same as his classmates? No big deal unless threatened? Weary around gun “in the wild”? Has been to the shooting range and knows how to shoot if necessary?
Thank you.
13 comments
Why don’t you just develop the character to be what you want by providing background and context instead of trying to generalize? Make the character react however you want them to react and explain why?
“Little Johnny saw the gun. He was shocked to realize that he wasn’t scared. His dad had been a police officer for 20 years and taught him about firearms from a young age. He knew…”
That’s more natural and relatable than,
“Little Johnny saw the gun. He wasn’t scared because his dad is a cop and, naturally, he reacted the way all cops’ kids react.”
Obligatory “Reddit Moment” Not A Cop disclaimer, but my wife worked as a corrections nurse for a while, and I had the dubious pleasure of hanging out with a lot of sheriff’s deputies.
Their kids are pretty typical, albeit slightly more country than the average kiddo – they tend to live in the outskirts of the suburbs. Junior has likely fired a gun before, but may or may not do so as a hobby. He likely doesn’t do 3-gun competitions or “shoot house” stuff. He’s seen his dad thunk his holster and duty belt on the kitchen bartop after a long day and doesn’t think much of it other than “don’t touch it.”
Honestly, the bigger question is “Why is this kid around dangerous people to begin with?” Regular parents will tell their kids “You are judged by the company you keep,” but cops are much, much starker in their distinction between Citizens and Criminals, and Junior has likely been immersed in that worldview since he was very little.
There’s a Pareto distribution to crime, and Dad spends the vast majority of his shift responding to the 20% of society that commits 80% of the crime. Regular people give lip service to “oh, that guy just made a mistake, but he’s back on the straight and narrow now;” cops are far more likely to be unapologetic about their beliefs that some people are just shitbag individuals who can’t help but constantly break the law. Anyone who associates with such people is tarred with the same brush.
So is Junior rebelling against this? Does he hate his authoritarian asshole of a dad? (Very possible!) Why is he hanging out with the people whom his dad sees as the incorrigible root of all of society’s problems?
My father isn’t a cop, but all my uncles were military and I grew up seeing guns and my reaction would probably depend on how the person was using the gun.
My uncles always told me “treat every gun like it’s loaded, and don’t point it at anything you aren’t willing to kill ”
So if someone’s just waving one around yeah, I’m gonna get nervous. If they’re holding it but keeping it pointed away from people/to the ground, I assume they’re not a huge threat.
My old man’s a retired cop and he had me shooting from the age of 7.
My brother is a cop and his kid will for sure be comfortable and familiar with guns. Our dad was not a cop and didn’t do much with guns but we grew up comfortable and familiar with guns.
My dad and mom hunted and I’v been around guns my whole life. I knew not to mess with the guns. i still don’t.
I started out with my BB gun when I was like 6, was a much better shot after I got my glasses.
Now these are pretty different then hand guns cops have but if you are near then enough they don’t have that taboo thing going on like people give them
Obviously this would depend on the region by my dad is NYPD. Growing up I rarely interacted with guns but he occasionally did let me touch his gun. He taught me basic gun safety and let me dry fire his duty pistol a couple times. He also taught me that you should wash your hands after touching a bullet because they’re made of led. I’m sure if I grew up in rural Louisiana he’d take me out in the woods to shoot and hunt and be much more familiar with shooting and gun maintenance.
Dad was a cop. Don’t remember a time I ever saw his gun growing up, definitely never touched it. Only time I saw him with a gun was when he retired and I went with him to turn his weapon in. Only people I ever saw with guns were when I was at his station a few times.. obviously on duty officers have guns in their holsters. But seeing someone with a gun randomly would definitely scare the crap out of me. Unless I was at a gun range or something and was expecting it.
Obligatory “I’m not a cop” but the few I’ve known personally could barely name the model number of the gun they carried every day, one even told me his Glock 22 was a .22 caliber (it’s actually a .40s&w). They shoot just enough as required and no more, so I highly doubt they took their kids shooting.
But everyone is different, I’m a member of a shooting forum with several active duty cops who are very into shooting and taking their kids/grandkids to the range.
… potentially… potentially…potentially… realistically react.
Why worry about realism when everything is potentially?
I had a cop parent (and other cop family members) growing up, for the sake of this conversation I’d basically say my gun knowledge/behavior is the same as any average person who didn’t grow up around guns.
It would vary from kid to kid. Heck even from cop to cop. You’d be surprised how little some cops know about firearms.
This is a weird question, because you seem to imply that children of police have different attitudes towards guns than children with parents who have guns but aren’t police. Unless your story is set somewhere like NYC, I don’t understand why they would.