Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When I see all the negative and PC replies on here, I need to remember that most CD-ers are urbanites.
When I see references to 'PC', I need to remember that most people prone to complaining about political correctness weirdly (and wrongly) define it as 'any opinion with which I disagree'...
When I see references to 'PC', I need to remember that most people prone to complaining about political correctness weirdly (and wrongly) define it as 'any opinion with which I disagree'...
I was actually pleasantly surprised at the LACK of PC replies in this thread.
I invite friends to bring their children over for .22 plinking parties and small arms training. They get a chance to fire rifles and handguns in a safe manner. Eight years old is an appropriate age. After shooting the kids get to put the guns on a bench, field strip and clean them. They get multiple sessions. Some of them end up with no interest in guns, some end up avid shooters. It's their choice. I never hand a kid a gun too big for them.
You can talk at them forever, but the best way for them to learn is by doing. One of the first things I do is put a Ramset blank in the chamber and have them shoot a piece of heavy cardboard. Of course it blows a hole in the cardboard, with no bullet at all. They need to learn basic safety from the first time they touch a gun.
I found the question a little startling because it assumes that it's a given that one will eventually allow a child to use firearms.
I know this comes as a giant shock to some, but there are people out there who have never fired a weapon in their lives.
I was in my 40s before I ever touched a gun. It was a shotgun, and I was visiting my sister and her husband, both of whom hunt. They had a makeshift firing range set up out in the woods near where they live, and they offered to show my other sister and I and our kids how to shoot at clay pigeons using the shotguns.
I relayed this story to some people I "talk" with on another Internet forum, and one of them, a man who lives in Washington State, said he found it impossible to believe that I had reached my 40s without ever firing a gun. That threw me a little--that someone actually thinks that way and would think it was something I was lying about. He's not a kid. He's my age--yet he doesn't know that NOT EVERYONE uses guns? It was just weird.
Anyway, that day was the first time for both my daughter and I. My brother-in-law made us all watch an NRA gun safety video before we went out into the woods.
Since then, I think the only time my daughter fired a weapon was last year when she (now an adult) took her father to a firing range here in the NJ suburbs for his birthday.
I sometimes have house guests who have never fired a gun. I try to get them out in the pasture for a little plinking with a .22. I'm outraged by those stupid YouTube videos of putting high caliber weapons in the hands of an inexperienced shooter and then taking videos of them hurting themselves. A person's first shooting experience should be both safe and pleasant.
My dad gave me my first, a single shot .22 short Boy Scout rifle from the 40s at the age of 5. That was in 1991, and the same rifle he learned to shoot with in the late 1940s.
Before I even held the gun, the four cardinal gun safety rules were repeated ad nauseum until I could recite them from memory. Then actually learning how to hold the rifle, load it (with dummy rounds), get a sight picture, etc. There was a period of 3 months going over everything before I fired my first shot with live rounds.
I got my first "real" centerfire rifle as a birthday gift in 1993, an IBM M1 Carbine made during WWII. The perfect rifle for an 8 year old; lightweight, compact, easy to use. I still own it to this day, as well as that Boy Scout .22, and plan on teaching my future children how to shoot, much like my dad taught me.
I found the question a little startling because it assumes that it's a given that one will eventually allow a child to use firearms.
I know this comes as a giant shock to some, but there are people out there who have never fired a weapon in their lives.
Raises hand. In my mid 50's and have not only never fired a gun, I don't believe I've ever even touched one. We don't own guns. I think at some point I'd enjoy learning to target shoot. I think I'd enjoy that. But I'm uninterested in having a gun in the house and I'm too cheap to want to spend money on it as well so we'll see if that ever comes to anything.
Squirrels are responsible for nearly 20% of power/data outages, they have even taken down the New York Stock Exchange...twice. They like to gnaw cables, and transformers are attractive as nesting sites.
I first held a gun (a .38 revolver) and was taught gun safety before I could read. It is one of my earliest childhood memories. My father was a cop and he felt that if there was a gun in the house we should know what it was and how to act safely with it. I feel that this is the most responsible thing to do, regardless of whether the gun is stored in a lockbox or a sock drawer.
In fact, I think that ALL children should be taught gun safety, at an early age (just like looking both ways before crossing the street) regardless of whether the parents keep guns in the house or not. Eliminate the mystery. It is not unheard of for a criminal to just toss a gun after using it (especially if being chased by the cops), and not at all implausible that a [curious] child might find such a discarded weapon. A curious child who finds a weapon, whether in a house or on the street, who has no knowledge of them is much more likely to hurt him/herself or someone else than a child who knows what it is, how dangerous it can be, and how to handle it (or NOT handle it). Ignorance [of weapons (and other harmful items/actions)] is much more dangerous than knowledge.
There is no escaping a child being exposed to violence and the use of weapons- TV, movies, news (papers and TV), video games, real life, etc. Most children know what guns are, and how to pull the trigger to make it work. Which of those children are in a better position to know enough not to get hurt (or hurt someone else)- the one who knows what it is, how it works and how dangerous it can be...or the ignorant one who points it at a friend and says "Bang, bang, you're dead" and pulls the trigger?
I was probably about 8 when I got my first BB gun. I was 12 when I got my first .22 and began participating in the Junior NRA/DCM program, and began shooting competetively (and eventually taking blue ribbons at regional meets with my cheap little Marlin-Glenfield against others with custom target rifles). At 17 I was only two steps from the top level in the DCM program...the only reason I didn't reach the top was because I elected to join the Army. The DIs didn't have to waste any time teaching *me* how to shoot, and I quickly became an expert with every weapon that was put in my hands.
(And, not only do I believe that all children should be taught about guns and gun safety at an early age, I think there should be a mandatory military training and service period beginning not later than age 18, perhaps modeled much like the Swiss program.)
Yes, I know that squirrels and chipmunks can be nuisances and pests.....but teaching a child to kill them for sport is not how to go about controlling them. And I believe they they eat all the squirrel they kill as much as I believe in the tooth fairy.
My son was about 8 when my wife (Bergen County, NJ born and raised believe it or not- she's a GREAT shot!) and I took him to the range and let him fire .22 handgun and rifle.
He loved it. As he got older we moved up to 9mm, .45, 7.62x39, .223, etc.
When he was 10 we allowed him to use his own money to buy an airsoft AR15 look-alike. Many of his friends were into airsoft too.
He knew the score, if he abused the privilege, it would be destroyed and discarded.
Reminds me, my wife has been bugging me about us going back and doing some more shooting. She prefers the 9mm handguns.
Raises hand. In my mid 50's and have not only never fired a gun, I don't believe I've ever even touched one. We don't own guns. I think at some point I'd enjoy learning to target shoot. I think I'd enjoy that. But I'm uninterested in having a gun in the house and I'm too cheap to want to spend money on it as well so we'll see if that ever comes to anything.
Like MQ, I grew up in NJ. Nobody I knew had guns, including my family. I only saw them on the policemen and on TV westerns. I dated a cop for a few years when I was around 20, and went to the range with him.
I think he had a 357 Magnum. It knocked me on my keister. That was enough.
I don't have an issue with families that keep guns for hunting, and introduce their kids to the sport. It isn't my thing, but I understand the herds need to be culled for their own benefit.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) and I took him to the range and let him fire .22 handgun and rifle.
