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As I said before, I know hunters provide a necessary function for the rest of us, by controlling the population of certain wildlife. And the hunters I know either eat what they kill, or donate the meat to food pantries. We need hunters at this point.
But why does your son need a pistol? Handguns aren't used for hunting. Is it strictly for target shooting?
When my kids were young, handguns were rare. They were able to strap on a holster and a pair of shiny silver guns to play cowboys and Indians. I would never take that risk today, too many people would assume the guns are real.
As I said before, I know hunters provide a necessary function for the rest of us, by controlling the population of certain wildlife. And the hunters I know either eat what they kill, or donate the meat to food pantries. We need hunters at this point.
But why does your son need a pistol? Handguns aren't used for hunting. Is it strictly for target shooting?
When my kids were young, handguns were rare. They were able to strap on a holster and a pair of shiny silver guns to play cowboys and Indians. I would never take that risk today, too many people would assume the guns are real.
Actually they are. A few caliburs such as the .460 S&W are made for the purpose of handgun hunting.
I worried more about what could happen away from home. Especially considering an 11-year-old's brain isn't fully developed. An 11-year-old, even one well trained in firearm safety, can make a stupid, life-altering decision.
About 15 years or so ago, we had an incident in the area where a 14-yr-old unlocked the box where his father kept his handgun, then handed it to his 12-yr-old friend who promptly accidentally shot him in the heart.. The father was a lawyer who bought the gun for "protection " in the sleepy little suburb where they lived. He pulled into his street coming home from work in time to see the helicopter airlifting his son to take him to the trauma center, where he died. It was heartbreaking.
I also told my daughter to leave if she was somewhere that a gun appeared.
I did the same when I was a kid. I remember being at a party at someone's house. We were around 18 and drinking beer and the kid at whose house we were got his dad's gun and the boys were all passing it around the kitchen table. Even back then I knew "drunk teenagers with a gun = not safe" and my friend and I left.
I think the OP's question was another attempt by the "fire arms community" to normalize lethal weapons as part of a healthy, All American upbringing - like the bike riding example I gave - or Little League, when I grew up, or soccer for my kids generation.
I was a Boy Scout for a while and I didn't even realize that there was a badge for guns.
The US will probably always be divided about this issue.
The Gun People think that those of us who do not have guns or lust after them, constantly want to take them away from others. Most of us don't.
You'd be shocked at how little we think about them at all.
Except when a crazy person mows down a bunch of kids at a school. Then we start thinking about better background checks.
My oldest daughter learned to shoot when she was 9. We had been practicing with airsoft (plastic BB) guns in the garage for a long time before that. I took her to the safest range that I know of, and the range officer was watching us pretty closely while she was learning, until he realized that we were very careful and I knew what I was doing while I was teaching her. My younger daughter hasn't learned to shoot yet because her hands aren't big enough to hold any of our guns securely. I had bought a very small Glock with the intention of having her learn with that gun, but when I tried it first, it had more recoil than I liked and it jammed pretty often, so I sold it. It's hard to find something that will work for her because she can't hold a gun at the store to see how it will fit in her hands.
I used to be against the idea of owning guns. I grew up in a home that had no guns and we weren't even allowed toy guns or water guns. What changed for me? I married a man whose dad and grandfather had been police officers, and who was used to always having guns around. He bought a shotgun for home defense the first year that we were married. He bought a handgun later on when he needed it for work, and in the last few years when we've had a little more money, he's bought several others. I bought my own gun after someone forced the door while he was at work. I was home alone with the kids. I was lucky, something must have scared the guy off after he cracked the doorframe, because he didn't come in. But if he had, all I had was a bottle of windex and a rolling pin...I figured I'd spray windex in his eyes and then hit him over the head with the rolling pin. I never wanted to feel that unprepared to protect my kids again, so I bought the gun.
Why teach the kids to shoot? I'm teaching them to sew, cook, make home repairs, change a tire, make a budget, etc. To me, learning gun safety and how to shoot is just another life skill. I don't believe that every kid needs to learn it, but a kid who grows up in a house with guns should learn how to use them safely.
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