[striker3]

Reading about the young boy who shot his brother brought to mind the technique that my Dad used to instill in me the power of a firearm.

When I was about 4 or 5, I used to sit outside and watch birds. One day, my Dad came outside with his shotgun and proceeded to shoot some of the birds that I had been watching. He then made me hold their lifeless bodies and explained to me that they were gone forever, I could never watch them again. He then explained to me the diffrence between my toy guns and his guns. This lesson stayed with me through all of my years. Yes, being a kid and snooping around as kids do, I did come across his firearms, but I always treated them with the respect that they deserved.

He recently gave this lesson to my 2 little sisters, this time using a rabbit. Hopefully they learned their lesson as I learned mine.

I know that this may sound cruel to some people, but it worked great in my case, I learned that Firearms are meant to cause death, death is irreversable, and we got dinner :D

I would like to know, how were taught to respect firearms?

[Ukraine Train]

That sounds pretty effective. I think I remember someone saying their dad shot their favorite stuffed animal when they were a kid to demonstrate the same thing. I lived in the USSR til I was almost seven so there was no need to educate me about gun safety as there were no guns hehe. I first learned it after we moved to the US at my first year of Scout camp when I took rifle merit badge. I was 11 then. It was all verbal though, [disclaimer guy]no animals were hurt during the completion of this merit badge [/disclaimer guy]heh.

[stv]

My dad taught myself and my brother firearms safety from a very early age (6-7 years.) When we were 9-10ish (don't remember exactly) he bought us BB pistols and a .22 rifle to share, and took us on range trips every few weeks. Another major factor was the Boy Scouts, having been a member since the age of 6 (Tiger Cubs > Cub Scouts > Boy Scouts) and getting my Eagle badge in 2000. I do think the regular practice helped instill in me a sense of safety and responsibility I don't see in some shooters twice my age - even though I'm a youngun by many standards (21) I've had a number people comment on how responsible, safe and professional I am.

That all goes for my brother, too. :)

[BluesBear]

It is EVERY parents responsibility to gunproof their children.

Every parent, not just the ones that own guns.

[rms/pa]

when i teach the local kiddies , i line up several quarters in a piece of 2/4
and plug them with the 22 i am training with . each kid gets a plugged quarter to take home... not as bloody as live targets.

rms/pa

[Okiecruffler]

My dad used a melon, seemed to work okay for me.

[Dave P]

Good story Striker! But I gotta take exception to "I learned that Firearms are meant to cause death, ".

My firearms are meant to either a) defend my liberty and freedom via self defense, or b) make small groups of holes in paper targets.

Dave

[El Tejon]

My father said so. Guns are for hurting people, I was taught not to hurt others without reason.

[techmike]

In the Game fields with my Father. I can remember being small enough to ride on my dad's shoulders while walking to the woods. I believe that early exposure to the proper use of firearms has made me a safer shooter because there was never that mystery about guns that kids not exposed to them seem to harbor. To me they have always been tools. As a child tools to gather food, as a man tools to protect my family.

[mormonsniper]

The death of these two rodents reinforced the letality of firearms. We only used a pellet gun, but they got the picture... Not that it won't take reinforcing maybe. Both are grown now, but I know they remember.

[striker3]

But I gotta take exception to "I learned that Firearms are meant to cause death, ".

That is the reason that weapons were made. The only reason that they work to defend our liberties and ourselves is because those that deprive us of our liberties and our lives do not wish to, in turn, die themselves.

Try pointing a supersoaker at someone that wants to kill you and see what happens...it just doesn't have the same effect.

Firearms are tools to kill, but they are just tools. It is the intent of the user that diffrentiates between right and wrong.

[geekWithA.45]

My mom actually brought that lesson home for me.

When I was perhaps 5 or 6, I asked for the BBs, and she asked me why I wanted them.

I replied that it was so I could go rabbit hunting in the back yard.

Considering I had just finished watching some Elmer Fudd, and she knew me well enough to know that I didn't really want to hurt anything, and that this wasn't consistent with rabbit hunting.

She helped me resolve the conflict by painting for me a mental picture of me bringing in a dead, bloody rabbit, gone forever, for her to fix, and said that "dead is forever, I won't be able to fix a rabbit that you kill".

Then she left it up to me. (Probably one of the hardest things she ever did)

I went plinking instead.

[Carlos Cabeza]

My brother and I went rabbit hunting with Dad and Grandpa. We only watched and carried the kill.:rolleyes: Dad made us help clean them, then Mom fried them up like chicken and we ate 'em for supper.

[Flashpoint]

I don't recall a particular lesson, just an overall respect for handling a firearm and lessons in how to handle and clean a firearm. Also lessons in how to knock a dove out of the air and where to shoot a deer to assure a good kill. I don't guess I ever needed more than that.

Recently a freind, Chuck, brought his son (5) out to the house to show him what a fire arm does. He used cans of tomatoe sauce and tomatoes to prove his point. It kinda worked, but not as well as the lesson his son taught himself. I was working with Chuck installing a alarm system, Chuck had just went a picked his son up from school and left him in the den nest to the tool with me and went and up into the attic. After about 7 minutes I heard "ting-POW" behind me. Schylar had picked up a cable caster and hit the trigger on it. The projectile piece missed his nose by inches and hit the ceiling. For those who don't know a cable caster is a plastic toy looking pistol with a heavy spring in it, it uses a ring on a stick as a projectile. You can shoot the thing the length of a house easy, on top of the caster is a fishing reel used to briing the ring back to you after someone on the other end hooks a cable to it. Anyway afer making sure he was ok I told him that is why his daddy tells him not to play with guns or anything that looks like a gun because he could get hurt real bad. When Chuck came back I told him what happened and he reinforced what I said. The thing is now Schylar is so afraid of guns he won't even be in the same room with one. Know at age 6 it is a good thing just as long as he grows out of it and doesn't become an anti.

[Nickotym]

In additon to the four rules, my kids learn rule #5:

Never touch a gun without permission from mom or dad.


They watch me clean my guns and have come hunting at times. When dry firing, I let them have a few gos and they have all shot a single shot .22 rifle or .22 revolver. I will have to get them out to the range again soon, but it is hard to do in winter here.


One lesson I used on my kids was a well shaken can of pop. I shot it with a .22 and that can literally exploded.

[musher]

I'm not sure how I'm doing, but I've taken my 3.5 yr old grouse hunting 5 or 6 times now. I shoot them, he retrieves them. We both clean them. He's seen quite a few birds tumble now, so I'm pretty sure he's figured out the relationship between the gun (bang!) and the dead bird.

Kind of a related topic is how to deal with toy guns. I've got a lot of fond memories of the 'geat wars' I fought when I was a kid. Running from house to house with cap guns and arguing over who killed whom. I did a lot of shooting in those days, but I did figure out that 'real' guns have different rules. Seems like most of my friends are adopting a "toy guns have the same rules as real guns" position. Obviously this interferes with war games. More to the point, the kids still seem to point sticks, fingers, chicken wings, whatever at each other and say "bang bang, your dead" despite the "rules".

I think I've come to the conclusion that kids are generally smart enough to distinguish between 2 rule sets. 1 for real guns, 1 for toy guns. So I've decided not to worry about my kid using his parris lever gun to kill the neighbor's boy. I'm pretty sure, that when he gets to the right age he won't use his .22 to try the same thing.

[4v50 Gary]

My lesson was on paper and by lecture. I think the visual impression along with the practicality of "game" is everylasting.

[Jesse H]

Didn't get into guns till I was about 22, even though dad always had a loaded revolver around the house. I remember finding it when I was younger, but had the good sense not to do anything stupid with it.

[Trempel]

I would like to know, how were taught to respect firearms?
My grandpa's war stories. And the bullet fragment that he carried inside his body until his death.

[Double Maduro]

Shooting a rabbit, a cute, soft, fluffy, cuddly, pet rabbit in front of youngsters is a good way to turn them into anti's.

You have to be careful when working with children.

DM

[striker3]

LOL
Killing someones pet rabbit would probally tramatize the kids more than it was worth. The rabbit my Dad shot was a wild one that was eating my stepmom's flowers.

[Azrael256]

Gallon milk jug filled with water, and one of those ninjafied Black Talon rounds. I think I was 5-6. What impressed me was that there were no puddles of water.

[Nickotym]

Who said anything about it being a pet rabbit?

[Larry Ashcraft]

I used the old shotgun/watermelon trick.

My kids are all grown now, 30, 26 & 25, but they all still remember. And they are all shooters.

[P95Carry]

Dad just had a single shot .410 but . I was shown the meaning of ''dead'' and ''hurt'' ... he brought down a crow and I was able to inspect the limp and lifeless body ... making the point that death was somewhat permanent. The ''hurt'' was the simple expedient of relating to the damge done to a soda pop bottle at close range .. demo of destructive force. Scared (usefully) the living cr*p outa me!

My kids .. well they started coming to range pretty early on .,.. watching .. and were taught basics of safety even with their toy guns .. this translated smoothly into range discipline and later handling of real thing. I can and do trust them both to be totally scrupulous. They too were given the usual sorta demo's ... melon or similar ..... made a salutary point.

[Double Maduro]

Yeah, you're right, no-one said "pet" rabbit.

My point can best be made by asking a question.

How many anti hunting anti gun people do you know that are that way, at least partly, because of "BAMBI"?

Oh, the way my dad taught me about guns was in the way he handled them. He always handled them with respect and caution. Every gun we owned was always loaded and unlocked. Not one of us 4 kids would have dreamed of taking one down, much less pointing it at anything we didn't want to shoot.

DM

[OF]

Firearms are tools to killThey are tools, one of the things they can do is kill but that is not the primary purpose of all guns - not even defensive or martial firearms, necessarily. If it were they would come with poison bullets.

Guns are used to stop people. Just semantics? It's an important distinction. If killing were the only purpose of the gun, you'd think we could design a tool that would be more effective than what we have now. Plenty of people survive their gunshot wounds, far more than die from them.

To say that guns are designed for killing makes for a good soundbite, but it is demonstrably untrue.

- Gabe

[BluesBear]

Once upon a time you had slings and catapaults, they launched round balls.
You also had long bows and cross bows and they shot arrows or bolts.
The first guns were designed to launch these projectiles.
They were big & clumsy and not as fast to fire so they were less effective.
But they were smaller. It took a while before they were as powerful.
It took a long time before they were small enough to be carried comfortably by one person.

In modern firearms developments it is still the norm to design the ammunition first and then develope the platform from which to launch it.

[Dave R]

I kinda learned on my own, with help from my Mom.

Found a dead baby bird that had been shot by neighbor's bb gun. Took it home, put on a band-aid and some cream. Showed Mom. I was 3 or 4.

She almost cried, and explained that death was irreversible. I was nice for trying to save the bird, but too late. The look in her face is what set the lesson for me.

Don't think I ever voilated Rule #1 intentionally thereafter.

[Shalako]

Although I grew up target shooting, hunting lizzards with a BB gun, and the occaisional rabbit hunt with the step-dad and .22s, the demo from hunter safety really left an impression. The instructor (Bob Fallis, Arcata CA) took us to the range and gave the safety talk one more time. Curriously, there was a head of cabbage over on a post with a John Deere cap to symbolize a huntin buddy. As Bob faced us, his shotgun was pointed to the side and he fired a shot. That cabbage head exploded into a million shreds. Wow! That really seemed to signify how an accident or careless negligence could have permanent and horrible effects.

I was also pretty impressed with the side angle, non-looking, point shooting done by ol Bob.

[Standing Wolf]

I wish my father had taught me about shooting, but he believed ignorance is bliss.

[dav]

My dad had guns. Never used 'em, just kept them in the closet.

But when I was 12 or so, they enrolled me in an NRA course at the nearest range. Still have the patches I earned for marksmanship (and the .22).

Range rules were strictly observed. Even though my rifle would hold 17 rounds, I was only allowed one round, and couldn't load until ready to fire.

Guns were so far outside our normal existence that the rules were easy to follow. Guns were not something you used at home, they were something you kept hidden away, and only took out to take to the range. And you only used them to punch holes in paper.

Strange, yes as kids we played with toy guns and "killed" each other. But there was no pretending the guns were real, we weren't at a range, so how could they be?. Play was play you could do anywhere; real couldn't do that.

Interesting thread... I hadn't realized that's how I thought about guns until you guys mentioned it.

[scottsw1]

My dad gave me a Daisy BB gun for my 6th birthday. 5 minutes later a I had accidently pointed the muzzle at them it was put up for a week. I still remember watching my dad carrying my rifle back to the house and I have never forgotten that lesson.

[SMLE]

Both my folks grew up with guns. Dad was in combat with the Marines in WWII. The demo I got was a can of tomato paste shot with a .38 Super Auto hollow point. My folks also followed the "gun proof the kids" school of thought. Mom's Colt Commander was kept loaded in the cupboard above the fridge. If I wanted to see it, all I had to do was ask. There was no "forbidden fruit" situation. One of them would get it down, demonstrate how to unload it properly and give me the gun safety lecture from A to Z. I would be allowed to hold it while being coached on muzzle control and other safe handling rules. Then they would demonstrate the proper way to lock and load a Colt automatic, give me the gun safety lecture from Z to A and put it back in its box. Now some folks would sh*t at the idea of leaving a loaded pistol where a kid KNEW where it was, but they also made sure that the kid KNEW damn well it was loaded. THAT is what gets kids killed, the "I didn't know it was loaded" syndrome. That works for most adults as well. Let then KNOW the thing's got a round up the pipe and they'll usually think before they mess with it.

[jamz]

I have a four year old son that I'd like to take to the range with me in a little while. My biggest fear is that he will be over at a friend's house, the friend will know that his dad has a gun, and will do something stupid to show off.

I want my boy to know exactly what to do in that situation- either get the hell out quick, or be really careful and make sure the gun is unloaded, and then give his friend hell for fooling around whenhe doesn't know what he is doing.

Right now there is not much I can do- he hates loud noises currently. But when he turns 6 or so, I will make sure he has the rules drilled into him.

[kenehsr]

Quote

He recently gave this lesson to my 2 little sisters, this time using a rabbit.

OH MY GOSH!!!! YOU KILLED THE EASTER BUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!:what:

;) :p :neener: :neener: :p ;)

[Gopher]

I got a little Daisey BB gun for Christmas when I was six. I cocked that thing so many times that day I had blisters on both hands. The lesson was driven home when I finally hit that first sparrow. I'll never forget picking up that little bird, hearing it chirp one time and watching it's eyes glaze over, close and die. That taught me the power of a gun.