teaching our kids and others kids

[gunsmith]

I wanted to teach my Goddaughter, who lives in Ireland, about the history of the American Revolution and RKBA in general (she is nine and has dual citizenship but has grown up in Ireland)...any suggestions of appropriate books?

I was also wondering the best way to teach kids, I have one friend who I think goes overboard, when his grandson visits he puts the kids toy guns in the cabinet with the real guns and the kid can't go around pointing his toy guns and saying bang bang , another guy I know ruined his sons interest in firearms by having him shoot a 12 gauge when he was 7 yrs old! now he is 13 and hates guns and the guy can't figure why. I can't figure why he didn't get him a dang BB gun.

I think playing cops and robbers and cowboy/Indians is harmless fun and over regulating play time will take the fun away from interest later on in firearms, you know, tell them not to point a toy gun at a cop but if the kids are playing cops and robbers in the back yard and they're six telling them not to point a gun at the bad guy isn't going to help our side (I don't think, I'm no expert and do not have kids)

 

[hksw]

I've been rolling around the problem myself concerning the toy gun/point no-point issue myself for a couple of years. (Teaching nieces and nephew.) Though I can see your point on kids having fun playing cops-n-robbers/cowboys-n-indians, I always look at the stories of kids finding a real gun and in the process of playing those types of games with the real thing, the gun goes off and harms or kills someone. Currently, I'm in the opinion of teaching young kids about gun safety and not to point even toy guns at others. That is, start getting them accustomed to absolute gun safety early on.

This is my opinion, of course.

 

[nswtex]

I dont buy toy guns for my two boys (2 and 4) I grew up with only my imagination for gunplay with my friends (sticks and all kinds of things) as my parents did not buy me toy guns. I grew up a firm beleiver of RKBA just fine and when I finally was able to learn about guns and gun safety (scouting) I had a respect for them that I believe was partially because I had not handled countless props in the past which I believe may lead to complacency during a childs first experience. In a few years I will be buying my oldest son a bb gun which he will see as his first "gun" period toy or otherwise and will link all safety and ownership information coming at him as to be applied to all guns. I dont want a 5 or 6 year old having to decide whether his gun is a toy or the real thing every time he picks it up.

So on with playtime and the twin five shooters that god gave you, I call goodguys this round.

 

[Zen21Tao]

another guy I know ruined his sons interest in firearms by having him shoot a 12 gauge when he was 7 yrs old! now he is 13 and hates guns and the guy can't figure why. I can't figure why he didn't get him a dang BB gun.

That is how my uncle introduced me to guns. I was 9 when he took me out to his hunting camp to hang tarps before the start of the season. Until then I hadn't even fired a BB gun. He had brought with him a 12 gauge Remington 870 wingmaster and a .22 rifle and .22 pistol (I don't remember what makes they were). The first thing he let me fire was the 12 gauge loaded with 00 buck. What a kick. After I got up from the ground he had me fire his .22s. They were ok but I wanted to shoot that 12 gauge again so he gave me a couple boxes of pheseant shot and had me shooting cans for most of the afternoon. That evening I came home with the biggest bruise on my shoulder that I have ever had but come start of the season I was out there by his side deer hunting with him and the very next season I had my own 12 gauge shotgun.

 

[Hacker15E]

I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it with my son...

I grew up with lots of toy guns, plenty of "war" and combat play pointing and "killing".

I was also taught shooting the real thing starting at about 10 years old, and I never had a problem differentiating between playing and the real thing.

 

[gunsmith]

I don't know how I survived childhood

we played with toy guns, pointed them at each other, later, we played with bb guns and shot them at each other ( I can remember an adult or two telling us we can put an eye out but just laughing it off ) when I got a bb stuck in my forehead and that hurt as much as getting slapped afterward for being in the bb war.
I realized that it really could take out my eye and stopped doing that.

 

[whm1974]

The first thing he let me fire was the 12 gauge loaded with 00 buck. What a kick. After I got up from the ground he had me fire his .22s. They were ok but I wanted to shoot that 12 gauge again so he gave me a couple boxes of pheseant shot and had me shooting cans for most of the afternoon. That evening I came home with the biggest bruise on my shoulder that I have ever had

I was also 9 Y/O whe I shot my first gun. It was my stepfather's 8mm Mauser. The gun was almost bigger then me and I too took a bruise home.

-Bill