Were you an armed child?

I've had a .22 since I was 8. That and a Crossman kept the chipmunks and red squirrels in check around the farm.

Went straight from BB gun to .22 when I was given a Savage 22/410 for Christmas at age 12. Roamed the woods and fields with it for a couple of years, then bought myself an old Mossberg 44 bolt action with a scope. I taught myself to shoot. Mom didn't shoot and my dad wasn't around.
By age 16 I had three .22 rifles, a 12 ga shotgun, a milsurp 7.62x54 Nagant, and a couple of .22 handguns. It was a different world back then however. A kid could walk down the road with a rifle on his shoulder and no one would think anything about it.
Jack

My father bought me my first rifle when I was 4 years old - it was my brothers 5th birthday and he figured I would cry if I didn't get a rifle also. He was right!!!!

I had access to my rifle and all of his other rifles and shotguns growing up as a kid, but knew not to use them improperly as it would get me a beating. My brother and I knew what lines not to cross.

Luke

Yep, armed and had a reloading set up too...

First gun a 16 guage double barrel shotgun ($40.00 of my lawn mowing $$) First rifle was a 30-06 at age 13 for deer hunting and that xmas I got a lyman reloading press & dies , bullets, powder, primers and reloading book. To heck with the dolls I said, "gimmee some ammo and lets go pop some 'chucks".

Patty

I started carrying a knife at the age of 12. I had it for self protection, not that I needed much of that in the small town that I grew up in. But somehow I got the idea that it was a rough and tumble world, and that I was responsible for my own protection.

I think that this was because I grew up watching shows like Tarzan, with Johnny Weissmuller, on Saturday mornings. Those were the days of genuine masculine role models for young boys to emulate. I saw a Tarzan cartoon DVD on a shelf, and in this PC world, he was not wearing a knife. Shame...

Yes, I was.


I got my first firearm at 7 years old. Obviously, I could not use it unless supervised.

Once my father was comfortable that he had taught me proper firearms safety, I was not supervised.

Well before I was 12 years old, I was going down to the dam on our land to shoot cottonmouth moccasins. I'd take a shotgun or rifle hunting as well.

I saved and got my first handgun (a Ruger Security Six .357 magnum) at 14 years old, and got my first AR-15 at 15 years old.


-- John

No farm or ranch (Thank God). But I had a Sheridan BLue streak that went everwhere with me unill I was allowed to carry my Rem 511-x. My friends were amazed that the 511x could make some of the shots it did. Then when we got old enough for a hunting lic. we were always with out shotguns if it was dove season.

Shot .22s at camp. Had a BB gun. When I was in my teens, my brother got a 12ga shotgun, and we did a bit of hunting (16-18). That was about it. Not really armed. I think the only time my father ever shot a gun was in Army training, and even then (since he was a doctor) I don't know if he put more than a dozen rounds down range.

I was never "armed" as a kid. We had access to firearms after about age 14. We shot at younger ages with adults. I owned two rifles by age 16 and they were under my direct control for use as I pleased. I never shot or owned a handgun until I was 21. I never carried as it is commonly viewed today although we could tote our rifles and shotguns as we pleased. We lived out in the country. Shooting firearms was a common un-ordinary part of our lives growing up.

Yep. Didn't have too many guns around, but they were there for the using. My first was a 20ga single shot about age ten, but I used a .22 bolt rifle for a while before. Carried Grandpas' .44-40 for a while as a young teen when there were a few armed robbers making waves for a few months. I think I was about thirteen or fourteen then.

Armed

My Dad would give me 1 cent for each rat that I killed around our chicken house. I got a Win. Model 67 single shot at age 7. The rats got wise so I started laying on the roof of the henhouse and shooting down when they would come out of their holes. Sometimes I would make 12 or 15 cents per week. The Western Auto was the only store in town that stocked guns. I hung around there for hours looking at his guns (and his two beautiful daughters.) I wish the kids now could have enjoyed those days!!!!!!

I bought my first .22 when I was 11 years old (1958) in a hardware store in (of all places) California. Didn't even have to wait for a background check . By the time I was 13 I had two rifles and two shotguns with ammunition stored in my bedroom. Nobody thought anything about it. All of my friends owned guns and we would go out to the river bed to plink at cans or pop jack rabbits. Times were different . My Boy Scout summer camp even had a shooting range! I think I still must have my Marksmanship Merit Badge somewhere.

I blame myself, in part, for where we are today for not standing up when the disarmament of America started in the late '60's. :banghead:

Hmm. I had a BB gun as a kid. But that was nothing compared to when I went over to my cousins house. It seemed like they had guns in every corner of the house. Shell casings in the drawer. No big deal, let's go out and play.
Pity if ever there was a break-in at their house. For the intruders that is. The amount of firepower they would've faced would have been staggering.

Can't remember when there weren't firearms in our home,...or a knife in my pocket. We were taught to use,...and to respect both. Started shooting BB's probaly at about 6, and .22 rifles soon after,...and still have the very first shotgun I ever shot,....an old bolt action Mossberg ... in 410,...single shooter. Took my first deer with it,...and many a rabbit squirrel, and many many "pat's",....started shooting handguns with an old Iver Johnson of my dads. Bought my very first handgun at the age of 16,...a 4" blued Colt Python in .357, that went to Vietnam with me in early 68. My children have all learned to shoot at an early age,...as will my grandsons when they are ready to learn. I believe if you teach a youth what firearms are for, what they are capable of,...and to respect those abilities AND the dangers,...they will be responsible around firearms the rest of their lives. THAT is MY .02's worth.

Yes, I did indeed have arms as a child.
Would have been hard to play baseball.


more seriously, I started shooting at 7.
It was an end of the week special my father and I did.
Loved it since.

Pretty much from the time I could hold one. Regularly shooting .22 from 7 on. Got my first "personal" rifle at 13, shotgun at 16 and handgun at 18 with "personal" meaning it was mine to store, maintain, transport & use as I saw fit (based on training & guidelines I got from my elders). I think my grandfather gave me my first pocket knife at about age 6.

I can remember roaming the grand-parents property at age 10 with a .22 looking for ground-hogs, squirrels or rabbits, or just going over the ridge to "dead-dog hollow" where we had an extemporaneous shooting range set up.

As far as I know, most all my friends had at least some kind of firearm by age 16. I think it would have been unusual to find out that a buddy had never gone hunting or never fired a gun ...

Nick

I did not grow up on a farm. I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta. But from about the age of 10, I went home from school and shot .22's in the basement, and bows (compound hunting variety) in the backyard of 1 1/3 acre. Only rule I had in doing this was NO FRIENDS ALLOWED.

Looking on it now, some 20 years later and much more knowledge in the world about the ozone and such, it probably wasn't a good idea. A non-ventilated basement and shooting firearms doesn't go to well together. Add to that, no ear protection, and it's amazing if I end up with no serious problems from it.

But my dad always figured if that's what it took to keep me out of trouble. it was better than the other option.

Wyman

I have been shooting, hunting, and carrying guns by myself since the age of 10

Absolutely. And according to my girlfriend, I still am!

Remember the first time you let the lever of one of these spring back on your fingers?

Click to expand...

I remember that day well... It was in January, 5 degree weather. No gloves.

First gun I ever shot was a .22. Sears mail-order cricket. single shot bolt action, but you had to manually cock it. Simply working the action did not cock it. I was probably six or so.

Was never hugely into guns. I liked knives and swords. It was probably my freshman year in high school that I got interested. But I was raised in a hunting family. I was expected to be able to hit deer-sized targets out to 300 yards at a young age.

Yes. At age 10, my Dad gave me what was my grandfather's Ruger .22 single six and then at age 11 I got my H&R .410 single shot. These were mine, kept in my room.

Dad owned a .bolt-action 22 rifle. He bought it at a hardware store back in the 60's. He'd let me and my brother take it out and plink in the woods with our friends from time to time when I was a teenager. Never got any instruction about gun safety and now that I think back on it, it's a wonder one of us didn't end up getting shot. When the time comes that my boy is old enough to handle a rifle we'll be going shooting together and he'll learn the safety rules first.

I grew up in a semi-rural area that built up as I grew up. Got my first BB gun when I was 5 or 6 and a pellot rifle at 8 or 9. I was given my first .22 rifle at 12, .22 revolver at 13 and a 1911 at 15. We hunted and ran the fields on the weekends with BB and pellot guns al the time. It was never an issue. Kids took weeks off of school during deer season and teachers were fine with it. We kept our hunting stuff in our cars so we could go straight from class. My high school had a JROTC unit and the drill teams were in the hallways with demil 1903s and the rifle team shot pellot rifles in the gym. In college when I was in ROTC we rucked all over campus carring M-16s and even has a range in our building. I started shooting my grandfathers guns early and allways had access to them as a kid, it was never an issue.