for those parents out there........

My oldest was about to turn 5 when he really started asking me to let him shoot my guns. A couple of weeks later I was down in Nashville, browsing through the pawn shops and came across a Marlin 995 with a real beat up stock. Metal looked good, didn't seem to be anything wrong except the stock looked like a couple of beavers had got a hold of the but. I ended up giving $35 for it otd, tood it home, put it across the saw to give it a LoP that would fit him, and that is what he started out with. Would load 1 shell at a time, took the tube off so we made it into a single shot for quite a while. Never let him shoot w/o me in control till he was about 8. Put the tube back on then.

My daughter is a year younger, and youngest son is another 1 1/2 behind her. All three started out with it, and learned pretty well. Have a nephew the same age as my youngest, and another that is 9 now (its his .22 now), and it has suited both of them just fine. I wouldn't say it is the ideal tool, but it worked fine for them, and for the money.

Both my kids started out with an old 1911 in their crib and a lee loader instead of blocks -hey you can ask my ex-wife if you don't believe me.

Seriously, I think it depends on your childs emotional maturity and level of competence and responsibilty - for some that is a very young age and for some that is never.

I started my son on our deer lease at about 6 I guess. First time out, after explaining what a gun does and how it works, I unloaded a full 20 round magazine in my M14 with him sitting right beside me. I looked down at him and his eyes looked like dinner plates. It made a great impression on him. Then I let him start with a .22 Chipmunk and gradually over the years work up to an M16. He learned respect for what a gun could do that day, that's for sure. Ever since he's handled guns very safely.

Mine got a pink Cricket on her 6th birthday. She doesn't shoot a whole lot with me, but she does sometimes. She knows the four rules pretty well, and each shooting session, I make her recite them to me before we start. She's very careful (probably out of fear at this young age) and is very concious of where she's pointing the gun.

I took her out and shot some melons with a big gun. When she saw the damage it done to the melons I told her, "That's what it will do to a person too." It gave her a healthy respect for firearms.

Things are going great too. This year she sat in the deer stand with me for the first time. It was a day I'd been waiting for since she was born.

As has been said before, it's all about their ability to take it seriously. My son didn't get his air rifle until he was 10. I taught him how to shoot it and how to be safe with it. The next year, he got a single shot .22. Same drill. It was then that I started taking him to the range with me. This past Christmas he got a 10/22 and goes to the range with me all the time. Shoots my 9mm and is improving. But takes it very seriously.

It's all about the kid. If I had gone any earlier I wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes with him. He would have been waving the gun around, acting goofy. Great kid, but he would have shot one of us in the foot. I'm glad I waited and it's paying off. He begs me to go to the range, gun shows, etc. Really become a good thing.

I started my son and two daughters when they turned 5. The son started with an Ithica M49. It was really too heavy and the next year I got him a Browning lever-action. The girls got Chipmunks.

My son was a policeman in the military and at this moment is working in the capital of Kalifornica guarding Arnold. His wife was also military police so she didn't need teaching.

The older daughter doesn't shoot much anymore. She is a mom with two boys and a nighttime job so she can be with the boys. The younger daughter stole my Henry lever-action and shot until she got married a couple of years ago. I also taught both son-in-laws to shoot.

I got hold of the older grandson at 6 and now he keeps me going shooting. I started him with a '06 Winchester pump and then gave it to him for Christmas that year. He is 14 now.

Last summer I started the younger grandson with his moms Chipmunk. At first he was hesitant about shooting, but after the first shot he really got into it. He filled his pockets with cartridges and shot both pockets. I started him and then gave him to his dad, LOL. I almost lost his enthusiasm when he got his finger between the bolt and chamber and pinched it. I think he is over it and ready to go again.

Posting this made me realize how many lives I have touched with my passion over the years. It is a good feeling. Now that I will have the older granddaughters close, I will be working with them.

I'm 35 now, and my wife and I are not parents yet. But I'd like to share some deatils with how my dad (and mom) approached firearms in our house as my sister and I were raised.

We were not allowed to have any toy guns. No cap guns, no squirt guns, no plastic guns. I don't think BB guns or air guns are toys, but we did not have them either.

My dad's attitude was simple: Guns are not toys, and you will treat all guns with respect and obey the safety rules. His approach was that if I wanted to shoot a gun, we'd shoot a real gun, and we did. Lots of them. I held a 44 magnum handgun without help, and shot it (with very close supervision!) when I was 5 years old. I didn't shoot it much, but whenever it was out and handy, my dad would let me shoot it.

Not having squirt guns like the other kids did was sometimes difficult (from my perspective as a fellow kid) but in hindsight as an adult now, I think he was correct, and I currently plan to follow that part of his parenting style.

Firearms in our house were never a mystery. We were blessed to live in a rural setting, where could and did regularly shoot off of our porch into the hillside (safe backdrop). Dad was great about removing all mystery, so any curiosities were instantly answered.

Even before I could carry a firearm, I would go with my dad when he went Elk hunting. And, as soon as I was able, I forget what age it was, either 12 or 14, but I took the hunter safety course at the local gun range, and to this day I have the little green card I got. It's somewhere in the safe. After I completed the course, I'd go out hunting with my dad. He likes to tell the story about when the game warden stopped to check on us. He asked to see my rifle, so I opened the bolt, and handed it to him for inspection. He checked it out, and then tried to hand it back to me with the bolt closed, and I wouldn't take it 'till the bolt was open. I feel I was trained well by the senior shooters in my life.

Be safe, and thanks for starting this thread.

PE