Did you play with your folks guns?

[Gromulin]

Touch them? Yes. Load them? Nooooo. I always had access, but never did anything foolish until he got me my first Remington .22 when I was 13, but then he never took me to the range but maybe once. He was getting up in years (77 years old, yes I was born when he was 64) and always a procrastinator. After a year or two of dry-firing in my bedroom, I decided to shoot the gun up through the ceiling of my bedroom closet. I have no idea why. I bet the hole is still there.

The only other time I fired that gun was to kill a rat at about 20' outside my bedroom window, with a 24" tree-stump as the backstop. Still very stupid.

Lesson learned: If you buy your kid something, follow up. Take them shooting.

He made the same mistake when I wanted an electric guitar. He finally broke down and I got a Sears $99 les-paul copy, but he would'nt buy me the amp. There are some things that the older generation just did'nt understand....

 

[Redneck with a 40]

My dad taught me how to shoot on a single shot 22 rifle and later, a Rem nylon 66. I was 8 years old. I NEVER touched these or any other firearms my dad had, without supervision. If I did, I'd get a belt to ass. If I asked to see his pistols or rifles, he'd let me fondle them and hold them all I wanted, as long as I asked. If I wanted to shoot it, he'd say, sure son, we'll go this weekend. My dad was and still is awesome, when it comes to guns.

I remember firing off a 12 gauge when I was 10, it just about knocked me down, certainly pused me back a few steps.

 

[Tommygunn]

My father had brought an M-1 Carbine back from serving in the Korean War. When I was a young kid, he used to keep it and a bag containing hundreds of rounds of ammo for it and ther magazines in a closet. Once, while my parents were out, I loaded up a magazine, inserted it the carbine, and continuously opened and closed the bolt, feeding every round through. I knew better than to pull the trigger, so nothing bad happen...too bad I didn't know enough (at the time) to not play with the weapon in the first place.
No one found out...but later I felt bad enough about it just thinking what might have happened I never did such a thing again.

 

[Phaetos]

Nope. My dad kept his guns on a rack well out of my reach in the corner of the room farthest from the door. He had a few pistols in the top drawers of his dressers that I couldn't get to at that age either. So .. nope, no stupid stuff from me.

 

[Feanaro]

Hahhhhuuuullll no! My father had a shotgun that sat in a corner or under the bed. He explained how it worked... then told me never to touch it. Have you ever listened to Bill Cosby talk about his father? "I brought you in this world, I'll take you out. I can make another one of you anytime."

 

[ArmedBear]

No way!

I got my own at a fairly young age, given that I didn't grow up on a farm and there was no need or opportunity for me to shoot varmints. But I wouldn't have touched my Dad's anything if I were told not to. He had the better part of a machine shop at home, and there was a lot of potential for injury or death, so I was made to understand: don't touch until I tell you to touch.

We made replica toy guns -- including a sidelock blunderbuss made from a flared-out old vacuum cleaner tube. We cast or machined the parts for the sidelock, believe it or not. Later, we graduated to real muzzleloaders.

But no way would I dare have touched my Dad's stuff.

Frankly, when it came to safety, I got respect, and I gave it. Or else.

Now my little flammable chemistry experiments, on the other hand, freaked my Dad out. For some reason they bothered him in ways that guns in my closet did not.

 

[P5 Guy]

Dad's rifles and handguns were displayed in a glass front case in his den and never touched without permission. The case was not lockable.

 

[elkhuntingfool]

Didn't play with them - dad let me shoot them. To 'play' with them would have been stupid - and my dad didn't allow us to be stupid

I shot my dad's 30/30 Colt .38 super and shotguns all of the time. And now that I have my own guns - he shoots mine and I still shoot his.

 

[Soybomb]

My parents had no guns.

 

[PGroenewold]

My dad's guns were hung unlocked on a rack on the wall of my bedroom, with the ammo in boxes right below them. It was understood that fiddling around with them without permission would bring serious and overwhelming consequences.

I didn't mess with them, though, mainly because I had my first pellet gun at 7 or 8, and bought my first high-powered (30-30) rifle at 12, so there really wasn't that sense of mystery about firearms. I also knew my dad would let me handle or shoot the "real guns" any time I wanted to as long as he was present.

In hindsight, he gave me a heck of a lot of responsibility. Why on earth would I want to screw that up?

Now, his black powder, on the other hand... Well, let's just say that the "experiments" I performed with that stuff would probably be frowned on by the authorities in this day and age!

 

[John-Melb]

Growing up, I knew exactly where Dad's shotgun was stored, and where the cartridges were stored.

Touch them, not bloody likely, I'm brave but I ain't stupid. If I had touched that old Steven's the old man would have kicked my bum 'til my nose bled!

 

[RevolvingCylinder]

It was a different world then...

1911Tuner, your childhood sounds a lot like mine and I believe I'm much younger than you. I guess it's that rural upbringing and having parents with values. It's pretty rare these days.

 

[mokin]

I remember handling my dad's .22 bolt action when I was around 3 or so, just big enough to pick it up and figure out how to work the bolt. I don't remember seeing it again until I was probably 7 or 8 and able to learn how to shoot and clean it. I knew his .22 was not a toy but was given access to the power tools to make my own toy guns (I also learned to put the power tools away). I guess when I demonstrated that I knew how to use and take care of a rifle (and the tools, and not cut off my trigger finger) I got my own .22.

 

[Blue .45]

I knew where my dad kept his guns but I never took them out to play with them. Similar to some of the other posters here, My dad took the mystery out of it when I was very young. When I was about seven years old, we were visiting some relatives down south. My dad took me out to a rural area and let me shoot his S&W M10 .38 with the original wood grips. I fired it once. I promptly gave it back to him and I didn't want to see it again for a very long time. Since then, I've always had a healthy respect for firearms and firearms safety.

 

[Sheldon J]

But of coarse

My parents were of the belief that keep it hid and he will not know, Big mistake fortunately I has some Uncles that taught me a lot about guns, but I knew where every gun and bullet was in our house.
Now as a adult with my own kids I took the theory of if they know they will leave it alone. As soon as they showed any sign of interest in my home defense gun I took them to the range for lessons, how destructive a gun is, how once destroyed nothing ever comes back, and gun safety with a .22. and I never had any problems, if the kids wanted to shoot all they had to do was ask I would open the gun safe and it was then a family range day.

 

[Troutman]

Of course....His Winchester 94 in .32 Winchester Special.
Of course...I could not find the cartridges. Even if I did, I would not have loaded them up ( I think).
I pretended I was the Duke, or at times the Man With No Name, dry firing it.
Even used one of the ole' mans cigars (with-out lighting up).

 

[Limeyfellow]

Not personally, though my wife left a hole in the basement ceiling with a .22 when she was a child.

My neighbours weren't so lucky. One of them answered the phone with the gun in his hand and accidently blew his brains out. Another shot himself messing and killed himself and my brother in law had a Marlin 60 malfunction and leave a .22 stuck in his hand while loading it. Perhaps I just live in a weird place here in North Carolina.

 

[Crow61]

I had BB/Pellet guns at a very young age. I got my first real gun when I was probably 5 or 6. It was a Stevens Youth model single-shot .22 and it came from Western Auto. Next came a single-shot .410 shotgun and then a bolt action 20 guage.

I have been around guns all my life and it was just a given that there were times and place for and not for guns and gun handling.

But, you have to understand that I grew up in small town in LA. "Lower Alabama" Most of my friends had guns and we went hunting together and such. It was a way of life. We were not told that guns were an evil that would just go off and hurt us on their own. There were some tragedies and accidents back then, but not like it is today. We were taught to respect guns and we KNEW what to do and not to do with them.

By the way, we played with cap pistols and such. We played cops and robbers and I "killed" many of my buddies and was "killed" by them at times of play. But, WE KNEW the difference between reality and play.

How many of you remember the old Don Williams song, "God Have Mercy on a Country Boy"? One of the lines in the song goes something like this; there was a time I could go anywhere with a .22 rifle and a fishing pole"

Friends, those days are gone and it's very sad indeed.

 

[Tob]

Teach your kids how to handle weapons, how to respect them, and chances are nothing bad will come of it. If they grow up respecting you, and your authority, you may indeed be proud of the way they grow up.
Teaching kids about guns, how they work, and why they should respect guns is one of the smartest things a parent can do.