Do you teach your young children gun safety?

[Pushrod]

This is inspired by the closed thread about the Florida woman shot by her 4-year-old child.
I have a five year old boy. I have taught him first the main parts of firearms from about 3 years old on and then integrated the four main rules of firearms safety into his curriculum. He can now tell me what all the parts of a firearm are and what they are four and also can quote and tell me what the meaning of the four rules of firearm safety are. He has shot long guns under my supervision but not handguns yet. He has been exposed to firearms all his life from me and my wife concealed carrying and also from shooting at our own private range.

He would never touch a firearm without asking me or my wife first and knows how to handle one safely under our supervision. I trust him that he would never pick up a firearm he found lying around and cause a negligent discharge, especially one with injury, death or destruction of property.

I trust him.

Not that I would leave him unsupervised with a loaded firearm in his hands, however I can never see that happening as I know my son and trust he would never handle one without our permission.

I could leave him in a room with a hundred loaded firearms lying around him and I know he wouldn't touch them. He has demonstrated to me that he can be trusted along those lines (again, not that I would ever do that).

Are there any other parents out there that have a young child at home that have that trust in their child around firearms or do you think I am out of line for having that kind of trust in a five-year-old?

This is why I am all for a firearm safety curriculum in public schools (e.g. Eddie Eagle to start), with live fire practice as the child advances. It takes the mystique out of firearms and instills the rules of safety into them early.

 

[Branko_D]

There is simply no alternative to teaching kids the basics of gun safety, really, if you have a gun in the house.

I've got three children (daughter aged 7, son is 5 and youngest daughter is 2). They're curious, inquisitive, and able to get everywhere. While I keep guns in the safe and am not going to leave them lying about (except the odd time they're disassembled into constituent parts because I'm doing some tuning or such), that's not foolproof and if they really wanted to they could get in it. It's better if they sate their curosity under supervision.

I've disassembled guns with the older two so they see how things work, too, had them clean and polish the minor parts. It's a fun activity, and my daughter likes any excuse to use my tools, so she's normally helping whenever I'm tinkering with something.

Yeah, had to explain to them how to use power tools safely too, for the same reason - wouldn't want them to try on their own when I'm not watching. Besides they learn an useful skill early on and that's always a good thing.

 

[guyfromohio]

Teach but never trust a child. A child is a child. They are programmed to be curious. That is how they learn and grow. But don't leave it in the hands of trust. My young ones have been taught, are comfortable around guns, and have demonstrated gun safety time and time again. But one lapse of judgement from their underdeveloped brains cannot be taken back. Bedside gun safes are cheap and fast. When not in a safe, keep it on your body.

 

[HankR]

Yes, when they were young. Continue to remind/refresh as they grow up.

 

[hso]

Teach but never trust a child. A child is a child.

To expand upon that,

Remember that children's experiences and brains are not those of an adult. We must teach them safety around firearms like we do the kitchen or car or the shop, but we should never assume they're just miniature adults who have the experience to make that training work in all situations. It is our responsibility to keep our firearms out of their reach unless they're being supervised. The age at which your child may be minimally supervised or even use a firearms without supervision may be different than the next person's child. My daughter was 8 when she reached a point that I didn't think she needed constant supervision when shooting and it was 2 years later that I decided she didn't need any supervision. Other kids I knew were a year or two behind or ahead of her on those levels. Some I still don't trust without supervision even in their teens.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

Our daughters (now 11 & 13) were raised around guns along similar lines with progressive age-appropriate safety and familiarization. Guns have always been available to our kids with adult guidance. Anyone who makes guns into forbidden fruit, like porno mags hidden in a sock drawer, is acting foolishly. This isn't to say that you should leave guns just laying around, but you need to 'gun proof' your kids for those times when they are outside of your control--especially in the company of other kids who have been raised with the guns-are-forbidden-fruit mindset. My kids have been shooting since age 5 and have had their own rifles since that age---but even today I have every confidence that they wouldn't touch a firearm without permission or permit others to do so. And while we treat all firearms as loaded, my kids know which weapons are loaded for defensive purposes.

 

[Fiv3r]

I have a 5 year old little girl. She has never had any interest in guns at all. I don't shy away from them. She has known pretty much her entire life that her daddy carries a firearm and keeps one in the safe next to the bed. She's seen the (locked of course) gun cabinet in our spare room where she watches cartoons some times.

She's just not curious about them at all. Then again, she's a very conscientious kid. She has never been one to monkey with my safe or dig around in my top nightstand drawer (where I keep my pocket knives and tools). When she knows something is off limits, she doesn't go near it.

I would be more than happy to teach her about general gun handling and safety if she were interested in shooting. I have no problem teaching her how to shoot. Heck, I would be stoked if she wanted to go with me. I have a single shot .22 that belonged to her grandpa and my old Glenfield 60 that I learned to shoot with. I think we'd have a lot of fun plinking cans at my uncle's. Actually, I'm getting the itch for a .22 lever gun just for such an occasion

However, if my daughter is going to be disinterested I at least want her to be cautious. From a young age I taught her not to touch a gun if she finds one. If she discovers one I foolishly left on my belt or my safe door open, she is not to touch it. If she ever finds a gun laying about, she is to go get me (since it would have been my careless mistake). If she is ever playing at a friend's house and her friend finds a gun, she is to leave the area immediately and get an adult. She is not to confront her friend about it or look at it. She is to GO. She is fully aware of what a gun does.

Actually, I tested this a couple years ago when she was three. One day I was cleaning my black powder revolvers. I took the cylinder out of an 1858 (it was unloaded anyway, but it still looks like a gun without it. Better safe than sorry, of course). I put the gun on the living room floor and told my daughter to go get her shoes on (they are also in the living room). I waited around the corner and watched. She saw the gun, almost stepped over it, then turned on her heel back toward me, "Daddy. I found a gun! I'm not going to touch THAT!" I was glad my lesson got through to her

Like I said, I am more than willing to teach her about handling a gun safely when/if she gets interested in them. For now, I'm happy that she's more than likely just going to do the right thing to stay safe. I don't worry about my house so much. I keep one gun loaded in my bedside safe. It's a 92fs chambered, decocked (obviously), with the safety on. I specifically keep that as my bedside gun because it does require some level of manipulation to get it to go off (plus, I shoot it better than any other gun I own, and if I run my magazine dry, I can beat an intruder to death with it)

I just worry about her going to a friend's house where someone keeps a Glock in their nightstand or something. I don't care how careful or familiar her friends are with handguns. I don't want her near them unless I am there to supervise.

 

[Riskee]

I also got a 5 year old son, he has been exposed to firearms all his life I have taught him a lot about firearms and always have safety talks, I also tell my son about bad accidents that happen like this 4 year old that shot the mom. I trust him he can also be in the room with a loaded gun and will not touch anything and if I ask him to handle it he knows the 3 rules, he always acts like it's loaded, muzzle away from everything and anything important and he always has finger of trigger. I'm 100 percent if I hadn't taught him about firearms it will be different he is even shooting handguns now so he sees and feels the power that also helps. Don't get me wrong my son is never alone with a loaded gun but I always tell him it loaded so he can always be cautious and so I can build more trust my go to sleep gun is always near me at night he wakes up early wakes me up and asks me to move the gun I tell him go ahead put it on the night stand he will look at the fnx see no red dot on the side and say dad it's on safety with his finger off the trigger and muzzle away he will move it, I love giving him tasks like that cus he feels like an adult I verbally award him with kind words and he loves it. So I don't have a problem with him at all my only problem is this I noticed this a few months ago it kind of made me think i don't know if I liked it, one day at night I went to check on him and cover him back up and I noticed that under his pillow was his favorite gun toy a 1911 and next to it was his ninja turtle flashlight. So he sleeps with a toy gun and light under his pillow ever night u can't get him to give it up. At first I was proud but know Ima little worried. What do you guys think about that?

 

[guyfromohio]

Riskee....as long as he isn't doing it out of fear, he's just emulating his hero.....dad.

Another consideration for the OP is the friend group. I live in a very liberal urban area and my kids' friends' parents are nearly all anti-gun. The worst of which is allowed zero toy guns in his home. My son had a birthday party when he was 6 and sure enough.....little lib-junior was going around doing point blank head shots with the nerf guns.

 

[GBExpat]

I have only perused the OP ...

Do you teach your young children gun safety?

If I had any young children I would certainly teach them gun safety.

I would be very surprised if anyone at THR (other than, perhaps, a Troll) would respond otherwise.

I would never trust a young child to have unsupervised access to a firearm.

 

[Riskee]

thanks for the response guyfromohio. I hope it is just him copying me, I wouldn't want him to do it out of fear, so far it looks like he is just being my mini me but Im keeping my eyes open. We are both in the same situation all his friends and schoolmates come from anti gun family's. It sux that people kind of judge us like your lil man was just being a kid and having fun and there are parents who see that as trouble. It's no worries my son is the same he plays the same way. We even had a few meetings with his teacher because he has school work and drawings that were gun related, Very innocent things that I had no problems with that got blown way out of proportion like one of the assignments were to right and draw a picture of what you want to be when u grow up and he drew a picture of a solider with a gun shooting and wrote he wants to be a special solider that makes guns and fight along side his fellow soldiers. The parents would look at us like somthing was off about us. I told the teacher that I saw no problem with what he did and I told them if that's a problem with them then I'll just take my son elsewhere. it's crazy how Society is doing this to gun lovers before his drawing he was the sweetest kid and after he's the kid you should watch out for

 

[herrwalther]

My son is 2.5 so a little early yet to start teaching him the rules. Although he does shout "gun!" when he sees a toy one at a store and tries to rack the slide on ones he already has. So pretty soon he will start. Weapons are on me or locked. Never laying around. Toddler can run from one end of the room to another 5 times by the time my old bones lift up.

 

[Riskee]

I started once my little guy was able to speak and carry a little conversation, I started teaching him at 3, 3 and a half I believe. I think the biggest helper was when I first let him shoot specially the hand gun, I was holding and guiding him but he took the recoil that was my main perpose. After that he felt and understood the power and seriousness of a gun. Lol at the time the only gun I had that he can actually pull the trigger was my s&w combat 357 mag I didn't have 38s so he poped a 357 mag he had just turned 5 at the time. Lol I got the video that was his 1st shot

 

[armoredman]

Old picture - he's much older now

 

[guyfromohio]

A point was also made above that guns shouldn't be taboo. I agree wholeheartedly. Every single time one of my kids wants to look at and touch the guns, I stop what I'm doing and we do. We get them out of the safe, point in safe directions, finger off the trigger, safety-check the chamber and I let them handle them. It's a non-issue now. They see me carrying everyday and simply assume that everyone else's dad does too. But I still will not allow them to be in a situation where trust has to come into play to decide life or death.

 

[Teachu2]

Before I took on three stepsons (6,7 and 11 at the time) we made a trip to a local indoor range. It was pretty quiet, and the rangemaster let me take them one at a time to fire a .357 snubbie - my CCW at the time. We'd already covered safety, and I loaded a single round each of .38 wadcutter. The oldest was not sufficiently impressed, so he got a second try with a 125gr Magnum - and was impressed.

This ended the curiousity factor. I continued to secure all firearms, as kids will be kids and so will their friends. All are grown now, two have kids of their own, all own guns and gun safes.

 

[Pushrod]

I have only perused the OP ...

If I had any young children I would certainly teach them gun safety.

I would be very surprised if anyone at THR (other than, perhaps, a Troll) would respond otherwise.

I would never trust a young child to have unsupervised access to a firearm.

My point was that some don't start them that young and wait till they are older, even into their teens.

 

[thump_rrr]

I don't have any children yet I don't leave firearms lying around.
A friend of mine told me a story that ran chills down my spine.
He was hunting geese the day before.
Before getting into his truck and driving home he cleared his 12ga pump action shotgun.
He placed the shotgun in a hard case and brought it home.
He was tired and left the case in the truck in the garage till the next morning.
The next morning his 2 school aged sons wanted to see the shotgun when he was unpacking the truck.
He pulled the shotgun out of the case and once again cleared the shotgun and a shell popped out.

At that point he told me that his knees nearly buckled.
He obviously didn't do a good enough job clearing the shotgun the day before.

The point is we are all human and make mistakes but mistakes with guns can cost lives.
Many women use a purse to hold a pistol, but a purse can be left laying around or can be snatched from their hands.
I do not consider a purse a safe location for a defensive firearm.

 

[danez71]

I didn't teach my daughter the 4 rules per say.....


I educated her about guns which, imo, is far from limited to just the 4 safety rules.


ETA: I'm a strong proponent for locking up guns when you have small kids and believe that there is no safe place to "hide" the key, no matter how high and out of reach, after about age 2.5.

How young is too young?... I don't believe there is a set age.

I trust him.

Not that I would leave him unsupervised with a loaded firearm in his hands, however I can never see that happening as I know my son and trust he would never handle one without our permission.

I could leave him in a room with a hundred loaded firearms lying around him and I know he wouldn't touch them. He has demonstrated to me that he can be trusted along those lines (again, not that I would ever do that).

Are there any other parents out there that have a young child at home that have that trust in their child around firearms or do you think I am out of line for having that kind of trust in a five-year-old?

Mine is almost 27 now and out if the house but Yes... I think you're out of line having that much trust in a 5 year old.

We're all proud parents..... but he's 5.

It's not a matter of you trusting 'him' or not.

At 5 years old, you're fooling you self if you think you can "trust" the thinking skills of a 5 year olds developing mind.


If you Parent them well, they should last a lifetime.

 

[FiveStrings]

My daughter is 28 now, married, and a fine hand with a 1911 .45 and a .44 cap and ball revolver. She's our only child, and target shooting together was always special time spent together. Still is.

When she was a little squirt of 5 she and her little friends would always rummage through my stuff when I wasn't around. I didn't keep loaded guns in the house, but I didn't have a safe and I needed to teach her an impact lesson that guns were off limits to her. So one day I took her out back with my .22 revolver, a single bullet, and an empty Campbell soup can. I set the can on a stump right in front of her, gave her the lesson on poin-aim-trigger squeeze,
loaded the bullet and braced her as she fired into the can. No hearing protection. The "bang" made her cry like all heck (as I intended). Then I showed her the hole in the metal can and made sure she understood, this is what guns do, and why she should never mess with them. I was willing to risk putting her off guns for life, if that's what it would take to squelch her 5 year old curiosity. It worked.

Three years later, when she was 8, I talked her into going shooting with me, and she agreed.
That's when I started the formal gun safety training regimen and set her up behind a bale of hay shooting my 10-22 (with hearing protection this time) at a paper target. She followed my instruction to the T and turned out to be a natural dead-eye. This went on, and progressed, for years until by the time she hit her teens she could out-shoot most men on the public range, and her gun handling would get compliments from the most hard-azzed range safety officers. I'm pretty darned proud of that kid, for lots of reasons.

But when she was little, I guess I wasn't thinking about how to develop her into a safe shooter. I just didn't want her touching guns, period.

 

[FL-NC]

Yes. It should start as a toddler with DON"T TOUCH. As they mature, IF the child has an interest in shooting sports, it moves through different stages of competence and training under supervision up to the point where supervision isn't necessary. Another IF is dependent upon if the child has the aptitude, discipline, and maturity to move beyond the toddler level. Of course key to this is knowing your child. A non-negotiable for me is when the child obtains his/her first gun (bb gun or whatever) toy guns of any kind are no longer allowed, ever.

 

[goldpelican]

Currently teaching my 7 year old daughter gun safety, and she's very interested. Would I trust her unsupervised? Hell no! She's a kid, not a logical adult.

 

[Wishoot]

Absolutely. I started my girls out with a pellet rifle when they were 6 and have been teaching them safe handling since day one.

 

[Shaq]

Teaching young kids firearms safety is fine.

Storing unsecured firearms is foolish, regardless of your kids' ages. Not only are the guns available to kids & their friends, they're also available to burglars. Arming criminals is foolish and reckless.

Hiding loaded firearms & thinking they'll never be found is even more foolish.

Parents who teach kids firearms safety & keep unsecured firearms in the home are betting their kids' lives that their kids are "special," "different," & never make a mistake & never disobey their parents. They're also betting their kids' FRIEND'S lives. Such parents are fooling themselves & are setting themselves up for possible criminal prosecution as well as a lifetime of well-deserved guilt.

 

[entropy]

My Dad started me at five- Had me shooting at 5, also. I waited until my boys were about 7 before I started teaching them. They are both well- trained, safe. and accurate with guns.(They are 22 and 18.) I shudder when I think back at friends of mine who would show me their Dad's guns (obviously the parents weren't home at the time!), and they'd pick them up with fingers on triggers.... Fortunately, I'd convince them to gently set them back down and leave the room.....

Be sure to teach them the basics of how guns operate as they grow old enough to take that in. It would have saved me an ND when I was 13 if my Dad had explained how DA/SA revolvers worked, and that the 'button' on the side is not the safety.... That incident actually set me on the path to becoming a gunsmith, having vowed to learn about how all guns operated so I never could claim ignorance again.