Firearm safety and the autistic kid

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WayneConrad

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Got an email this weekend from a friend. His autistic teenage son has expressed a sudden and focused interest in firearms.

"Oh oh," says my friend. Time to deal with firearm safety. He knows he can't bury his head in the sand. Even though my friend has no firearms, he knows that his state is awash in them.

His son is seeing things on TV that are stupid. He worries that his son will imitate stupid things he sees on TV, first chance he gets.

We talked about Eddie Eagle. We also talked about an NRA instructor I know who is friendly and teaches in the home at good rates. I don't yet know if my friend will go with either of those.

He wonders, can he safely take his son shooting? He worries about his son's ability to be able to keep a muzzle pointed downrange. More than most kids, turning to talk to someone and swinging that muzzle could be a real issue.

I'm especially interested in hearing from sm, from those of you with disabled family, and those with experience with autism. What is your experience with firearm safety and those with special needs?
 
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I'm no professional, from what I've seen, autism has many different faces. One child I encountered while I was a lifeguard and his family were members of the pool. That kid could not keep one part of his body still for more than half a second, commonly flailing his arms around and darting around the pool deck. Another kid is the little brother of a friend of mine, and he is much more sedate, but at 17, he acts like he's about 5-6. He can memorize entire TV shows and recite them later, but he will never be able to be independent.
I think this would be a case-by-case basis, with a lot depending on his individual condition, and maybe some discussion with his doctor to find possible techniques to make the rules stick with him.
 
My son is a 12 yr old with mild to moderate autism (the spectrum of severity is huge). He also became interested in shooting after watching me at the range a few months ago. Dependent on the severity of the kid, you can teach them to shoot safely. Since many autistic children will often get fixated or excessive over a particular subject/item, very close care must be followed.

As for my son, I stared him off with a BB gun, (teaching all the aspects of safety, guns are not like you see on TV, handling, pointing, etc). I then moved him to shooting a .22 rifle (get a good set of head phones). During the session, I stood over him ensuring he kept the muzzle down range, slow trigger pulls, and so forth (he, as many others, are very sensative to loud sounds...keep this in mind as the kid may over react to the shots). This enabled him to eliminate the mystery of firearms and helped him understand that once you squeeze the trigger the bullet does not care what it hits. Overall, his fascination with firearms has disappeared and he still enjoys shooting occasionally. Only the parent will know if their child can handle this.

You can PM me for further details if you wish.
 
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I have a son with moderate autism. He is 5yo but acts more like 2-3 and is very trigger happy. After seeing my other boys shoot the air rifle he had to do it too. he wont keep his finger off the trigger so I just guide his hands and let him dry fire as he can not comprehend the firing of the projectile.

Of course this wont fly with a teenager. Tell him to try an air rifle first then move up to a single shot or bolt action .22 and even then with close hands on supervision. All this should depend on his comprehension and ability to adhere to the safety rules, without this any progress will be in vein.
 
It's just like with the rest of us - it's a matter of muscle memory... After a while, you don't even think about the safety stuff. You just do it naturally.

Give the kid any books on target shooting yet?
 
I have a brother, an adult now, who is autistic. He is at the less severe end I guess, living essentially independently and holding down a job. He never had any interest in firearms as far as I'm aware, being more into the world's soil profiles, test flight dates of each model and variant of the world's aircraft, stuff like that. In fact the obsessive interest in detail is probably not untypical of gun and other enthusiasts, and I'd not be surprised to find a fair few at the highest functioning/Asperger end of the spectrum contributing here.

It's be a matter for fine judgement as to whether you'd teach an autistic kid to shoot. On the plus side is a person who may have fantastic levels of concentration and absorb everything there is to know, to an obsessive level. A person who, if they take it on, will live and breathe their interest. One thing to note well too: once the interest has been sparked it can become so all-consuming as to be hard to control or turn off.

On the down side there are certainly those who have little appreciation of the safety of themselves or of others - or even those who have only a limited ability to recognise that other people are "real" and not just scenery.

I'd be inclined to tread carefully, but really I think that there's so much variation it comes down to the individual case.
 
I would say if there is some questioning as to his sons judgment of how to safely handle firearms, keeping the barrel pointed in a safe direction and so on. He should start his son out with BB guns or paintball guns first and teach him that safety and responsibility comes with all guns, and if he can show that he knows how to handle bb guns then move to firearms, like others are saying such as a 22 and take it from there-
 
My son is on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum. He is quite anal about safety, but I do not trust his muzzle control. He shoots with me once a month. He uses a .22 LR bolt gun with a bipod. The bipod has to stay on the ground. He is doing well within that limitation.

- Sig
 
autism is a spectrum so very individual
my daughter is mild to moderate attends a mainstream school
other people who are autistic need one to one care.
new a target shooter once must have been on the spectrum nobody can get that much enjoyment out of making hand loads can they :D
 
It'll really depend on the individual.

What's really scary is when an aspie discovers benchrest...

(range bag? hah! try "range trailer")
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My fiancee is an aspie - she's clumsy but has no involuntary motor movements - but muzzle control is still an issue - she will wave a pistol around, gesturing while she speaks.

Also, the loud noise of the range makes shooting very uncomfortable for her.

It will depend almost entirely on the individual.
 
tpaw said:
I agree. Get him interested in something else that he enjoys. Guns and autism do not go together.
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So you'd rather see Bogie and I (I'm also an Asperger) stripped of our carry permits? Guns and some forms of autism may not mix at times, but if you drill the safety rules in hard up front... we can be (operative words) even more obsessive about enforcing weapons-safety than you, heck I gripe when a lunch-counter clerk passes me a knife with the blade pointed my way!

Oh, you've lit off a firestorm now...
 
I agree. Get him interested in something else that he enjoys. Guns and autism do not go together.
Click to expand...

You agree with who? That's not what he said at all.
 
Serrano, on the noise thing: I have very sensitive hearing myself, but earplugs with a 32-33dB noise-reduction rating are enough to make it acceptable for me. Try having her wear a pair inside the earmuffs next range trip if you haven't already, it might help some.
 
The problem with autism is that it's not the same in every case. Everyone watches "Rainman" and sees the autistic kids on the news between the murder and rape reports who can do something impressive, and everyone thinks that autism isn't "that bad."

My brother is autistic. He can't talk. He can't bathe himself. He randomly throws violent tantrums. Is he safe with a firearm? No.

But that doesn't mean someone else with autism can't be.
 
I'll also note that I sat through three screenings of Mas Ayoob's Basic Firearms Safety tape and read a whole lot of books on the subject before I even touched iron for the first time...

"Start with the study, then progress to the shoot" is actually good advice for any new shooter, regardless of their neurobiology.
 
My friend does not have an account here but has been reading the thread. Thank you all for your kind responses so far, which have been very helpful. We truly appreciate the first-hand knowledge you've all brought to the situation.

I would guess my friend's son would be described as relatively high functioning, as I understand it. Based on your responses so far, and our discussions, we do plan to take him shooting at some point, but will it will be very carefully planned and scripted. Before we even get there, there's going to be shooting for just my friend and I. My friend hasn't shot for many years. I want him to be on his toes with firearm safety. My friend may need to give me some lessons in autism as well.

Any more insight, or experience, keep it coming.
 
In fact the obsessive interest in detail is probably not untypical of gun and other enthusiasts, and I'd not be surprised to find a fair few at the highest functioning/Asperger end of the spectrum contributing here.
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Chalk up another mild aspie here. I can assure you I'm safe :).

The autism/aspie spectrum is all over the map. No way anybody else can judge.

Sensitivity to noise can indeed be a factor. In my case simple sandpaper will send me running from the room, but gunshots with normal ear protection are no problem. But THAT varies too.

The real kickers are "do they understand what violence and accidents are?", and "can they hold their temper?" Aspies tend to have very mild tempers compared to "normal" while autistics are all over the map.
 
I'd advise giving him a gun loaded with snap caps first, and seeing how he acts with it.

If he screws around, then don't give him live ammunition.

From the medical standpoint, ie what they taught us in class about autism, I am inclined towards don't do it, but then again, I don't know this teen or his mental capacities so it's not possible for me to say.
 
This is an impressive thread.

I don't have a direct personal connection to the topic, such as an aut/Asp relative or close friend,* but I am coming away with food for thought. I guess what's interesting is how we try to integrate Americans of all kinds into the legitimate gun culture, if possible and appropriate, within the limits of their situation.

* NOTE: If you really take the "continuous spectrum" view, then I guess I do feel slightly implicated in the discussion. Like a lot of introverted, analytical types (lawyer), I've always felt a degree of kinship with descriptions of Asperger phenomena -- they sound like my own behavior, but more so. I unfortunately tend to look away from people when talking with them (helps me formulate what I'm going to say), I obsess about my hobby, and am distracted by certain kinds of noise too! ;)
 
I help out with Hunter ed classes when I can and the last class we had a special boy. He say special because he wasn't a normal 10-12 yr old boy. Something was different, and i'm no doctor, could have been autism. Anyway, he did fine with learning, just when it came to fire on the line he couldn't hold the single shot 20 (said it was too heavy) and started to cry. I tried my best to encourage him to try and it's ok if he couldn't but i just felt like poo. He really wanted to, but for some reason or another, he couldn't. So just some simple advice, make sure the kid can actually hold a shotgun/rifle before you get their hopes up, and leave the instructor to deal with the results...
 
this does NOT sound like a good mix to me! i have a brother in law who is autistic. yes, they do develop in time. to some extent. heck, a lot of people without learning disabilities get into trouble with guns. let alone a child who's brain isn't always going to function properly. i can watch my b.i.l. do the same thing 3 times, and and they are never really the same. i know it is hard to change thier interest once they lock onto something. but this is something that NO GOOD can come from!
 
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