I have never seen the Eddie Eagle video, my kids were probably a bit older when it came out. I did train both of my children about guns from the age of about 2 or 2 1/2. Some may think this is not a good age to start training them, but once they are old enough to talk, let alone have somewhat of a conversation, is not too early as far as I am concerned. At 11 or 12 they both went to hunter safety courses. Long before those ages however, they got an awful lot of gun safety lessons from me.
While you can never say for sure what anyone will do in any given situation at any particular time, you can make it so that one result will be the more likely one. That is the case with guns and children too.
I gave various lessons to my kids about guns. I taught them many more than 4 gun safety rules simply because there are more than 4 that are extremely important. I taught them that these rules apply to real guns - not toy guns. I saw no reason to eliminate a normal part of growing up human, that being to use toy items (as a stand-in for weapons) in an aggressive manner to mimic the real thing (both the weapon and the violence). I was, and am, a firm believe that aggression and violence are a natural part of being human and, are a natural part of growing up. I taught them that anytime they are not 100 percent certain if it is a toy gun as opposed to a real gun they were not too touch it unless I said it was ok.
I taught them to never touch a gun (this means a real gun or one of which there was some confusion as to it being real or a toy) anywhere without me saying it was ok. This included if another kid told them to touch it or, if another adult told them it was ok to touch it.
I showed them the difference between real and toy guns (a lot of different ones). I showed them some toys that looked real and some real ones that looked like toys. They got pretty darned good at telling them apart but if they were not sure they let me know
I told them to never touch a gun at another person's home unless I was there and said it was ok.
I taught them that this (the gun rules) was one of the most important things I could teach them and, it (obeying those rules) was one of the most important things they could learn and do right.
I taught them that a gun could kill them, or mama, or papa or anyone and that there is no coming back to life after you die. I taught them that on television when someone gets shot in a movie it is fake any only looks real so that is why you see the same actor again and again in different movies even though it looked like he died in another. I taught them that movies were like when they played good guy vs. bad guy, but real guns were very different.
I taught them that I might forget to unload a gun when I got home from work if I was really, really, tired. I taught them yes - I can make mistakes like that. I emphasized that every time you see a gun you have to believe it loaded and ready to fire.
I taught them, that unless the gun was broken in some manner, it would not go off, unless someone touched it or unless something touched it.
I told them to never poke at a gun with anything (like a stick).
I told them just like they should not touch one, they would have to tell their friends not to touch one if they found one.
I let them hold guns, right after showing them that the gun they were about to hold was unloaded.
I made sure to always point the gun to a safe direction and have them do the same as they handled the gun I had just given to them.
I taught them to keep their fingers off of the trigger while holding a gun unless they were about to shoot it and, I taught them that they were not ever allowed to shoot one unless I was there and gave permission.
I took each out and showed them the power of a gun first by shooting while they watched. They were a bit afraid but also had big smiles cause dad was so powerfully cool to control the real gun. Then I advanced this a bit by letting each of them shoot it. A 9mm handgun was quite the thing for them to shoot (this was at about age 4 or 5). It made a loud bang, and had a lot of recoil. Yes I know, you think it is a poodle shooter round with little recoil but, that is not what a young child thinks. It hurt a tiny bit - actually more fear than hurt. The message got across.
I told them other things too concerning gun safety.
Then I told them if they ever handled a gun without my permission I would give them a punishment they would never forget and, the punishment would include a good and hard spanking.
Then I rewarded them when they did something good concerning a gun. For instance my daughter, who was about 5 or 6 t the time, once woke up as I passed through her room to get to mine (railroad flat to get to one room at one end you passed through all the others - no hall). I walked over and asked if she was ok, she seemed to have been having a bad dream. She said she was ok and suddenly asked if she could see one of my guns right then. It was about 2AM or so. I asked her what she thought about what she had jut requested. I used leading questions to ask if she thought it would be a good idea to handle a gun, for either of us, at 2AM, when both of us were groggy. She thought about it, and told me it would not be a good idea and she would look at them tomorrow. When the sun was up and shining brightly in the late morning sky, I asked her if she still wanted to see my gun - she just said no thanks.
Today my daughter is 20 and in college. She lost interest in guns at about age 13 or 14, maybe 15. Too bad she was a good shot and a better shooting buddy. My son still shoots with me now and then, he is 15. I guess he too is not as interested as he once was. Maybe because we don't have lots of time to get to the range, maybe because he is a teenager and is discovering girls and whatever other wonders we all discovered at that age. While I have seen each of them make a safety mistake or two with a gun, that was about it. I am sure they will each make more mistakes if they continue to handle guns but, I will point out that when a mistake was made I noted that the other rules were followed - such as starting to turn around at the range with the loaded gun pointing away from down range but, the finger was off the trigger. Those other rules are a kind of failsafe. They each got a good reprimand for making the safety mistakes they made and, in that there was another lesson I taught. I taught them that no matter how much I yell or scream if I get mad at something, that was nothing compared to how I felt when I saw them do something unsafe with a firearm. I told them it was so serious that I would try not to yell or scream but to let them know for sure they had messed up in calmer but extremely serious terms. They learned and progressed and, in later times I did not see them repeat their early mistakes, at least with guns.
Now at the risk of making myself out to be a liar (by someone else's standards mentioned in an earlier post) I will say that my kids never (at least to my knowledge) have handled a gun without permission. They have not even, to my knowledge, handled a bullet without permission. They always reported a gun to me or mom when it was not where it should have been. They always did the same with bullets. Oh did I forget to mention bullets. They both got lessons in bullets too. Not to touch them, to tell mama & papa if they found any and so on. Of course, I was not one to leave unprotected guns or ammo lying around my house except by mistake (yes I have been careless on the rare occasion) or when I purposefully did so to test my kids (this was frequent).
I would have my primary carry weapon available, however; it was either locked with a gun lock or stripped down into parts and, even then it was out of sight and out of reach for the kids (yes I know they could climb and maybe even put them together - therefore the gun lock). Nothing is foolproof though, not placing the gun out of sight, out of reach, not placing bullets out of sight or reach, not a gun lock, not a lock box, not a safe - nothing. Even not having any guns around is not foolproof, especially when someone else might have them.
Any fully healthy child with working fingers, who is about the age of two can pick up a handgun. Most cannot work the trigger with their small hands, so they will not easily be able to fire the gun at that age. A double action would be harder than a single action and hopefully the single action is not cocked. That is of course if they keep it pointed away from them. If on the other hand, they decide to turn it around and use both thumbs on the trigger, well then the result will in all likelihood be devastating. This happened to the child of a federal agent many years ago. This is how I heard the story. It was told to me by several sources including my agency's primary firearms instructor. The agent got home from work exhausted - and I do mean exhausted, it had been about a 20 hour day. He fell asleep on the sofa in the living room, gun still in the holster. Sometime during the night he took off his gun, he did not remember when. He placed it onto the coffee table. Next day his child picked up the gun, apparently played with it for a while, then turned it around so the muzzle was pointing at himself and squeezed the trigger with both thumbs. The agent's wife was a nurse, she could not help. The agent could not help. No one could help. That is why you also teach them all about gun safety starting at a young age. Writing this makes me start to choke up right now just as it did then, but man oh man there was a lesson there for the rest of us.
That is why you also have to teach them the difference between play and real. That is why you teach them how seriously are real guns, bullets and death. That is why you have to start early. That is why you have to know the lessons of gun safety yourself and, you have to not just know them but live them. These lessons are not foolproof but, they add to making the odds go in you and your child's favor concerning a long life together.
All the best,
Glenn B
The point was not made. She was a baby after all. She's fourteen now and loves shooting the air rifle and .22. She also knows where I keep a loaded shotgun for emergencies. 
