It was almost a rite of passage to get your first gun where I was raised. My father gave me a 12 ga. when I was 12. (Good thing I wasn't 10 yrs old or it might have been a 10 ga.) You were pretty much expected to bring home squirrels or rabbits pronto. It was a High Standard pump and I still have the beaten up old thing today.
You know, I don't ever remember receiving any detailed safety rules, except the usual common sense ones. You sort of knew already by picking it up from older brothers and other boys by osmosis and you looked forward to having your own gun some day.
No one EVER thought to point a gun at some one else or do anything stupid like you read about today. Guns were common and viewed as important tools. They were to be treated with the utmost respect, but not feared and certainly not playthings.
It was instilled in us to be safe and the rare boy that didn't take gun safety seriously was looked down on, and even thought to be rather unmanly and childish.
Hahaha, I'm still in my 40s but sound like an old man, eh? Dagnabbit whippersnappers -- hey kid, git off my lawn! (read in crazy old man voice and shake fist in the air)