Kids And Guns

[gunner03]

What age do you think kids can be started on live ammo?
I started my son at 7 and get a lot of flack.
My thought is if you have guns around, there should be no mystery.

 

[jsalcedo]

I started my son on a 10/22 and AK clone when he was 4.

If it's good enough for the Afgan children it's good enough for mine.


The only consequence to starting them so early is that the forbidden "cool factor" is completely negated making them much less likely to become gun nuts later in life.

 

[ACP230]

I started mine at six or seven.
Safety was discussed often and practiced rigorously.

 

[waterhouse]

I started getting invited on quail hunts aroun age 4 or so. I wasn't allowed to carry a gun, but safety rules were stressed and it was always a good time. I think I started on a single shot .22 at age 6. And as far as I'm concerned I turned out just fine

At some point, probably around 7, I swung a shotgun past another member of the hunting party. This was quickly pointed out, corrected, and I payed the consequence of not being allowed to carry a gun for the next several hunts. It hasn't happened since.

I think the fact that I was exposed to guns early took a lot of the "wow" factor out, so there was never an urge to "play" with them. I'd go over to friend's houses in high school and they would say things like "my step dad left the gun safe open, aren't these cool." I'd have to explain to them that they weren't toys, that they were in a safe for a reason, etc.

For what it's worth, I feel the same way about alcohol too. From the age of 15 or so we were always allowed a beer with lunch on the weekends, or a glass of wine if we went out to dinner as a family. This also seemed to take a lot of the "wow" factor out of drinking, which made going away to college a lot safer (based on the drinking habits of my roomates who weren't allowed to drink at home).

 

[P95Carry]

Trying to remember now! My son is 28 and daughter 30 right now!

I reckon their first range visits were when they were around 6 and 8. By time they were 9 and 7 - they were good with .22 and had tried 38 spl. Good safety training - gradual intro to larger cals - all was good. Those times have given them a lesson for life with guns and safety. I am glad it was possible.

Sadly my daughter is still domiciled in UK - need I say more!! Only shooting she has had is when vacationing over here - and she still does good.

My son has too much work and family stuff for much shooting time but - his 7mm mag does his deer season just fine - and his GP-100 when out and in excercize mode - is equally satisfactory!

Start em young - way to go.

 

[Len_in_Phoenix]

IMHO, maturity and the physical ability to hold the gun matter much more than chronological age. I started my daughter at 9 and my son at 6. I've got more thoughts on the matter here, here, and here along with many other places in my blog.


Len in PHoenix
One in a row...

 

[Catuela]

Len makes the best point. If the youngster shows that he/she can act with some common since and a level of maturity that makes you feel safe around he/she with a firearm then go for it.
I've met 6 and 7 year old that I don't mind being on a range with at all. On the same note, I've met 25 year olds that shouldn't be allowed to look at pictures of guns.

 

[foghornl]

All of mine started at about age 8 or so.

 

[MechAg94]

I remember pulling the trigger on my Dad's .357 Mag Revolver at 5 or 6 years. My Dad had to help me hold it. Other than the normal safety talk, that was a good lesson on the destructive power. Knowing how a guns works goes a long way to preventing accidents. This was all out in my grandfather's woods so we could shoot 2X4's and stuff and see what the bullet did to them. We used to dig the bullets out of the hill behind the target after shooting.

Other than that, my brother and I were firing BB guns by 8 more or less unsupervised. We shot .22 rifles and other larger stuff supevised.
Frankly, if they are old enough to understand the safety rules, it is never to early to give your kids a healthy respect for guns and teach them the difference between toys and guns.

Also, my Dad may be unique. He wouldn't let me or my brother point any toy guns at people or each other. It was hard to understand why as kids, but looking back, it does teach good habits.

 

[JohnBT]

I was about that age when I finally bugged my father once too often to shoot his Model 12 20 ga. He held the gun while I pulled the trigger and got knocked on my rear end in the dirt. Up to that point I'd only shot .22s and .410s.

John

 

[MudPuppy]

Air guns at 4, AR-15 at 6 (adjustable stock makes it easy to hold).

I don't let them run around with them, we get on the range, talk more about safety than we actually shoot.

You do what is right, even when it is harder, with your kids and let the knuckle-heads think what they want. Even if its the in-laws!

Guns are like any other tools.

 

[Jalexander]

My experience was identical to Waterhouse's, with one exception. I went along as a bird-finder starting with I was four or five, but they started me with a BB gun before I got to carry a shotgun. My dad bought me a .410 for Christmas when I was seven, and I got to carry that thereafter. He gave me a single-shot .22 at about the same time, and kept me well-supplied with ammo. Told me that as long as I didn't shoot one of the cattle or the dogs, I could do wander where I wanted.
Of course, that's probably not practical with kids today.

James

 

[Art Eatman]

I let my son go through the "feel and fondle" process with a 1911 when he was four. He agreed that it was too big for him. The deal was, when he thought he was big enough, we'd go let him shoot.

He got his first Daisy Red Ryder at around age six. He had been given safety instructions and a warning about what would happen if he got careless. He had a minor Oops! and it got wrapped around a tree trunk. I gave him another one for his birthday, a couple of months later, and apparently he'd had the original lesson driven home.

Other shooting occurred along with size and age and all that.

What's important, seems to me, is to remove the mystique and any "lure of the forbidden" from the whole gun deal. If a kid sees guns as normal parts of life, tools for specific purposes, you've gun-proofed the kid. You darned sure can't kid-proof a gun.

Art

 

[sdchuck1]

I think that most of the people on this board and othe pro gun boards will all see the logical side and realize that if you have no curiosity about guns then finding a gun or having guns in the house that are unlocked or even loaded will have no ill effects. I grew up in a mid-sized town with several guns of various types and not one gun lock to speak of. All the kids in the house knew that the shotgun was always loaded and was the guard dog so to speak if it was late and someone came a creepin grab the Reminton and push the safety off (the gun is still loaded and sits beside my parents bed as I type this but never used in any HD situation). My son is now 9 but since he was about 6 he has had a good grasp on the fact that if you point agun at someone or something and the gun fires on purpose or accidentially that the item or person will die or get destroyed. He currently has shot the SKS, 10/22, my old 510 targetmaster that now belongs to his 12 yr older sister, and a couple different 9mm handguns. I normally hold the bottom of the handle so he doesn't drop it. Both my girls are gun savvy and like to shoot trap and paper. If you love guns share them with your family at all ages!

 

[Standing Wolf]

19 for me. I was a bit of a late bloomer, I guess.

Seriously: if I'd had children, I'd have started taking them shooting with me by the age of three or four. When they wanted to start shooting, too, they'd have started shooting.

 

[Smoke]

Oldest son still has to have supervision for his BB gun. (He's 5)
He has shot a couple of my 22's but they are too big for him.
He really wants one of his own, but I've stressed he can't have one until he can show me he can handle the BB gun without supervision.

Smoke

 

[jefnvk]

I was younger than 7, but can't remember how young.

 

[GRB]

My children could not legaly learn to shoot at a range until aged 12 here in NYS. My daughter started after 12 but my son started to learn earlier at about 6 or 7 (maybe earlier, hard to recall) and, I will not say he learned in NYS. Of course, they both learned gun safety and respect for guns years before they ever shot one.

 

[AnthonyRSS]

I barely remember shooting a Ruger Mark I, although I didn't know that then, when I was 4 of 5. I got my first pellet gun when I was 8, and when I pointed at a car tire as it was driving down the road, I lost it for a long time. My grandfather always had long guns in corners of his house but I never touched them. I could operate most any gun by the time I was ten.

If anybody gives you flack about teaching your kids about guns, give them the finger.

 

[Konall]

My dad started me shooting gophers at age 5. He'd hold the .22 rifle--it was too heavy for me--while I lined the sights up and pulled the trigger. I missed mostly, but I learned the concepts.

I got a BB gun around 7 or 8, but I didn't get my own .22 until I was 13 because I demonstrated a lack of good judgement with the BB gun in earlier years.

 

[gunner03]

Thanks guys,just wanted to make shure I'm not the only one that thinks like this.

 

[YammyMonkey]

I talked to my wife about this a long time ago and she was sort of fence-sitting because one of her co-workers was upset that her husband (against his wife's wishes) took their 5 yo son shooting. I think she was more bent out of shape because he took the boy and didn't respect her wishes. At the time my wife (then girlfriend) thought that 5 was far too young.

Fast forward 7 years or so, my wife is now pregnant and we've talked about it a bit more. We agreed to base it on the kid's maturity and physical ability. If Jr. can be safe and shoot at 2 yrs old, then 2 it is. If Jr. has to wait until after puberty, then after puberty it is.

I also talked to my wife about our neice and nephew (5 and 3 IIRC) and both of them are far too "goofy" and immature to handle a firearm right now. I'm thinking about getting some of the Eddie Eagle info from the NRA and passing that on to the in-laws as instead of hearing "you'll never shoot a gun" I've heard "when you're big like uncle Mike you can..." Just hope the kids don't have to wait until they're 6'1", 180lbs and 27yo to hit the range.

 

[KONY]

My son just shot for the first time last week at the age of 6. He has put approximately 150 rounds downrange through my Buck Mark. Before this, I have spent a considerable amount of time teaching him safe gun handling and watching the Eddie Eagle NRA video. Before he shot, I made sure he was able to complete the NRA range safety test. Took over an hour but I think it was time well-spent reinforcing what I have taught him. Ultimately, you have to be the judge of whether your child is ready to shoot. Don't let "other people" tell you when as some of these folks will probably say YOU shouldn't be shooting either! One thing I do recommend is that even if you don't let your child shoot at a very young age, you should alllow him to handle your firearms and start schooling him on gun safety. Being that the current statistic is 40% of all households contain a firearm, even if you lock-up all your guns, your child stands a very good chance of encountering one at a friend's place, etc. Just my 2 cents.