Oh Lord, kids at the gun store.....

[moi_self26]

Unfortunately that's all too common when parents treat guns as taboo, rather than teach kids from their tot years that it's a tool that is to be respected.

Our nephew is very into video games and loves to talk about the "sick" (man I hate that expression) guns he shoots in them.

So one day, after checking with his mother first, I told him that he could come stay with us for a weekend and we would take him to the range. We spent some time the first day going over the features on the guns.... how to check that they are un-loaded, etc.... and we went over the safety rules almost ad nauseam. We made it very clear that we wanted him to have fun, but that it was also important that he was safe and knew proper handling.... and that if he wasn't exercising safe practices, we would leave the range. He did very well (and was an excellent shot) and has been much less juvenile when discussing them.

 

[Expertowgunner]

This guy made me go shoot my friends springfield armory operator lol. Ive been shooting guns and playing video games since i was a kid and ill tell you that games that due guns true justice (Metal Gear solid 4 has almost 50 different firearms that give you technical data, manufacturer, and the such) actually introduced me to new guns (Saiga 12 shotgun) and ill tell you that while games are no guide to firearms they certainly peak the interest in guns in young folk. METAL GEAR ROX!!

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

I initially have the same reaction with those type of situations. But then when you think about it, video games may be the closest exposure to guns a lot of young adults these days have (where are they going to get their info, the news?). If they didn't have the benefit of parents that shoot (or parent, for many), they are going to be ignorant. They may be punks that shouldn't have a gun, or they may be genuinely interested in the right/sport/hobby/tradition and could use a mentor to teach them. We all started somewhere. I was fortunate enough to have a family that raised me the same way they were raised and learned that way, but I know people who have only gotten their info from various biased mediums. Those folks are fun to teach if they are open to learning and don't have a know-it-all mentality.

 

[bang_bang]

Those folks are fun to teach if they are open to learning and don't have a know-it-all mentality.

Good luck finding some...most around here are too concerned about being a white "gansta" or thug. Some, just by looking, don't need to be around guns or educated on them. Drugs and gangs have risen dramatically in my surrounding cities within the past couple of years. Where I live now, though, I can suspect that if a "gansta" is walking down my street he doesn't belong in the neighborhood.

 

[Hardtarget]

I went to a S&W store with my brother in law several years ago. Turned out I knew the store owner. He went to school with my wife. They were talking about specs and differences of several of the S&W revolvers. There was a young guy in the shop,(14/15), and he drifted over close. He started interrupting to ask totally off the wall questions...not related to the conversation. Both were very good about answering and clear in their explanations when they spoke to him. Too bad he didn't just hush and listen. The shop owner had been to S&W for some kind of training and was very knowledgeable about the guns. My brother in law had just recently won the Kentucky State Pistol championship...PPC. He could have picked up some real world info from those two guys. Tried to get him to stop and listen but , apparently, they were not talking about stuff he wanted to hear.

Sometimes we just have to bite our tongue and wait for the right opportunity. Teaching and learning have to mesh like transmission gears to really work.

Mark

 

[TRGRHPY]

More and more, but let's not be "old foegys" without admitting that most of the previous generation got their gun-larn'n from TV and Movies and the one before that from B&W TV and Hollywood Westerns/Gangster/War movies. I don't doubt we'd have heard much the same thing in 1980 or 1960 with the exception of "video game" substituted with "Dragnet" or "Tom Mix".

Not only that, but since we didn't have video games, we actually played things like cops-and-robbers and cowboys-and-indians in the front yard with plastic cap guns or even sticks. The game is still the same, just more technological.


And video games do indeed increase coordination skills. Racers often play them to help maintain their "edge", along with other excercises (bouncing super-bouncy rubber balls on the wall). Not only improves eye-hand coordination but it also speeds the brains ability to process data. It's one of the things taught to me when I raced motorcycles. There is something to the video game thing...not reality, but something

 

[Carl]

I do agree that video games can have good potential to develop reflexes and hand eye coordination. Those are the fast paced FPS, other ones like World of Warcraft have good potential to lead to weight gain and no opposite sex interaction.

 

[Prince Yamato]

I have to admit... 3D military video games made me want to try guns. You play the games long enough and you start going, "hmm... I wonder what the real thing is like..."

The effect of what you saw is two-fold:

1) The teens will be more interested in real guns and eventually learn about them.

2) If those teens grow up into video game developers, they may work to make guns in games more realistic.

 

[quatin]

What's wrong with kids recognizing things they see in video games? I don't believe the whole crap about video games "disillusioning" kids by smearing reality with fantasy. I don't go about stealing cadillacs that I see in GTA 4.

 

[Geronimo45]

However it scares me to see kids(I would say 17-18)to compare these guns to a video game.

How many people ran out to buy Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum? And the phantom 'Glock 7' of Die Hard II?

They compare the guns to guns in games because that's where they are exposed to 'em. That's where they see the name and caliber. In most modern movies, you see the gun in profile. Don't often see the name of the maker, IME.

As for the Raven 9mm question - their knowledge of guns comes from games. Small guns = small caliber. Smallest game caliber is usually 9mm. These are newbies to the gun world. Might not be old enough to purchase the things. I wouldn't expect them to know much. For all they knew, the '25' could've been a model, as you see with the Glock. Glock 17s aren't in .17 caliber, after all.

You have to remember though, the parents of these gang bangers are probably anti-gun liberals.

Yep. Best way to bring in new folks to the pro-gun fold is to write them off as thugs.

 

[JKimball]

98C5,

I would have loved to see that. I think it is great to see young people investigating their interest in firearms (even if it is full autos and silencers.)

I think these video games have helped bring thousands, if not millions of people to our side of the gun control debate.

I suppose that in the past, the nations interest in firearms stemmed from hunting. Where that may be missing these days, perhaps video games are helping fill the gap and then some. It actually gives me more hope that future attempts at AWB's will meet more stiff resistance than they did from the generations of hunters that may not have had much of a problem with the '94 ban.

 

[Bat22]

I think this situation is similar to seeing youths - some not even in their teens - firing at the gun range. I feel a bit better because usually there's parental supervision and they're handling smaller calibers than a .50 A.E.

In our society, I think we sometimes turn our worries - subjects like sex, tobacco, alcohol, cars, and guns - into forbidden fruit, which doesn't make minors any more prepared or any less eager to obtain them. I think the clerk did right in offering himself as a source of credible information for those teens to seek out rather than take their chances with someone else.

And, hey, the RESIDENT EVIL series strongly impacted my affinity with firearms...

 

[ScareyH22A]

SEALs are switching to XD's??!! I know what I'm getting next!
I played Call of Duty 4 for awhile before buying my first gun, an HK USP. And one day, I turned on the game and was fighting when I saw a very familiar slide and sight picture... well I'll be damned, I was looking down the slide of my USP! It was kinda neat.

 

[grunt0311]

I think FPS games are great, get some trigger time in and the ammo is cheaper.

 

[tasco 74]

reminds of about a year ago while i was talking with old gun counter guy at wal-mart a young guy come over and started talking .460 mag this and .500 mag that.... we just kind of looked at each other and listened for a bit..... after he slowed down i smiled and said "you can drop anything in north america with a .357 magnum...." the old gun dealer said "yep he's right........" the newbie just kinda looked at us then wandered off........... i'm going to miss that old guy..............

LIFE IS SHORT.....

 

[Bat22]

I think FPS games are great, get some trigger time in and the ammo is cheaper.

Yeah, and you get goodies your home state wouldn't permit you to possess. Stuff like "high capacity" (really regular capacity > 10) magazines. With RE5, I get to enjoy my Beretta 92 with its 100-rd mags.

 

[209]

Not only that, but since we didn't have video games, we actually played things like cops-and-robbers and cowboys-and-indians in the front yard with plastic cap guns or even sticks. The game is still the same, just more technological.


And video games do indeed increase coordination skills. Racers often play them to help maintain their "edge", along with other excercises (bouncing super-bouncy rubber balls on the wall). Not only improves eye-hand coordination but it also speeds the brains ability to process data. It's one of the things taught to me when I raced motorcycles. There is something to the video game thing...not reality, but something

I really hate some of the video games. I tried playing one (I think it was one of the Rainbow 6 ones) and kept getting killed- early and often. My son started saying things like "you really suck at this, Dad."

So I took him to a outdoor paintball venue. I had a lot of fun ambushing him repeatedly and shooting him multiple times. He didn't fair too well. It gave me a chance to say, "You really suck at this, son."

While paintball isn't reality, it's a lot more real than sitting in a chair moving a fake character around on the TV.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

Man could I feel older.Learned about guns from Jack O'Connor in OL.

 

[Sixtigers]

Oh, come on! What true gunnie/video game player ever played Hitman, saw and used the .45 Ballers, and didn't smile to himself in total satisfaction? Or was impressed by the capability of the silenced .22 Mk II? Or the PSG-1? I love it when the programmers try for realism! Cuz...realistically...I'm never going to be able to afford those types of weapons.

 

[wyk]

Yes I think these kids just need some firearm education. Playing computer games does help a kid develop an interest in firearms. But beyond that they should be taught respect for firearm safety as well as the responsibilities that come with handling a gun. If the kids do learn it well then it would be a gain to the shooting community and if NOT then guns would become tools which they would abuse.

 

[Knightrider03m]

When I went to buy my gun, this kid asked if can my gun also handle a small round too

I said no then walked to the check out line

 

[grunt0311]

With my kids I have take the approach to firearms that it is better to take the mistery out of them. I have 2 girls (6 and 10) the help me clean them after a day at the range and I answer any question about them they have. Both of them know that every gun is loaded and to treat it responsibly. Luckily we live in an area that we can go out to the back yard and shoot the 22lrs' and the oldest likes the .357 Colt with .38s in it. They know the difference between what a video game gun does and what the real thing can do. I am hoping that taking them shooting will help grow their interest in the shooting sports and the 2nd amendment. My oldest just told me last week that she wants to do a Gun saftey project for 4-H. I am so proud...

 

[WardenWolf]

However it scares me to see kids(I would say 17-18)to compare these guns to a video game. I wanted to inform the kids(in a nice way)of how different the two worlds are, but they left before I had the chance. Anyone else have a similar experience?

More and more, but let's not be "old foegys" without admitting that most of the previous generation got their gun-larn'n from TV and Movies and the one before that from B&W TV and Hollywood Westerns/Gangster/War movies. I don't doubt we'd have heard much the same thing in 1980 or 1960 with the exception of "video game" substituted with "Dragnet" or "Tom Mix".

And they also grew up shooting BB guns from the age of 6 or so. While video games can be beneficial, they also expose players to shooting realistic human targets in situations that can replicate real life. There's a certain level of desensitizing that happens there, and that effect is hard to quantify.

That said, the people who drool over the guns they've seen in video games aren't the ones you need to watch out for, though. They're enamored with the "cool" factor and, if they got it, would be loathe to do anything that would cause them to lose their cool adult toy. Yeah, they may have the complete wrong impression, but they're not going to go shoot up a school.

 

[Davek1977]

I've been a customer of our local shop since I was about 12 (though I lived about 80 miles away at the time). It was within walking range from my grandparents house, and I spent a good deal of time there(with and without parental supervison....it wasn't long before the folks realized I was just as welcome there without their presence as i was with.....and i ALWAYS wanted to stay longer than their schedule would suaully allow). There were days I probably fondled every gun on the racks, and asked to look at nearly everything in the pistol case. I, admittedly, was already fairly knowledgeable about frearms at that point, and what I didn't already know, the shop owner was more than happy to help me out with. I never bothered him if he was with another customer, but definitely took up a lot of his "free time" when the store was empty. I learned a lot about handguns (my dad never had much use for handguns, aside from 2 .22 revolvers he owned) and other firearms I wasn't familiar with during those shop visits. Looking back, I was probably a bit annoying at times, but he never let it show, and always called me by name and had a smile on his face when I walked in. Darn near 20 years later....not a whole lot has changed. I still stop in to browse and shoot the breeze with him, am still greeted with a smile and a "Hi dave!" and make a point to go there first if I'm looking for something gun-related. My time spent there fostered an already strong interest in firearms. He was always nice, patient and helpful to me, even if I was "just a kid".

 

[alemonkey]

For those of you who complain about kids who don't look they way you think they should, or listen to the right music, or ask "stupid" questions, remember they are the next generation of shooters. It's our responsibility to introduce them to guns in a positive way and teach them how to use them. So next time you get annoyed by a kid in a store, why not take the time to actually talk to them. Yes, some will be know it all's and not interested in learning, but you might be surprised and gain a shooting buddy.

I'm only 33 so I was one of those kids not long ago, asking dumb questions of the guy at the gun counter. When I was old enough to buy, you can be sure I patronized the dealers who treated me like a decent human being instead of a punk kid.