She's asked me a couple of times lately to teach her "how to shoot a gun." However, all she "knew" about them is that "fire" and noise comes from them. So, after a brief couple of lines about the fact that something other than that does come out and can be deadly, I let her see a couple of tame YouTube videos of people shooting pumpkins so she could see the holes that are made. I made sure each of the two videos was short (less than one minute each), and that they lacked any "yahoo" element.
Then, she watched the NRA Eddie Eagle video on what to do when one comes across a gun. She enjoyed echoing the character's rhythmical chant of "Stop! Don't touch! Leave the area! Tell an adult!"
After that, not as a test, but as a practice exercise, I placed a non-functional replica handgun on the bed in our master bedroom, and told her to go there to see if the cat was in there. As she headed down the hall, I also told her to see if there was anything there that should not be.
Moments later, the call came: "Daddy! I found a gun!" Though she did not run out to tell me, she did not touch it at all, and made sure I came quickly to the scene. I told her she had done well, and rewarded her (with a sweet.)
I wanted to keep her first lesson brief, well within her attention span (and that of her interest, which she seemed to hold quite well.)
I reminded her that there will be more lessons, and that I will soon let her handle one and see how one actually works. I have to work that out, as there are no ranges here that host such young shooters. But there are always airguns to start out with..
Aside from actual live-fire, I'd be interested in some of the techniques for "first orientation lessons" you all have used for very young children.
Oh, incidentally, her mother called me just as we were about to start the videos. My daughter asked me to let her speak to her, and when I put mom on speaker, my daughter began shouting "Mama, I'm having my first lesson on shooting a gun!"
I'm still waiting to hear about that from her mom...
