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Had a recent discussion. How young is too young for a child to fire a gun or rifle? What about a bee-bee gun?

I was never really raised around guns, but wanted my sons to be familiar with them, learn the rules, and learn how to shoot properly. My oldest shoots fairly well for his age. The younger one dabbled, but had no sustained interest.

If you want your children to be familiar with guns, when would you introduce them to guns?

At my first communion we played Bust a Cap in the Donkey

In my neighborhood we had a Celebration/Ritual where all the kids that turned 12 each month were shown the hiding place for the Community Gun on the first day of each month, right after the Checks arrived.

NTF!

Glenn;

Please call it a day.

You will not be funnier, dare i say it- the rest of the month, as you were just there 2 posts above (Unless F4F gets in here to block this punt, in which case it'll be 3 posts above).

I'd say if your not sure about the kid being ready, he is probably not.

That being said, if you really want your kids to have the right training and lessons, You should take all the Safety courses they will, even if you don;t plan on shooting yourself. They need to go through a Safety Course, before they put on bullet down range. See how serious they take the course and it will give you a good measuring stick if they are mature enough to handle it.

1.Go to a gun Club, and get profession assistance
2.Keep the guns at the club
3.If not, buy a gun safe, and make sure ONLY you have a key or the combo
4.BB guns can be a lot of fun, but make sure you don't live next to Terry the Tree Hugger. She will call the cops on you in a second. There is no difference to her between a sniper riffle or a red rider.
5. Ask yourself, does my kid have any douchebag friends who will cause you to loose your house when he shoots someone? If yes, ban him from ever coming over. I went to school with a kid who stole a bb gun from his buddies house, shot out the window of a car, while the person was driving, and the father got sued by both the people who owned the car, and the kids who shot the bb guns parents, for not keeping the gun in a safer place.

Not trying to scare you, but be Safe, be Smart and BE the example on how to hande a gun to your kids

Good point about the friends. They hung around with this one kid until we forbid (forbade?) them. The kid was nice enough, but lived in a house full of women and did everything possible to get attention. Soon, my boys were copying him in school and we'd get "the call."

i remember shooting bb guns and .22 caliber rifles under the age of ten at summer camp and it wasn't a big deal.

as long as the kids are supervised, shooting at proper targets and have no chance to access the guns by themselves, the kids can be young for the low caliber stuff, since there is basically no kickback.

Respect for weapons (guns, knives) needs to come early. I don't recall shooting anything in Cub Scouts, but there was def shooting in Boy Scouts. I say 11ish; older if the kid is more immature, younger if they're sharp and respectful.

I was poppin' shots when I was 8

an' not with no BB shooter either

Teaching your kids how to fish, hunt and trap is a good thing.

There's nothing more exciting than seeing your son catch first his large mouth bass, shoot his first garden snatching squirrel or trap his first snapping turtle.

Except for when your teenage daughter brings home her hot ass girlfriends from High School for a sleep over.

NTF!

Section, you made my day in a "Dazed n Confused" sorta way!

Section- I cannot WAIT for those days.


CANNOT WAIT.

I'll be the inappropriately cool dad.

Only good things can come of that.

I guess I better have the "You only get to have ugly ass friends sleep over" rule for my daughter.

in 3rd grade (1971) we had a field trip to the gun range and every single student was trained, shot rifles and received a Maryland Safe Hunter certificate and patch. I shit you not.

Two reasons why you teach your kids to hunt and fish.

I taught my son how to shoot over the last few years. Started when he was 9 years old. Mainly just targets nothing alive and kicking.

This summer he comes running in the house saying a squirrel was in our garden eating our tomatoes. I told him to go ahead and shoot the bastard.
He grabs the rifle and from about 60 feet away, blows that sucker right off the top of the fence.
We walk over and the little thief is still alive but his legs are paralyzed. I told him that you got to finish him off and put him out of his misery. So the boy just puts the rifle barrel right up to its head and boom out go the lights. Made me proud.


I also take my son fishing quite often. There are a lot of lakes up here in the Pine Barrens.

This one in particular is full of largemouth bass.
I'd fished it a few times but caught mainly shorties and a few smallmouth bass.

Take the boy there one sunny morning and we're fishing for about 30 minutes and he starts screaming he's got a big one.

I look over and his pole is bending pretty good. He keeps screaming and I go over and try to reel in but it feels like he is snagged on a tree branch or a rock. I tell him to just cut the line but he insists he's got a big fish.
So I just stand there and wait for a tree branch to come up as he is reeling in. Well it wasn't any tree branch folks. He caught a 5lb largemouth bass and I about shit my shorts.

To this day every time we go fishing he reminds me of that fish and how I told him to cut his line.

He made me proud that day too.

My son's cubscout pack runs a weekend for dads and scouts called "Pathefinder Weekend."

To get a special badge (not cubscout related, just a cool looking badge that the kid's like), a scout has to:

Hike two miles with gear
Set up camp by building a lean-to shelter and build a fire pit
Score 35 points in five shots at a beebee gun range
Hit the target with a recurve or compound bow
Catch, clean and cook their own fish
Use a compass to navigate
Follow the "Leave No Trace" pledge

The steps aren't grueling, but you're dealing with first through fifth graders. Hiking with gear consists of sleeping bag, bottle of water and a snack, mainly. The fish part is also loosely defined. Catch and release the fish, know how to clean a fish, and cook one that we brought from a supermarket. Food poisoning and camping do not mix well.

For some reason this struck me as an NTF:


"I told him to go ahead and shoot the bastard."

NCSaintsFan
RE: Kids and Firearms
Reply
7/15/2008 9:16 AM





My son's cubscout pack runs a weekend for dads and scouts called "Pathefinder Weekend."

To get a special badge (not cubscout related, just a cool looking badge that the kid's like), a scout has to:

Hike two miles with gear
Set up camp by building a lean-to shelter and build a fire pit
Score 35 points in five shots at a beebee gun range
Hit the target with a recurve or compound bow
Catch, clean and cook their own fish
Use a compass to navigate
Follow the "Leave No Trace" pledge


They should add to that list...

Seek and destroy al-Qaida and Taliban forces

That's the summer camp agenda.