MotherTalkers has an update post up in regards to the situation I brought to light yesterday. And for the record, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a man being a hairdresser :)
It does bring up a good issue of when is old enough to start teaching the youngins about guns. I was 13 or 14 myself, before I even touched one. I’m actually a pretty firm believer in starting out with air guns, and breaking any unsafe behavior with something that doesn’t have quite so much potential for dangerous accidents. I once had a young kid sweep me with the barrel of a .22 rifle at the range, who promptly got yelled at by pop. I didn’t say anything, because his father dealt with the mistake, but to me it’s better to have kids make those mistakes with air guns, and only when they can consistently use those safely do you move up to firearms.
it doesn’t seem to bring up the issue of when’s old enough to start questioning authority. granted, this particular kid’s only eight, but the original author’s slavish devotion to obeying authority figures of every stripe worries me more than any hoplophobia.
Eight is a good age, started my kids between 7-8. And as I recall that’s how old I was when Dad started teaching me.
My oldest turns 5 in September. She’s already helping me clean my M44 and I plan on having her help me with the Glock soon. “Helping” of course means pushing the cleaning rod down once or twice, but it’s a start.
Georgia can recite verbatim what to do if she finds a gun in a house. She’s scared sh!tless of them right now, which is good. She’ll only come near one if daddy’s near by.
When she’s 6, she’ll start going to the range with me. She’ll sit outside and watch Daddy shoot until she’s ready and expresses interest in going indoors. Then I’ll probably start off with a .22 (I don’t own an air gun. Maybe I should though…hmmm).
Grandpa started me off early, can’t remember how old I was when I first shot, but it was when I was in the single digits.
First gun I used was a early 1900’s single shot 22 short Hamilton Firearms rifle (model #27 for those interested). Was the gun he and his brother grew up with. I have it now and plan on passing it on to my children (provided I have any, can still get ammo for it, and find a trustworthy gunsmith to fix the firing pin).
I was between 6 and 8 when I learned to shoot. Started on .22s (a bolt action rifle and a J.C Higgens Model 29 semi-auto).
By the time I was 13 I had convinced my dad to help me build a shooting range in our basement and had gotten a Calico M-100 for a birthday present.
Well, good on the mother. What would you have thought of all this if the othe rplayer had been, say, an uncle instead of her ex-husband? (Not – the ex was NOT the father of the child).
I learnt to shoot at 11, 8 might be a little early, depending. But it’s not primarily a hoplophonbic issue, it’s an issue of who has authority.