Quote:
Originally Posted by FCWood
As a side note, when I was about 5 or 6 my dad walked into the house, loaded a 12 ga with 00 buck shot, then told me to come outside where he had 4x4 sheet of plywood propped up against a fence. He said, "see that sheet of plywood," and upon my answering yes he leveled the shotgun and fired at it from about 15 feet away. He then asked for me to take a look at it now and I remember vividly to this day him saying, "that's what a gun can do to a person, they are not toys, and you don't EVER touch one unless you ask me first." From that point on dad never locked the gun cabinet unless other young kids were coming to the house.
FCW
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I had a similar experience.
We didn't have a gun in the house until I was about 12, but my next door neighbor and best friends dad was a veteran, former LEO and expert hunter, when we were 8 or 9 he took us (his son my best friend and I out, set up a watermelon which he informed us was the same consistency as a human head), and shot it from about 10 feet with a 12 gauge loaded with bird shot.
Just after it exploded he cleared the weapon and turned to us and said that's what could happen to one of us if the other was playing with a weapon. It made quite an impression.
Kids need to be taught the dangers of firearms period. As for hunting alone ages, that should be up to the parents, some kids are probably GTG at 10 some aren't, but the I can guarantee the Gov won’t know better than a parent, you can't legislate common sense.