How Many People Raise there kids around guns?

I was raised in a house with an unlocked gun cabinet full of guns. All the ammo was stored in the unlocked top drawer of the same cabinet.

I was given a BB gun at age 4, a pellet rifle at 7, a single shot 20gauge at 10, a Remington .22 rifle (semi-auto at that)at 12, a Ruger MKII .22 at13 (another semi), and a Rem742 .30-06 at 15 (yet another semi). The year after the '06 I got my driver's license and often had the '06 with me. Of course that would be because I was taking the thing hunting, but the fact remains that I could take the guns with me because 1) they were mine and 2) I was trusted with them. If my parents didn't trust me they would not have given them to me.

I was raised around guns and have owned guns for 26 of my 30 years and I have yet to shoot anyone, accidentally or otherwise!

My kids will be brought up likewise.

Jack

[This message has been edited by Jack Straw (edited September 19, 2000).]
 
BigDawg,
I really wasn't raised around guns when I was a kid, but I certainly have raised my daughter since she was 2 or 3 years old around handguns.

I had a stainless government model and told her not to put her fingers in the trigger guard and showed her several times. She was really great at getting things for me. I had her fetch the "unloaded" GM several times for me...I only had to correct her once..don't point the business end at anyone.

Funny story...we had just moved into our newly purchased house when a neighbor who was anti at the time came over. My daughter knew that I had left my GM in the bedroom and a stranger was at the door, so just when I let the neighbor in, my daughter came in with the GM in both of her little hands, pointing it towards the floor and her fingers wrapped around the pistol grip.
My neighbor stared in horror as her mouth dropped open, then being rude, she pointed at my little daughter bringing the gun and she stuttered, "Is that a real gun?!!!!"

I quickly replied, "Nah! You know how these toy guns look like real ones. Can't tell them apart, although if you want my daughter to bring some real ones...."
I thought she was going to break her ankle as she backed out of the front door, and went down the stairs two at a time.

Why the terror?
 
My parents are both pro but we didn't have any guns to speak of. My first shooting experience was with my uncle at the age of 10, and the rest is history. My wife and don't have any kids yet, but when we do I'll start them shooting early. I wont let them cary until they are legally able to.
 
Never had any guns around when I was growing up (in a city), until I was 14, when my Dad got a shotgun for home protection. I did shoot .22 rifles and .410 shotguns at Boy Scout camp. I don't remember my Dad ever going out to practice or shoot.

I kept a pellet gun around for garden pests, until the lawyers started driving gun makers out of business. Bought a 1911 and now I have "more than ten, less than twenty" assorted guns.

My ten-year-old daughter has been around guns for the last couple of years. She goes shooting with me and she has a favorite .22 pistol from my collection. I always offer to let her see any gun anytime, especially if I'm cleaning, which I do on the back porch. She's no longer overly curious, beginning to be knowledgable, especially about safety.

I also take my step-son from my first marriage shooting. He's seventeen.

These kids learn about Freedom and responsibility along with marksmanship.

Regards,

Ledbetter
 
My dad grew up around guns, but didn't have his own until he got a 30-06 and a 20 ga. pump for graduation. He just always hunted with his dads guns before then.
Not the same with me. I've been hunting and fishing since I can remember, and that was about 4, my dad says I've been going since I was three though. I remember getting up, andf he'd get coffe and I'd get a cup of coffee-mulk(about 1 part coffee, 3 parts milk.) I remember shooting squirrels when my dads .410 used to drop me on my ass :) I got my first guns for christmas when I was six. a single shot.410 and a single shot .22. I still have them, and saving them for my kids. I got a gun case when I was about 15 (Our family guns had grown out of my dads 16 rifle cabinet, and my brothers 8 gun cabinet, and the locked foot-locker that we keep pistols in) My dad had the keys, but we got to have the cabinets in our room. He trusted us, just didn't want our friends to get into them, or whatever. I got a .375 from him for graduation, and inhereted a 30-06 (springield 1903) and a .22 single shot, from my grandpa when he died. All my other guns I've bought. Me and my brother used our christmas money to buy 10/22's when I was 12. I had bought 2 30rnd clips about six months earlier, right after they banned them. I didn't have the money for the gun, but I was going to have a couple of those clips, by god. I'm 19 now, still living at home, because I go to school. I also have the keys to my gun cabinet now. I will raise my kids around guns, from early, like I was. We never shot road signs, or cows (with firearms anyways, With wrist rockets they were fair game) and will raise my kids to know gun saftey.
I like this. This is good stuff: "I don't know if you would consider it a character flaw, but I routinely break laws I find unConstitutional." :D
 
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