What age were you exposed to firearms?

I've known about guns all of my life.

But if you mean shooting them, I think I was 5 when my father, brother, and I took the .22 out for the first time.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
Excluding airguns, about 5th grade when my uncle showed me his M1 Carbine. He taught me to field strip it and the manual of arms.
 
I think I was about 5-6 when my Grandfather, and my Dad took me out shooting the first-time.... Guess what I shot that day.... Yes you got it a handgun, using 22 shorts. That was the day I also got my first "gun" a nice little pump BB gun. I did not however get any BB's for it, until awhile later. Basiclly, they taught me how to safely handle firearms with that BB gun. :D

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Dead [Black Ops]
 
Was given a BB gun (Daisy Red Rider, what else?) at 5. Had already handled dad's .22 LR Remington Nylon 66 under very cautious instruction beforehand.

Shot a snake in the chicken coop with my grandmother's .22 revolver when I was 6. Right after I cleaned up my pants, of course! Never did stick my hand in there again without a GOOD look first, I can tell you. But I did that killing all on my own. Told granny what was going on, she went and got the gun, put it in my hands, and told me to handle it. And I did. :D

Was given a New England Firearms Pardner (20-ga. single shot) for Christmas when I was 11. Dad had to peel me off the ceiling I was so high!

I guess what I am basically saying is that I have always been around guns, and suspect that I always will be.

Funny sidebar: My dad and I were talking guns on my recent visit to their home in Colorado in preparation for my move out there. Mom was listening in and asked me when I had developed such a love for guns, like she was shocked or something. Dad and I both busted out laughing at the same time. I told her "When I was about 3."

Then I remembered the look she had given dad when I got that shotgun for Christmas. I don't think she was really in on that decision.....
 
Patton-- somewhere between age 6-8 got my 1st single-shot, bolt-action .22 rifle. Prior to that, didn't know where we had guns, but knew we had 'em.
Also grew up on Atlantic ocean & can't remember when I learned to swim; I always knew how...
My folks didn't make the gun ( or water ) "safe" around me: they made me "safe" around the gun...
Just FYI, my Dad ( born 1890, Cape Hatteras ) viewed guns as tools-- you used them to get food! Consequently, while a very fine shot with pistols, he looked at them as "toys;" if you were serious about shooting something, you got a rifle or a shotgun!
 
I was exposed to my first shotgun in 1981. I was 5 years old. My dad had purchased a 410 hunting shotgun for me. Didnt get to shoot it till I was about 6. Told me all I needed to know about respecting guns and treating them properly.

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Try to take away my gun...and you will see my 2nd Amendment Right in ACTION!!! -Me

FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!
 
Some of my first memories was of getting to hold my dad's guns and of him telling me that these where his pride and joys. That if I ever touched them when he was not around, I was as good as dead.

BB gun by five or six
.22 pellet air gun seven
.22 long rifle nine or ten
8mm mouser & 16ga shotgun when I was twelve, old enough to hunt.

moved up to 12ga at 15 when I bought it myself out of my own money.

.22 Ruger Single Six at 16

.357 colt trooper mark III at 18.



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Richard

The debate is not about guns,
but rather who has the ultimate power to rule,
the People or Government.
RKBA!
 
Probably I would say when I was about 10 or 12. My Uncle was part of a hunting camp in upstate New York. Went up there one weekend with them and he and my cousins went to a dump to shoot dump rats. That was the first time I ever fired a handgun, I don't remember the brand name but it was a break top .32 My Uncle and my cousins were always big hunters and trappers. We shot a lot of dump rats that day and had a bunch of fun doing it. My father was always into Archery which I could never get interested in. Always liked the things that went bang. :)
By the way I started my own son shooting when he was a wee lad of three, he's now fifteen and my best shooting buddy. ;) He tells me what he wants me to buy because he knows that someday they will be his :)


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We preserve our freedoms by using four boxes: soap,ballot,jury, and cartridge.
Anonymous
 
I got my first bb rifle at 8 years of age. When I was twelve my dad bought me an OLD Iver Johnson single shot 12 gauge. I was taken to safety courses taught how to shoot by my father (marine) He was really strict with safety. The funny thing is, after he felt I was responsable enough he let me go by myself. He told me he did enough shooting in Vietnam. I am very grateful to him for what he has taught me. Firearms are a way of life for me, not just a hobby.
Jeepster
 
I was four years old the first time I fired a BB gun; that gun had been given to my brother for his fifth birthday. He carried that gun everywhere with him every day after school and used it to shoot those little toy plastic soldiers, blackbirds, and on one memorable occasion to have a BB gun war with the kid next door. (Dad nearly killed him when I tattled, that's why it was memorable.)

The first time I fired a .22 I was probably around age 7. Maybe a bit younger, maybe a little older. The .22 lived in a soft sided case under mom & dad's bed, unloaded. Dunno where they kept the ammo.

I did not realize they even owned a handgun until I was in my teens. Dad showed it to me and taught me how to load and unload it before he & mom left me overnight by myself the first time. They kept it loaded next to their bed in a well hidden drawer.

My kids (ages 10, 8, 7, 6, 4) all know that I have a handgun. That handgun is kept locked up or in my holster at all times. They have each had a chance to hold it when it was empty and know that (almost) any time they ask, I will unload it and let them look at it. Double safety: it's locked up and I've disarmed some of their curiousity. Of course they know the safety rules too: the oldest ones know the Four Laws and the younger ones know "Stop. Leave. Get an adult."

The older three have fired a BB gun and the older two will probably be given a .22 for Christmas this year.

Hope that helps.

pax

"A boy becomes an adult three years before his parents think he does, and about two years after he thinks he does." -- Lewis B Hershey
 
Got a BB gun at about age 7..., and shot my father's .22 at about the same age, but under his direct control.

Had free reign of a .22 at age 11, a pellet pistol at 12, shotgun at 14, .22 pistol at 15, .35 Remington rifle at 16, Contender pistol at 16, Ruger .44mag Super Blackhawk at 17..., yeah, I guess I had an affinity for shooting :)
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MrBigglesworth:
....in 1981. I was 5 years old....

FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!
[/quote]

MrBigglesworth, you are the children
;)

[This message has been edited by Jeff, CA (edited September 22, 2000).]
 
Birth, my dad pointed his pistol at the doctor and told him "put that one back and get me something better looking". :)
Started shooting Dad's .410 when I was 4, started hunting about 5 when I learned to shut up in the woods.

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Abandon your animosities and make your sons Americans. Robert E. Lee

Beware the three D's: The dumb, drunk, and deranged.

chadintex@hotmail.com
 
Mom went deer hunting when she was five months pregnant with me. Truly pre-natal.

First time I actually shot, I think I was six or seven. I know I got my first squirrel when I was eight. We're hunters more than shooters out here in hillbilly land.... ;)
 
I was tromping along behind my dad when I was 6 on pheasant and rabbit hunts. I got to carry a shotgun shell in each pocket and give them to dad when he asked. Made me feel important.

I have a son that's 7 and two daughters, 3.5 and 2 yrs old. All have seen my guns when cleaning and the two oldest have been told time and time again they are not toys and that mom or dad needs to be present when guns are around. My son also has been taken hunting and shooting when I go out. All are kept in the safe when not in use or ready for use.
 
I first shot my Dad's Mossberg .22 when I was 10. I'm pretty sure I was exposed to it earlier than that and pestered my Dad unmercifully until he took me out to shoot it. :)

A year or so later, he gave me that Mossberg. Christmas a couple of years later made me the proud owner of a Remington model 572.

By the age of 16, I had a gun rack hanging in my bedroom holding the two .22's, a 20 ga. shotgun, Universal (yeah... I know...) M-1 Carbine, and an 8mm Mauser.

There was no need to lock them in a safe. Most everybody in the neighborhood had guns, and burglary and the like were never worried about.

Such was life in California in the mid 60's and pre GCA 1968.

Cliff
 
Exposed at 4 or 5. First shot a gun at around 9 and got my Grandfathers .22 shortly thereafter. I used to burn a brick a week.

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DUM SPIRO SPERO
While I Breath I Hope
 
I could not ever tell you how young I was when I was first exposed to hunting! I don't remember not hunting. I can tell you when I bought my first gun. A .22 single shot for about $15 new with a Weaver scope on it at age 14, I made the money "bucking bails" in the hay fields, 150lb bale and a 100lb kid.
Boy was I in shape when school started.

:)
 
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