Maybe my dad should have sat me down and gave me every do and don't, but be just taught me how to operate my crosman 66, to use the safety, and not to shoot when nobody was home. He would occasionally holler out " be careful " or " watch where your shooting " after I was able to shoot by myself and when he retired from our shooting sessions early, but I don't remember anything more than that.I guess he felt that was as much as I really needed, and my common sense keep me shooting safely so he must've been right.
My Dad was a Marine who was on the second wave of the Inchon Landing. (D-day of Korea in a sorta way) 4 decades after he passed I had a conversation with another old Gent who knew Dad..."You are Harold's Boy? Your Father was a Hero... didn't he tell you? I will tell what he did someday"Clyde was literally the most interesting man in the world to me. Ex Marine in WWII and Korea, Went onto CIA, then Eisenhowers staff.Dad did not talk about the war... and Clyde passed away before I heard the story.
There's a lot I could've learned from him had he not passed when I was 7.
Too have somewhat of a side discussion on our youth & guns .... For those of you give or take 60 yrs old, anyone remember tho Sonic Blasters that looked like to large funnels butted together with a cocking lever across the back/top of the action ?These things would make an air pulse that could travel across a room and knock over there stand up target / paper cups etc ...By my memory, this would have been early to mid 1960's when i got one for christmas
Children and guns.I like both, children and guns.
There was always guns in my family. I was 4 years old when I first went hunting with my dad. I was carrying my own 22lr rifle at 6 hunting squirrels with my dad. By 10 I had saved up enough grass cutting money to buy my own 12 ga shotgun to use when duck hunting in the thousand islands of Cocoa Beach, Florida. I was allowed to take my shotgun out by myself hunting at age 12 along with my buddies with no adults around. I had my own small 12 foot jon boat with a 5 horse outboard to explore the waterways and camp out on the islands over the weekends. All with airguns, 22lr, and shotguns galore. I am still here in my 60s with all my digits and no extra holes. I taught my kids the same way as well as my grandkids. I firmly believe that if kids are exposed and taught at a early age what guns are and how to properly use and respect them the chances of misuse or tragedy resulting from unsafe gun use is drastically if not fully eliminated. By teaching them early you remove the mystery about guns from them so there is no need for them to explore or misuse guns when handled. If there is no mystery they have no reason to experiment or a tragedy to occur. Guns don't kill people, people do and the gun is just a tool. By itself its a gun is harmless, people are not.Mike
Earl, It was long enough I forgot and had to go back and re-read my post.I literally got all choked up... again.I now have 6 grand-kids... them kids breed like rabbits.Here is the Christmas pic of all the Grands... including newest Karlee, the Gods gift from my Daughter #4 Emalee (on another thread). I can't wait to teach her!*she has burping and farting down so.... "game on"...
I grew up with guns in all shapes, sizes and types with no harm to myself or anyone else.Cap pistols, water guns and even a tripod mounted machine gun that shot wooden boolits an amazing 20 feet.At the age of 12 I received my first 22lr and a membership in an NRA Junior Division group.Still have the 22lr after 60 years.Guns haven't changed, people have.Here's a photo of a sharp dressed cowboy - ME...
My Grand-Dad was a firm believer in "you kill it, you eat it".
I didn't grow up around guns in spite of being raised by parents with rural oklahoma beginnings.My dad owned one .410 shotgun which was kept in a closet, and I only ever saw him shoot it once....at a snake in our campsite, on a camping trip when I was a girl.He never taught us (4girls) how to shoot....only to leave the shotgun alone.There were no handguns in our home, and no rifles.I ended up marrying a hunter (talk about culture shock!), and I never was interested in learning to shoot. He bought me a little snub-nose .38 revolver when we had been together for a couple of years, and I probably haven't shot a collective 50 rounds through it in all these years. When I started learning to shoot airguns, he wasn't interested, so I taught myself. I still have his guns, but don't shoot them. I finally did buy my own target .22 anschutz/savage rifle, but that is for occasional fun at the bench and for pesting- just in case I should need more than an air rifle here on my place.So.....I wasn't raised with them, but my boys were, and if I had children again, I would do the same. I think it's a wonderful skill for kids to learn when they are taught proper safety and ethics along with it.