How young is too young to teach kids how to shoot a gun?

I’m 27, and so far as I’m concerned, nobody my age should legitimately have access to a firearm. If your kid is younger than 50, there’s no reason to teach them how to kill another person with a firearm.

@Mamradpivo What about hunting?

The recoil on a .22lr is nothing to a 10 or 12 year old. That’s around when I started shooting, I think. Seems like a decent age, since you can reliable teach safety procedures then, and hand-eye coordination is decently developed.

Start them out with a BB gun at around 12 and then at about 14 or 15 start teaching them how to use a real gun. Most importantly teach them the great responsibility that comes with a firearm. That they should learn to respect it and respect the power of a firearm. Make sure they are responsible enough and know right from wrong. Tell them to always treat a gun like it is loaded even when it is not. Tell them to never point a gun at anything unless they seek to to destroy it. Tell them that a gun is not a toy and should be played with. Teach them proper gun ownership and they will be a responsible gun owner. teach them that owning this gun is their right and that it is to be only use in self defense, hunting, target shooting, and nothing else.

I learned at 7.

If I had kids, I’d teach them the four major safety rules from as soon as they could talk, and then teach them the actual mechanics of shooting as soon as they were mechanically capable and showed interest.

(In before Epic Fluther Gun Control Clusterfuck Part 15)

My son got his first BB gun when he was 7 (almost 8). Before then, he had already learned a lot about guns and gun safety because we have them in our house and many of our family members have them in their houses. They are all put away, but to us, that doesn’t mean a child shouldn’t be taught about them. Honestly, the sooner they learn about guns and gun safety, the better in my opinion. Even if we didn’t have guns, that doesn’t mean our son’s friend’s parents won’t have them. WHen to actually start teaching them how to use them depends a lot on the child in my opinion.

What? That’s ridiculous. My children aren’t going near guns as long as they’re my children.

under 21

I’m 23, learned how to shoot a rifle when I was 18. I think if I learned how to handle a gun earlier than that I would of felt more confident in going through with suicide. This was just my experience though.. but I know that back in middle school when I was really depressed, I would have thought more seriously about getting a gun if I knew how to use it. God that sounded horrible.. :/ anyway.. I think it depends on the kid. If you’re gonna teach them how to “use” it, that means knowing how to use it safely, as well as being mentally okay.

I learned to shoot at 8 and both my boys have completed the NRA sponsored firearm training through the boy scouts when they were 10 years old. I would much rather they learn about guns the right way instead of in some friends garage or basement. Both are crack shots and know how to not only fire and clean a firearm but how to respect them as well.

I learned how to shoot a BB gun when I was 10. I first shot a shotgun when I was thirteen (big step up from a BB gun, in terms of risk). I don’t really like guns, so I rarely ever touch one.

Edit: I don’t think that children, or teenagers, should have ready access to handguns. Of course, there are places in this world (and even this country) where I would consider teaching teenagers to use hand guns for self protection.

BB guns are okay for people over ten. I would not give preteens (or tweens as they are sometimes called) lead pellet guns. I certainly wouldn’t allow people under thirteen to use a shotgun.

@Mikewlf337 Did you mean NOT to play with? That’s kind of an important distinction.

My son learned at age 12 at scout camp. I wasn’t too happy, but I have no weapons in the house, so I am not worried about him experimenting. If it weren’t for scouts, he would have had to wait until he turned 18 to enroll himself.

When they are big enough, both mentally and physically, to safely handle and operate an unloaded gun, then you can start them with a BB gun or a single shot .22lr.

Children that learn safe gun handling from a responsible source at an early age have less chance of becoming victims of gun accidents than children that try to teach themselves when they find a gun.

@Cruiser, I would much rather they learn about guns the right way instead of in some friends garage or basement.

That’s pretty much my view on it as well. The way I see it, they are probably going to be exposed to them at one point or another. They might as well actually know how they work and how to safely use them instead of disrespecting them and winding up becoming a statistic. And shooting/collecting is a lot of fun anyway.

The second my kid was able to hold a gun, she was learning the proper way to aim, shoot, and most importantly, when to aim and when to shoot. She is 5 now, and knows not to touch any gun unless all rules are observed. Oh, for the record, she has never even touched a real firearm, but is getting good with the teaching tools and is well educated (the learning never stops) in firearm safety.

You know, I’ve actually found nerf dart guns to be good teaching aids. Also, a lot of fun.

I was 11 when I was taught to fire pistols, light shotguns and rifle. It was always supervised by an adult and not in the spirit of “fun”. I think a kid should be old enough to listen carefully, retain instruction and obey direction. A small kid can handle a .22 pistol, no problem but because it’s so light, quiet and has little recoil then they often think it’s easy and get a little loose- we’ve taken the pistol back at that point. My SO let his kids start target shooting at 11, brothers of mine got to hunt at about 7–8 and their kids were allowed to start hunting at 9.

I was about 7 or 8 when my dad first started to take me out shooting. He had a .44, I had .22 rifle. Good times.

Around 30

According to the Academy of Pediatrics, parents underestimate what their children comprehend about gun safetly.
Predicting What Children Do In the Presence of Guns
What Do Boys Do When They Find a Real Gun?
Gun Safety Programs For Kids Does Not Lead to Safer Gun Handling

⅓ of all American households with children own a gun. Of households with children and guns, only 39% of them store guns safely, acording to the Academy of Pediatrics recommendations – Gun unloaded, locked, ammo in a separate location.

when they are emotionally mature…

@zenvelo yes I did mean to at the word “not” obviously.

@BarnacleBill The articles you linked don’t seem so much to argue against children being taught about guns, so much as they do seem to argue for proper storage and not thinking that one can take the place of the other. And there are so many unexamined factors that a serious researcher could hardly use these for anything other than making statistics.

I mean “add”. drank too much tonight. a little tipsy

65

Well if you want to teach a child about guns than as soon as they are coherent enough, really, what’s age have to do with it anymore. I personally am totally AGAINST GUNS.

How old do you teach them to learn piano?
How old do you teach them to shoot pool?
How old do you teach them to fish?
This is a personal choice. It is a little different based on where and how you are raised.

It depends on their level of maturity. I learned around the age of 6 or so. Hunting was a cultural tradition in my family, we are Choctaw.