I had my first two guns in my room when I was 6, but that was the 90s. I wasn’t allowed to play with them for the first few weeks until my parents were sure that I knew how to handle them safely. This was a time before the internet though and people didn’t really have these concepts of guns being some evil and super dangerous thing. A gun is only really dangerous in the hands of a bad person or someone who doesn’t know how to handle them properly. Where I grew up it was just considered a fact of life. The younger you could get kids out in the woods hunting the better. I would bring home squirrels and rabbits to eat when I was like 7-8 years old. This was just the norm for most of human history but modern humans have lost touch with these things.
The only thing my dad really taught me was to check a gun every time I picked it up, to never assume it was unloaded. To make sure I knew what was behind what I was shooting, so I didn’t shoot someone’s house, and to keep it unchambered until I need to use it. Those 3 basic rules were good enough for me. I knew they were dangerous and to not play with them too much.
I had my first two guns in my room when I was 6, but that was the 90s. I wasn’t allowed to play with them for the first few weeks until my parents were sure that I knew how to handle them safely. This was a time before the internet though and people didn’t really have these concepts of guns being some evil and super dangerous thing. A gun is only really dangerous in the hands of a bad person or someone who doesn’t know how to handle them properly. Where I grew up it was just considered a fact of life. The younger you could get kids out in the woods hunting the better. I would bring home squirrels and rabbits to eat when I was like 7-8 years old. This was just the norm for most of human history but modern humans have lost touch with these things.
The only thing my dad really taught me was to check a gun every time I picked it up, to never assume it was unloaded. To make sure I knew what was behind what I was shooting, so I didn’t shoot someone’s house, and to keep it unchambered until I need to use it. Those 3 basic rules were good enough for me. I knew they were dangerous and to not play with them too much.