It is still teaching kids to shoot.
The rifle standing against the chunk of Maple is my .45cal deer buster, built around an original lockplate.
I stared shooting at age 9. I think 5 is too young. Kids that age have not reached the age of reason.
I feel sorry for the 5 year old kid. A 5 year old doesn’t have the capability of understanding the dangers oh handling a firearm. I really can’t understand why the parents would store a firearm where a child could find it and use it without adult supervision.
There is no “too young”, question of supervision.
1st Shot a 22 in my father’s lap with the barrel out the window of the pickup. I was very young.
Then my own BB guns and pellet guns.
First shotgun at 13. My brother and I were deadly on quail and dove with them. Better than many of my father’s friends. Some complained about not getting a shot when my brother and I were at the tank waiting for dove.
Great memories.
David Crockett got his first rifle at 8.
...and kept in a corner, and the family did not realize a shell was in the chamber...
It's not hard to understand a five-year-old child's ignorance of basic firearms safety—but were no adults in the household?
The Savage Rascal is a better first rifle for a child than a Chipmunk. Safer. Better sights and trigger, too. You still have to secure it around five-year-olds, though.
They let me take my Hoban to the woods by myself when I was about 12 or 13, but gun/shooting safety had been pounded into my head for several years first.
I think I turned out OK. The folks in that story were fools for leaving a gun where a 5 year old could just get it from the corner. They were especially stupid for leaving it that way loaded.
There was never any mystery about firearms in my house. My kids know what they can do. They have seen deer, birds and coyote that I have shot. They have watched me butcher deer and birds since they were very young. They know the damage a firearm can do. That was also a part of their learning to respect firearms.
It is still teaching kids to shoot.
The rifle standing against the chunk of Maple is my .45cal deer buster, built around an original lockplate.
Like Ralphie in the Christmas special, I got my first Daisy BB gun at age 9. Shot my first “real” gun at about age 10.
With responsible parents and shooters, that seems like a prefect age to start kids.
If babies were armed there would be no abortion.
But I suppose if those same idiots have the "right" to vote, it's no big whoop to lose a life now and then.
For the idiots among us, that does not only apply to firearms.
I figure if you’re old enough to abort a baby, you’re old enough to have a gun....
“...and kept in a corner.”
Really. The idiot parents (who now have been horribly punished for their idiocy) left the gun around for the kid to PLAY with. Because that’s what you do with a real gun, right? Play with it? Instead of respecting it as a tool and a weapon?
I have twin six-year-olds and while they have never found a lethal weapon to use, both have left SCARS on each other over the years. We recently gave them a metal Little League bat, but they’re only allowed to use it under adult supervision because I know it would be only a matter of time until Cain or Abel decides to have a come-to-Jesus moment with brother. By themselves, they get to use the plastic bat.
Kids need freedom, but until they’re ready for the next step of freedom, they need supervision.
I shot my first weapon when I was thirteen. It was a .22 rifle. My dad would give us a box of bullets and we would go for target shooting in my uncle’s basement. My brother shot it too, when he was eleven. He got very good at it. We would go to our annual local fair where they had target shooting set up with .22 rifles. My brother and I would always win the big prize. It helped my brother when he joined the Army. He got a perfect score in his PT shooting test.
5 is fine for BB
Or .22 assisted
Depends on where ya live
I have a pic of my 4 year old holding up a CAR 15 ubeta mag somewhere....not loaded of course
It takes time to load a beta....and tuff fangers
I dove hunted ,410 with daddy at 6
Shot first doe at 8....20 gauge slug with our old black man James who was my family’s handyman and lived on my grandparents estate....originally as an abandoned 13 year old they took in
He was 40s by my time....taught me good bout deer and squirrel in Miss and LA swamp hunting
If it was about sex, they would say NEVER too young, pervs
My Dad taught me to shoot starting at 4. He hung a heavy blanket up in the attic and provided a sawhorse for me to rest the barrel of the Daisy BB gun on. I was probably 6 or 7 before I fired a .22 and I can’t imagine how the parents left the gun with a round in it. Definitely the adult’s fault in this one and I’m sure they are aware - my heart aches for the family.
All guns are always loaded. Period.