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You are being a jerk. His mother doesn’t want him to have one. It is one thing for you to take him to the range and let him shoot yours or theirs. You do not need to push her buttons by getting him one. When he is 18 he can get his own and meanwhile you need to respect her wishes and not push her buttons. No freakin wonder you are divorced. Your second sentence is “his mother and I have been divorced”... what is your problem? Get over yourself.

I bought both of my kids AR’s for gifts at the ripe old age of 12. Had their names engraved on the stripped lower recievers adn we built them up together.

Their mother went crazy about it because she hated guns. My position was that they were my kids too, and what I did with them while they were with me was none of her concern.

FWIW I didn’t appreciate her serial shacking up with her new boyfriend(s) either, so what’s the difference here?

Opinion's are like a "gluteus maximus," every body has one, and some (opinion's) stink worst than other's, as to your "Opinion ref. the Mother wants."

Facts can be beautiful, and they can be ugly.

Fact, the boy has 2 (two) distinct lives. 1st life, is that with his mother. 2nd, with his father. I could do a "War & Peace" response, but brevity is the soul of wit. So what happens at the mother's home should not impede, and or cause dysfunction, on what happens with the boy's father, and the time spent between the boy and father. In the real world the two (life's the boy has) shall not meet. The father will have to decide if the boy is old enough, to keep the two lives separate.

If the father deems that the boy can keep the two lives separate, then and only then act accordingly.

Now on to the issue at hand, handgun vs rifle or what was not mentioned at all a shotgun?

I'm a believer in tradition(s) father handing down to a son, his first cartridge shooting device. 22 rifle(s) Bolt Action, and or Single shot 410 shotgun(s), hands down. It's a No Brainer. Homer Simson DUH!!!!!!

And for those who think what I've recommended, I simply ask as a body & fender / welder, guy, do you buy a HIGH END SPORTS Car, for your kid's first car? If you do, also buy a plot in the cemetery, you'll need it. Only speaking after seeing the outcome over and over again, but what do I know.

HIGH END SPORTS Car no parent in the front seat, a little booze that their not old enough to purchase, but always seem to have, equals a one way trip to the cemetery, that's what I KNOW.