As a general rule yes, but I know of some 8-10 year olds whom I would trust to go out shooting with and conversely I know many adults who I wouldn’t even trust with a Red Ryder.
When I was 14, I went to a military academy. They issued us all M-1 rifles (an actual battle weapon). We kept them in our personal room lockers.
After my third year there we switched over to M-14 E-2s, capable of full auto fire. In the five years I was there, (High school and Junior College) no one was ever shot with one.
The local “townies’ didn’t screech in fear when we occasionally marched down main street carrying them in a parade. Even the Democrat politicians thought it was all a great idea.
In the second half of our H.S. Senior year and Junior College years, we were even allowed to bring our own personal weapons and store them in our personal lockers. I usually had a handgun and at least one, usually two additional rifles in my locker. (I was 17 years old when I was first allowed by the academy to possess my own firearms in addition to the one issued.)
We could take them to the ROTC Department’s indoor range and practice any time we had a free period and there wasn’t a class being taught on the range, and could go out plinking out in the nearby desert during free time on weekends.
But then, none of us were on Ritalin or any other psychoactive drugs, and discipline was something enforced by our peers as much, if not moreso than by our cadre NCOs, officers and instructors.