If you teach your kids the safety rules now and in a controlled environment let them handle the guns and they will just be another tool. If you hide them then they become something they must find and check out when you are not around.
My wife and I are in disagreement about the kids even being around guns, but they are going to be just because I have a few and use them from time to time.
What age do most feel children should be taught ABOUT guns, not how to use one or how they even work, but a general what they do kind of thing?
I don't want my kids to be able to tear one down and put it back together blind folded by age 4 or 5. I just want to start the knowledge of guns early so they don't grow up gun stupid and hurt/kill themselves or a friend at a young age and have to live with it.
You should definitely teach them about firearm safety, but the 3 and 4 year old need to have simple instructions. "Don't touch the stove." "Why daddy?" "It is hot and will burn you." "Ok." As far as what age to start teaching them basic fundamentals and marksmanship, I agree with Piaget, age 12. There are certain milestones of development that are achieved throughout life, around 12 is when "concrete reasoning" first occurs. That would be the minimum age I would recommend to start teaching shooting fundamentals. You can teach them younger, but they really won't grasp important core concepts until they brain develops to a certain point.
My wife and I are in disagreement about the kids even being around guns, but they are going to be just because I have a few and use them from time to time.
What age do most feel children should be taught ABOUT guns, not how to use one or how they even work, but a general what they do kind of thing?
I don't want my kids to be able to tear one down and put it back together blind folded by age 4 or 5. I just want to start the knowledge of guns early so they don't grow up gun stupid and hurt/kill themselves or a friend at a young age and have to live with it.
I began when my kids were toddlers and liked to play with squirt guns. (They can learn trigger discipline and not to point it at someone or something they don't want to shoot at a very early age.)
By age four or five my kids were going to the range. Just the noise was enough to deter them for awhile away from real firearms. At age six we began working with real firearms. After a few trips to the range they soon became bored.
All the training & work paid off a few years ago when a boy brought a loaded 22 pistol around my son & his other friends. The boy didn't really realize it was a real pistol. But, my son did! He was able to take the pistol away from the boy, make it safe and carry it to the boys aunt & uncle. (The closest adults)
I posted the story on the forum when it happened.
The main reason education works better than a safe or trigger locks is; "Education works when they are with someone else; somewhere else."
Sure trigger locks & gun safes are great. But, don't neglect educating your children and teaching them safe firearm handling as soon as possible.
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The moment a child can depress the trigger is the right time to start teaching him/her about guns and gun safety. If they are already old enough to pick the gun up, then they sure as heckfire are old enough to learn the basics of gun safety.
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