LESTAHL Loc: Colorado

Concentration and consistency-the rules for good shooting. As a sport it is much like golf. To learn respect it is good for the student. The process of learning teaches all of the above and more. Patience and safety should be included as lessons learned in the shooting sports. It's good your son is a trained instructor, he will instill so much good in your grandson. Unlike you my dad taught me shooting at about the age of six and took me deer hunting when I was nine. I learned about hunting by being with my dad while he hunted and explained what he was doing. I got to carry his water and mine because it was a privilege-so he told me. He also took me fishing from about the time I was ten. I feel very fortunate to have had a dad that loved the outdoors and had respect for nature. I ended up becoming a professional forester due to the way he brought me up. We need more dad's like your son.

LESTAHL Loc: Colorado

Congratulations to you and to your son. The shooting sports teach much more than squeezing the trigger. Concentration, consistency, safety, & respect are a few of the lessons learned. You done good as a father.

PH CIB

I Salute You and Your Son and Your Grandson !!! Firearm Safety and Handling and Shooting should be taught to Everyone who wants to learn...

Real Nikon Lover Loc: Simi Valley, CA

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Sam9987

Neat, thanks for sharing! Brings back some fond memories, @6 I had my own set of real 6 shooters. Guess that would not fly now would it. Glad you g-son is getting some good instruction. Knowing how to use and care for a rifle or pistol is one thing, knowing when to or not to use it is another and safety must always be first.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

Teaching kids proper behavior around firearms is being a responsible parent. That is basic safety for everyone.
It is those who do not know how to act accordingly, those who only knew arms through movies and games, that are likely to put themselves and/or others in harm.

Would you rather have a 13yo kid who knows what a nuke is or another who would just push the launch button out of curiosity?

Dalek Loc: Detroit, Miami, Goffstown

My Dad did the same and I am a better person because of his guidance. We shot for fun and competition. We hunted for togetherness. We also planted tomatoes, fished, and played golf. Thanks, Dad, I miss you and those moments.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Let's get real, shall we. You are talking in the realms of stretched out ridiculous parameters to suit your own misguided ideas.

Nobody is talking about teaching children to walk on the ledges of buildings. Where the hell did that come from? To equate teaching a child to walk on a building ledge as compared to teaching the fundamentals and safety aspects of shooting firearms borders on stupid. Children, when of an age where they are mature enough to handle firearms safely can and should be taught at least the basic safety fundamentals regarding firearms. For many this is simply teaching them to not pick up a firearm at all unless there is an adult present who will check the firearm to make sure it is not loaded. Of course not 100% of children will understand and obey this simple directive but enough will that it saves lives. You might recall the scenarios I portrayed of kids simply picking up a gun, pointing it and pulling the trigger. That my friend is how children are shot and killed by playmates who find a gun and kill someone without ever having been taught the basic fundamentals of safety around firearms, NEVER point the gun at anyone you don't want to kill. If all children were taught that one simple safety rule there would be no children killed accidentally by other children.

Of course nobody can tell when someone may, "snap". But at least teaching the basic safety rules of firearms will keep accidental shootings to a minimum. I have no idea how you feel about the NRA. But when I was a kid in the late 40's to the early 60's there were numerous hunting accidents every year in every state due to the improper handling of firearms. Due to NRA training in hunter safety classes these accidental shootings are now at a bare minimum in every state. Training does work and it works with children even better than adults. You, like many adults seem to have a phobia of firearms and don't want to be around them. At least that is what I am hearing from you. But shooting firearms is a sport that is practiced in almost every country. There are Olympic shooting sports and they are well regarded. Firearms are used every single day by millions of people for hunting, target shooting, formal and informal, plinking at tin cans and so on, self protection from 2 and 4 legged predators and just plain relaxation. If I am stressed out from a hard day I can always relax by going to the range and shooting. The concentration it takes to put shot after shot into a half inch group at 100 yards takes away the stress.

Now all of this might now appeal to you just as golf, a sport similar to shooting in that it takes strict discipline to do well, does not appeal to me. That is fine. But you should know that your ideas of not teaching children the safety aspects and the shooting sports brings down our country and limits the knowledge of our young people. Check online and you will find the shooting sports are among the safest sports in America today.

As for Australia I think you will find the statistics show there are still murders going on that country today.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

My ex wife had always been afraid of any type of firearm. One day I asked her to go hiking with me in the desert outside of Palm Springs. I took a small .22 revolver for her to shoot IF she wanted to try shooting. There was to be no pressure. If she said, No, then it was, No. She hesitated a bit but with some safety instruction she fired one shot from a tiny Ruger Bearcat revolver. We were pretty close and she hit the target. She wanted to shoot it again. I loaded up one more cartridge in the cylinder. She hit the target again. After that she was hooked. After that first cylinder of ammunition, she carried the gun and shot it often. I gave it to her as I would buy another one, I think a S&W Model 34, with which I taught my son and daughter to shoot.

When my great niece, Haili, was 5 or 6 my brother, her grandfather (my twin brother) and I took her antelope hunting in Wyoming with us. She was excited at going hunting with us. When my brother saw a nice antelope buck, he asked Haili what should he do. With no hesitation she yelled out, Kill it Papa, kill it. Of course he did. She went on to help us gut and skin that animal as well as others, with strict supervision in the knife handling of course.

Dennis

PH CIB

People who do not shoot are missing out on a whole lot of Fun !!! Shotgun, Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays which is my favorite as it involves walking a course and shooting at clay birds thrown like actual hunting conditions... Rifle, rimfire, centerfire, close range bullseye shooting, plinking, long range precision shooting in different rifle classes, some folks shoot iron sights out to one thousand yards !!! Handgun, punching paper at the range, shooting steel targets, IDPA a combat competition learning to shoot and reload from cover and engaging multiple targets...3 Gun, Combat Competition shooting handgun, shotgun and rifle, SAS, dressing Western and shooting six shooters, lever action rifles, double barrel and pump action shotguns sometimes while riding a Horse in competition...Dad taught me to shoot and firearm safety, I taught my Nephews to shoot and firearm safety, and around firearms I trust someone with training over someone who is against or afraid of firearms. And then there is Hunting, except for Vegans and Vegetarians whom I respect, no one else who eats meat should complain as they support an even more cruel system of killing animals, and lets face it everything in Nature is killing and eating each other, and if You eat meat You are no different....And lastly and perhaps most importantly,,,,Self Defense....

loperR Loc: Medina ,Ohio

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Well said my friend.

Dennis