It comes down to knowledge, training etc., plus attitude.
Anyone with a gun, just like any other tool has to have knowledge, training and the correct mental state to use it safely.
In my home town school got out at 3PM, by 3:15 during hunting season you saw kids (mostly boys, but a few girls) walking, riding bikes or in the back of the family pickup truck with their guns heading to the woods and wild land along the Ohio river to hunt. No one worried because they knew those kids had been trained in safety, hunting and how to use their guns. Any family that didn't do that got a visit from their friends and were talked to, often ending with someone else training their kids. The few kids who still couldn't be trusted either never got to go hunting or only with an adult supervising.
The principal of the High School (grades 9-12) told the students to not leave guns in their cars, bring them to him and he would lock them in the supply room until school was over. But they only had until 3:15 to pick them up or he would be gone - hunting - and they couldn't get their gun back until the next school day.
Oh, and about half of the boys and many girls enlisted in the military after high school or college with most doing one enlistment but a few of every graduating class staying in until retirement. Service was a tradition for the majority of families in our area. Then many became peace officers, fireman, doctors, nurses, ministers and teachers. At my 15 year reunion I found that over 1/2 of my graduating class had gone into one of those fields on at least a part time basis.