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C-dub wrote:How often do you take your daughter to the range?

Sadly, I haven't ever taken here before. One thing I haven't figured out is what age restriction ranges have on youth. Figured it was 12 and up or something similar. We're waiting for the new range to open in McKinney hopefully in a few months...I'm not a big fan of the Bullet Trap in Plano.

Debating getting her a Red Ryder rifle for Christmas so I can teach her the beginning basics of shooting a rifle in the convenience of the backyard.

punkndisorderly wrote:The sad thing is, the newbie shooters aren't the only ones you have to watch out for. There are plenty of people who have been around firearms their whole lives, but were never really taught safe gunhandling. Some may have been taught what they know by their fathers who never really learned it themselves. Some may handle firearms daily during the course of their jobs like military and police. I can't count the number of times I've heard shooters say "Nothing scares me more than a bunch of cops at the range" or something similar. Kind of the familiarity breeds complacency concept.

It's not only people who never truly learned safe gunhandling, but those who are so confident of themselves that they KNOW how to be safe with guns that they stop actually practicing those safety lessons. My daughter is 10 and gets a gun-safety lesson from me at least once every 2 weeks since there is a firearm in the house (even though it's either always 1. holstered on my hip or 2. stored in the biometric safe). Every lesson starts with: Me - "Is this gun loaded?" Daughter - "I don't know, I haven't physically checked it myself" Me - "Where does your finger go?" Daughter - "Outside of the trigger until you're ready for it to go bang". Hopefully she takes those life lessons and applies them later should she decide to own firearms herself.