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lildave40 wrote:We introduce our daughter of 9 years old to shooting this past year. Huge mistake because she always wants to train now.

I fail to see the problem.

Step one: Check out the Cornered Cat website. It's a site by a lady, focused on ladies' gun issues, but it has really good info on kids and guns, in a section appropriately titled, "Kids and Guns"

My daughter is 8 years old now, but she started shooting at age 4. Her first rifle was a Crickett bolt action, and she handled that well for about a year and a half. Then, it came time to upgrade her to a Ruger 10/22.

She's a great shot, but the whole experience has been more about the safety aspects of it. I don't want her to grow up NOT knowing about guns, given that I carry, my wife carries, and guns are a real part of our life. But even worse (and you need to check out the Eddie Eagle program at the NRA about this), I wanted to make sure that she knew what to do if she or another kid found a gun laying around at a friends' house.

STOP! Don't Touch! Leave the Area! Tell an adult! She could quote these four rules long before she ever touched a gun. We do test her on this. We have some cameras in the house as part of the alarm system, and sometimes I'll leave an unloaded gun laying around and I'll send her in to the other room to get something. I do this to test her reaction, and she had yet to disappoint.

Finally, teaching the little one to shoot has been one of the best joys of my life. I've chronicled it on here more so than anywhere, so I welcome you to read about the experience:

Question About Left-Eye Dominance
Need help picking out another rifle
Day at the range with my 6-year old daughter
Too Young to Shoot? (WWYD)
Houston south quadrant breakfast