The "hands off" approach worked great when my son was a small child. My son was in diapers when we played the "game". By the time he was 5 or 6, we had started on the rest of the process.
4) You can play with TOY guns, NEVER play with a real gun
5) All guns are REAL, unless Mom or Dad say so
6) If you want to see a REAL gun, you have to have Mom or Dad
As he started shooting BB guns, we added three more rules.
7) Guns are ALWAYS loaded
8) Never point a gun at anything you don't want DEAD
9) Dead is dead and it can't EVER come back
Keeping the lessons in short easy to learn segments seemed to work best for us. My biggest fear was him going to a friends house and finding a firearm. The situation never happened, but I'd like to think that if he'd ever found one, he'd have done the right thing.
One of the biggest eye openers for him was when we went out shooting when he was about seven. We took his BB gun, a 22 pistol, a 45 long colt and a shotgun. I set up some targets, milk jugs, cans and such. He had a great tiem shooting them with his BB gun.
After a little while I took out the 22 and filled one of the cans with water. I showed him how the can was about the same size as his arm. Then I showed him the size of the bullet we wer going to shoot. we put on our ear muffs, I took aim and fired. He was so excited as the can exploded. Then I did the same thing with the 45LC with a gallon milk jug.
Once we had the evidence, then we had a nice little talk. I placed the 22 can next to his arm and talked about the damage the "little" 22 could do to his body. Then we held the milk jug up to his chest and talked about that one. We even took one of his BB gun cans and showed how even his little BB gun could hurt him pretty bad.
We never did fire the shotgun that day, all we had to do was compare the bullets.
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Return to “Teaching Gun Safety to Kids (Long)”
- Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:23 pm
- Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
- Topic: Teaching Gun Safety to Kids (Long)
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1683
- Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:25 am
- Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
- Topic: Teaching Gun Safety to Kids (Long)
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1683
Re: Teaching Gun Safety to Kids (Long)
I made sure my boy knew not to touch "Dad's guns" when he was still in diapers. Took a pistol, made certain it was unloaded & no clip (even tied the action to please the wife). Every now and then I'd leave it laying on the coffee table or in my chair. Everytime he'd get close to it he was to do three things...
1) DON'T touch it
2) RUN AWAY from it
3) TELL Mom & Dad
We made a game of it & he was real good at the game. Before very long, he'd see the guns on the gun cabinet and come running to tell me about them. I'd test him by leaving it out and them watch him from upstairs. He never tried to pick it up, never went close to it & best of all, he remembered it.
Once he was old enough to shoot (about 6 or 7) we started with BB guns, then moved to pellet guns and finally, a 22 rifle. He has always maintain a healthy respect for firearms. When it came time for to qualify at boot camp, he shot the third highest his first time out with an M16.
1) DON'T touch it
2) RUN AWAY from it
3) TELL Mom & Dad
We made a game of it & he was real good at the game. Before very long, he'd see the guns on the gun cabinet and come running to tell me about them. I'd test him by leaving it out and them watch him from upstairs. He never tried to pick it up, never went close to it & best of all, he remembered it.
Once he was old enough to shoot (about 6 or 7) we started with BB guns, then moved to pellet guns and finally, a 22 rifle. He has always maintain a healthy respect for firearms. When it came time for to qualify at boot camp, he shot the third highest his first time out with an M16.