At what age should a child be taught to shoot a gun?

Question

At what age should a child be taught to shoot a gun?

Answer 1

never.

Answer 2

As soon as possible.

The earleir they are taught about firearms, safety, handling, the more respect and care they will have ingrained into them. It will become second nature to be safe.

The kids that are never taught how to be safe are the ones that have accidents.

Even if you have no firearms in your home, there is a chance that they may encounter one somewhere else. Same concept as a dog--you may not have one, but chances are good they will see one.

Guns, like knives, grenades, vehicles, lawn mowers, bombs, boiling water, fire, rope, poisons, sharpened pencils, junk food....are inanimate objects and hurt no one until weilded by a malicious or ignorant person. The sooner respect is taught for these things, the better.

Answer 3

If you feel you must teach your child to shoot a gun, I would highly encourage you also take them to classes on firearm safety.  I wouldn't introduce the concept until the kid is in his teens, though, and then make sure he has no access to weapons.

Answer 4

A child shouldn't be taught things like that

Answer 5

I believe that if you raise your children in a household where guns are present, they need to learn from the earliest age possible about guns.  Teach them that guns are something to be respected, and must be handled properly.  To all those that say no guns, they are bad....I understand your point of view, but guns do not kill people...people kill people.  I would say around age 6 or so would be the age to start with something like maybe a bb gun....I was 5 when my dad taught me how to shoot a rifle, and we would line up soda cans on a fence and use those for targets....as the child gets older you can slowly introduce other guns, as the childs maturity level progresses and you think they can handle it.  I know this answer will get me some thumbs down, but the more a child knows about guns...the less likely they will be to kill themselves or someone else by playing with it out of curiosity.

Answer 6

12

Answer 7

Should a child be taught to shoot a gun at all?? It's never a skill that I've required.

Answer 8

It depends on the maturity of the child. And if your state or county has laws stating a certain age that a child is allowed to handle firearms.

Answer 9

I wouldn't teach a child to shoot a gun.  They lack the emotional maturity to be handling something so deadly, and why would they need to?

I don't know how to shoot a gun, and I'm almost 40.  It hasn't been a problem for me.  If other adults want to shoot for hunting purposes, that's certainly their business, but there's no reason why a kid needs to be doing it considering the risks (think d**k Cheney ... how much more likely is that with a kid? Or think Columbine ... I'm sure those parents never thought it would happen with their kids).  If you want to take your child hunting with you or are concerned about self-defense, I'd wait until they're legal adults at 18. A young kid is more likely to be injured in an accident with a gun than successfully use one in self-defense.

Edit -- Wow, the pro-gun crowd is certainly liberal with the thumbs-downs to the rest of us.  But after reading your answers (with which I disagree without feeling the need to thumbs-down for your conflicting opinions) it's still unclear to me what's so wrong about not letting a kid who is not old enough to safely operate a car operate something the sole purpose of which is to kill?

Answer 10

If your child will be hunting with a parent 12 or 13 other wise why teach your child to shoot a gun?

Answer 11

Depends on the child. Our oldest learned to shoot at the age of 7. All of our children know how to shoot and how to handle a gun with care and respect. I think all children need to learn about gun safety if you own guns or not. You never know when this information could come in handy.

I'm a little shocked at some of these answers. Our founding fathers knew what they were doing when they wrote the 2nd Amendment. Teaching our children rights and how to defend themselves is an integral part of being an American. Here's a copy of it for those of you that need a refresher:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

:)

Answer 12

I would say it depends on the child and level of maturity.  My husband was taught to shoot a gun when he was 8 years old.  His Dad got him a BB gun and carefully supervised him and also took him to a gun safety course when he reached age 10.  My husband is incredibly safe with guns and has had formal and military training on them.  I also have had formal training on guns and we visit his parents' 10 acre farm to shoot our guns every couple of weeks.  

We will probably introduce guns to our son when he's about 8 or 9, and like his father we will probably get him a BB gun.  He will be under strict supervision and we will properly train him on gun safety.  Our daughter will be introduced to guns at around the same age.  I see nothing wrong with it as long as you are responsible with teaching your children the proper use and safety of a gun.

We do keeps guns in the home that are locked.  We feel that it's very important for our children to know how to safely handle guns, not that we will just hand them ours and say "have at it!".  *That* would be irresponsible.

Answer 13

I think they should be taught gun safety as soon as they can comprehend it. Shooting at around 6. I think that a child should be encouraged to learn about guns and gun safety at a very early age.

Answer 14

it shouldn't depend on a certain age because some kid mature more quickly than other. so it depends when you think that the are ready.

Answer 15

ask oj

Answer 16

No CHILD should be any where near a gun, much less know how to shoot one!

Answer 17

I learned to shoot at age 5; however, we lived in a very rural part of Georgia.  

Answer 18

It is more about maturity than age.  When the child is capable of handling the gun responsibly..i.e. isn't prone to violent temper outbursts and has a sense of responsibility.

If you have guns in the house, you need to make sure that the kids know how to properly respect a gun.  It's not generally the kids who have experience with respeting guns that shoot themselves or others.

Answer 19

If there are guns in the house, they should be taught as soon as they are old enough to physically hold and shoot it.

Im sorry, but if there is going to be a gun in the house, everyone in the house needs to know how to safely use it.  Not teaching everyone is how accidents happen.

Although, I personally believe guns should never be kept in the house.

With no guns in the house, if you are a hunter, I would say around 14, my opinion.

Answer 20

about 11, or 12, if you live in a state thats big on hunting,  

Answer 21

unless you live out in the wild never she can decide at 18 if she wants to