Old school shooter.

[Gymtech]

In my family it's a birth right to learn how to fish and shoot..
I was 5 years old when I got a bb gun and my father taught me gun safety. By 7 I got a 22 and was allowed to keep the gun and ammo in my room. I don't think many weekends when by that we didn't shoot or fish. Sometimes we did both.
I did the same thing with my first son other than allowing him to keep his guns in his room. Not that I didn't trust him. Unfortunately time has changed.
I when from believing guns where just for hunting or target shooting to feeling like I should look more into self defense.
I enrolled my son and I in a few courses when he was 11. I figured we had nothing to lose and what a great way to spend time with my boy.
After one course. I bought a gun safe because of how many stolen guns were being used against people. Every man in my family gave me a hard time for having a safe.
When I was a kid it wasn't a big deal to walk into a family member house and see a pistol on a fireplace or table...We kids knew better not to touch a gun without permission. Guns were always kept loaded...
I'll never forget the day my son and I were skeet shooting. My son would almost always get 10 out of 10 with his single shoot 410. He would shoot back up and hit the ones I missed.
He pulled the trigger and nothing happened. I started laughing and before I could say he forgot to load a round his gun discharged...
He had a hang fire. A 11 year old having a hang fire. I never experienced a hang fire in my life.
I never even taught him what one was or how to react to one.
But he did everything perfect because he learned from talking the courses with me. One of the classes was basic gun handling. After shooting for almost 20 years I saw a hang fire. Out of 100 rounds he got 9 hang fires that day...
I have taught many people how to safely handle and shoot a gun.
Every new shooter I teach goes with me to a basic gun safety class since then

[TrailerparkTrash]

Same here and I?ve passed on the same values and traditions with my kids, whom are responsible adults now. They all got started on 22 rifles at age 5 in kindergarten. From there, they all continued training on 22?s, .380?s and 9mm handguns; AR-15?s, 410?s, 20ga and 12ga shotguns routinely, up and including college years.

At a young age they all got their very own “first gun” that they all respected and cherished to this very day. Albeit, their guns were secured in gun safes growing up. At age 16, they got to keep a gun in their rooms if they so desired. I never felt that any of my kids growing up handling, shooting, hunting, breaking down and cleaning guns on a monthly basis was going to be a shock for when they transitioned to having a gun in their own bedroom closet and in a locked gun box. (Still had to take precautions with friends and/or the cousins that wander into the bedrooms, hence the locked storage gun safe/boxes).

None of my clones even had the desire to be a kid and go “play” with a gun secretly. I think they didn’t have the desire because they knew they were allowed to handle any gun they wanted, yet under my direct supervision, anytime they asked. So many times I’d pull out a gun or bring a new one home and offer the kids if they wanted to see and handle it (safely of course). Most of the time it was a resounding, “no thanks dad, we’re good” mentality with it. They saw dad with a gun or guns on a daily basis, all the time as it was my profession and life’s passion of collecting. So the secrecy and awe of fondling a firearm didn’t exist with them, because it was like any other power tool in the proverbial tool box. The drive or curiosity of a gun just wasn’t there and it’s how it was for me and my brothers growing up as well. My kids were much more into Guitars, Legos, dance (my daughters) and quads growing up.

The kids also grew up knowing that the family didn?t ever discuss publically about our guns, nor family security protocols outside the house nor with visitors. It just wasn?t anybody else?s business and no need to startle the uneducated and ignorant acquaintances.

None of my offspring ever had an ND, nor were any of my kids homicidal maniacs either, nor did they ever imagine of bringing a gun to school for nefarious reasons.

[Epaphroditus]

Pretty much same for my kids ... my parents and grandparents were not into firearms so I was on my own.

Everyone in my immediate family has a pistol, AR-15, shotgun and plate carrier.

Never had a hangfire.

[sonofeugene]

I got my fathers .22 rifle when I was about 14. I simply took it and made it mine. I had no formal training but instinctively knew all the do’s and dont’s.

What we need in this country is a return to gun training in schools.

[naz]

What we need in this country is a return to gun training in schools.

The way some kids are these days not sure I?d trust them with weapons

OP talked about guns and fishing as way to spend time with his kid.

In my opinion, that?s what is needed? more parents who give a s#%t about spending time with their kids and raising them right, with good morals and values

[Zenderfall]

What we need in this country is a return to gun training in schools.

That was exactly where I was trained, in school, 7th and 8th grade. We learned safety, actions, ballistics, chemistry, history, laws, precision theory, and hunting for several months, and had to pass written exams (plural) before we could enter the firing range and pick up a gun. Then it was marksmanship training.

Yes, quite a few students did not pass. The way some kids are these days, I don't think they'd pass either. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't offer it. Marksmanship is an American tradition and culture.

You think I want this kinda stuff taught in school? You bet. I wish it was still.

[sonofeugene]

Of course, what you say is also needed. Though I believe kids can be trusted if they are properly trained.

[Scooooter7]

Fishing has become a lost art, much more so than basic gun skills in the home. My opinion anyway.

[Jimi Jah]

I got my Marlin .22 single shot rifle when I was 10. I got it as a prize for selling christmas cards door to door. These were offered with printed names on the inside, a good sales lead.

My dad, former Marine would take me shooting at the Fremont pass right off hwy 14 just out of Sylmar. It was just out of LA city limits, legal to shoot back then. He was DA of the SFV so he knew all the gun laws and cops too.

[Preston-CLB]

I was gifted my first rifle at age 14. it was a .22 bolt gun with a cheap scope on it.

My dad instilled in me safe gun handling and basic marksmanship. He even took me out to the desert north of LA so that I could shoot tin cans.

There was a public small bore range out on New York Drive in Pasadena (maybe Altadena?) where we could shoot. It was a nice range and the RSO's were always helping the kids, of which there were many in the mid-60's. The last time I was there was in 1971.

Do any of you guys remember this place?

I took a long hiatus from shooting and only took it up again about 6 years ago. I never forgot the skills I learned way back then. I just needed a tune-up.
-P

[korn bwn]

Ditto for my family OP as far as shooting. It was a birthright.
Growing up my dad and uncle took time to take my brother, cousins and I out at a very young age for target practice and plinkin in the Oklahoma countryside

We had a lot of fun but learned so much.

They both served in the armed forces and both passed on firearm safe handling practices and maintenance to us.

They started us out on 22 cal pistols and rifles and gradually progressed to center fire firearms and even black powder firearms over the years in our youth.

I was able to pass those lessons learned from them to my kids as well.

Even now when I get together with my buddies and go to the range it seems like there is almost always someone that tags along that is a friend of a friend and is new to firearms. I am grateful to be able to show them the basics of firearms safety and still have fun with the sport that I was taught by my dad and uncle so many years ago.

As far fishing goes my dad and uncle did not fish but my cousins dad on the other side of the family owned the local bait shop. Night crawlers live minnows and grubs were basically free and less than a mile away. Me and a couple friends would ride our bikes from there to the local lake about 5 miles away.

Totally different times than these days but all those lessons learned still apply even today.


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[nstoolman1]

I was 10 and my younger brother was 7. Dad would take us down to Hemet and quail hunt on my uncle's property near the Idlewild ranger station. We each would carry an unloaded 22 rifle. He would make sure we learned how to carry the rifle safely when walking, how to cross over or through a fence, and when a bird was flushed we had to learn when it was safe to point and pull the trigger. When we got old enough to take the hunter saftey course we sailed through it.