(09-06-2024, 12:03 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(09-06-2024, 09:04 AM)flsprtsgod Wrote: My son has been gifted with half a dozen fishing poles, a cast net, a Savage.22 bolt action, a Ruger 10-22, a Ruger .22 revolver, and a Glock 44.

He's 10 and we're country folk.

His guns live in my vault that he has no way to access (biometrics) and we shoot them together whenever we can. All of my kids have seen, handled, and learned about guns and gun safety since they were elementary school age. It's a way of life and not one of my family going back generations has ever shot a single person outside of military service or one case of self defense in 1991 (my uncle was jumped while delivering bread in the very early morning).

Guns are tools that have a legitimate use for both daily life and in times of crisis. The issue is not the guns, it's the fathers who aren't engaged with their children instilling good habits, respect for life, and duty to their neighbors and community that is the problem. It's the Society of Big Government Dependence that's forced fathers out of their homes, nurtured a generation of men who won't accept their duty as fathers, and incentivized a generation of women to single motherhood over a healthy two parent home. It's a cultural problem and few have any interest in the actual fix because that fix takes away much of their power.

Same here.  We live out in the middle of the woods.

My grandson was gifted a Ruger 10-22 when he was about the same age.  It stays in my gun safe and the only time he gets to use it is when we are doing some shooting on my shooting range.  He enjoys shooting my AR-15 and really wants one, but he is still too young (he is 13).

When I was in 5th grade we were offered a Hunter Safety course at our school.  It was taught in our school cafeteria by our P.E. coach that included handling guns right there in the school.  Upon completing the course I was able to get a hunting license and was able to carry a 30-30 Winchester (saddle rifle) while hunting with an adult.  That rifle was not mine, but my grandfather's.  I got my first rifle, a .22 bolt action when I was 12 years old.  My friend and I were allowed to take it and his .22 rifle out riding our dirt bikes out in the desert shooting rabbits.

Part of the problem is the lack of education and experience.  Instead in today's world kids get in trouble for eating a pop-tart into the shape of a gun, or pointing their fingers like a gun.  They are taught to be afraid of guns rather than learning the proper, safe use of them.

Your story along with FSG's is exactly why I think our country needs to get back to basics and more conservative and practical approaches with our generation of kids coming up through the ranks. 

I was born in 1988, when I got to middle school, I was able to take Archery, PE teachers taught it, it was great. I was really good at it. Matter of fact, I out performed my coach at that time and he ended up owing me lunch the next day. I had not shot a bow and arrow in decades since school, however, just three months ago, a wife's friend of ours had a 50 pound bow in their backyard with some hay laid out with a painted target on it. 

Her friend's boyfriend [BLEEP] himself. I nailed the target dead center on my first try. It's just fun. Sometimes it's natural to some of us. It wasn't 100 yards or anything wild like that, but, everybody else there was shooting like [BLEEP] and hitting dirt. At any rate, there's a lot to be said with teaching kids the importance of taking care of sidearms or weapons in general, tools in general, etc. 

It creates a NATURAL foundation of responsibility. It creates a NATURAL layer of safety and trust between a father and his child, or a teacher and it's student. We have become too far detached from one another in a society that is hell bent on constantly being attached to devices of instant gratification or lacks anything really tangible and worth value.

The best skills are passed down by the survivors. Nobody's going to give a [BLEEP] about your ability to format an excel sheet or find a programming code that saves some random [BLEEP] company a few dollars per exchange when it all goes to [BLEEP] and we're back to basics again. Because, it's possible that happens. Whether due to war, man made disaster's, natural disaster's, a flare up from the sun, etc. 

At some point, we're going to need to get back to basics and simpler times. I am going to teach my son soon about carrying and handling a small firearm. A BB gun or P22 is a perfect starting point. It all starts at home though. Getting that foundation right is critical. It's a shame our Government, nationally and locally, have squandered a lot of these ideals. 

The only classes I really enjoyed growing up throughout all my years in school were Archery at Twin Lakes Middle, Metal Shop & Wood Shop at Sandalwood High and really just World History, American History, Geometry, Economics, Home Economics & English. Everything else was mindless or pointless filler. Art class was pretty cool too.

Those classes all taught me things that were fundamental. The importance of sweat labor to enjoy the fruits of your labor, precision, safety, especially safety in Metal Shop, Wood Shop and Archery.

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