A few months ago my father in law (big-time outdoorsman who taught me to hunt) came home with a "pop" gun for my little boy who is about to turn 3. Basically, its a kids toy gun that is a lever action. Youcycle the lever action, pull the trigger and get a loud "pop". My little boy loves animals and the outdoors. He watches videos of my hunts (without theactual shooting) and LOVES them. He runs around the house hunting buffalo and deer with his little pop gun...there is no telling how many times he has dragged me to a closet to show me his 2 buffalos he brought home from a hunt(imaginary of course ).Anyways, I thought it wasnt too early to start teaching him gun safety. Wewalk through the woods carrying thepop gunproperly, always aware of barrel location, never cocked, etc. Now granted he is young and forgets A-LOT, but that is expected,he is only about to be 3 years old. But, its a great time for me and him to spend together andI think you can never teach gun appreciation/safety too early. Please understand, he will NOT begetting a real gun of any kind for several years and when he does it will be an air rifle of some sort.Basically, Im trying to say that I dont think it was too early to start teaching him gun safety and the fun of the outdoors, especially since he loves it so much.

This leads me to my issue. My cousin is staunchly against guns. He doesnt allow his children to play games with any violence at all which I understant completely, its not healthy for children to see the violence or take part in make believe violence through video games. I mentioned that my little boy has a new toy pop rifle and he didnt understand why or how I could allow my child to play with such a thing. I explained the idea of teaching gun control at an early age and how it benefits the child because of the knowledge and understanding that is gained.Mycousinstoutly refused this idea saying it is iresponsible for me as a parent to let my child play with a toy that could potentially cause irreperable damage. Now this is the interesting part. He is a hunter, has atleast one gunthat I know of, but he doesnt keep them at his house and does not educate his children about them. His oldest is 13 years old and isnt even allowed to have a slingshot! I can understant his point of view, and itis his right to raise his kids how sees fit, and I would never speak bad abouthim for doing it because they are his children and his family.

But I have made efforts to make sure that my child doesnt see the killing of the animals in my hunts as I dont believe he is of age to understand it properly. He loves the outdoors, and I love to be in the outdoors with him, and as a natural progression of time occurs, he will be exposed to hunting in due course. Right now, all he knows is that I go out into the woods with a gun and spend time with the animals, occasinally bringing a broken one back.

Now the question....HaveI startedmy child at too young of an age?Can it be seen as irresponsible on my part for letting him play with a toy"pop" gun, even though we are trying to teach him responsibility with it? I want him to be knowledgable, respectful, and careful around firearms and the outdoors and so I started himwhen he began to show interest in them. WasI wrong for that? If so, how long did others wait before exposing their child to play hunting?