they will not let him buy it without parents there....heck im 17 and they tried carding me when i bought a slingshot band the other day!!!!!! i seen them take a look at me before they sold it...but they didnt actually ask for it.....i look older.....but when i was shooting a pellet gun my mom had to go in with me to get pellets....they wouldnt sell it to me......about the gun....if theres any way to spend more money that would be the way to go to get a decint airrifle.....i grew up shooting them with my buddys....heck we still shoot them once in a while in his yard because we cant use real guns.....i had a crossman multipump gun........great shooter.....i hit a pepper at over 50yds 3 times with it just messing around.....pellets are more accurate then BBs....at age 12 i was already killing things so i wanted something powerful and accurate...i controlled the chipmunks in my grandmothers yard with mine....may not be legal but i did it.....after they put a hole in her swimming pool by coming up in the liner that was the end...open season....i killed tons of them....and its a fun time to shoot cans and such...me and my friends would camp out in his giant 30acre backyard and shoot all day.....wed hang cans from trees and have hanging targets and find all kinds of things to shoot at.....but we had half decint guns....a 20dollar gun is maybe a redryder...and that flys at like 100fps and drops like a brick.....you could probably take a shot from one and not bleed.....and they arent very accurate at all.....but if thats all the money you or him can spend thats about the best youll get.......good luck....