KonaBoy

Those stories are pretty scary, have to remember that when I have kids

rost495

Anyone can have a slip. We just can't afford to do it with firearms. In our 4H classes we never shot unless we were close enough to grab the gun to control it and never turned out backs. Well we tried not to but we are all human.

Just be so very careful!!! It can happen way to fast and there is no way to call it back.

The story of the child in the box shakes me up. We have no children save our lab. But believe me he is like a child. He loves to dig bullets out of the backstop. Or swim while I shoot. Creek is behind me. I always hope to remember to locate him because sometimes when I call he comes out from behind the target while he was digging for a bullet. Just too scary. Sorry I compare Cole to a child, but he is to us.

You can never be to careful.

Jeff

Nomercy

I'm not trying to preach to you or tell you how you should have raised your kid, but like others have said, it's really easy to mess up...it's human nature, but that's why we put in those "you're not quite old enough..." phrases for kids. When I first read your post, I thought to myself, what is he doing giving a handgun to a 6yr old. I've let kids shoot my guns, even some of my handguns on rare occasions, but I've always been really strict about always having a hand either on the gun, or on the childs hands or arms--no walking away or allowing distractions.

Letting a kid handle a long gun is a lot different than letting them handle a handgun. It's pretty hard to point a longgun at yourself, but for a handgun, it's all too easy. I've RO'ed and worked at shooting ranges and have seen probably 9-10 ADULTS shoot themselves with a handgun accidentally, guys who are knowledgable in safe gun handling and old enough to know how to properly control their muzzle, some of them decorated marksmen/sportsmen and some of them Veterans....it's just that easy.

There's more than one reason that you can buy a long gun at 18, but not a handgun until your 21. Conscience of mind is definitely one of them.

I'll say this, you got lucky, and I'm glad to hear that it turned out the way it did.

Accidents happen, sometimes the best prevention is to completely avoid the situation, if my kid is sitting at home while I'm shooting my pistols at a safe shooting range, I'd have a hard time shooting him...They're young and have a lot of life ahead of them, I'd rather they live to shoot pistols in the last 50yrs of their life, they can wait for the first 10-15.

johnl

those stories made the hair on my neck stand up wow thank God that both of your kids are around today my ten year old loves going out hunting and shooting with me trust me those stories are forever in my head thank you for sharing you can NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL

Charley

My two boys are 22 and 18 now, so I guess I must have done ok. They have shot with me from the time they were quite young. No offense to any one, but you CANNOT TURN YOUR BACK ON A CHILD WITH ANY FIREARM, EVEN FOR A SECOND!
As for the box episode, yeah, it could be scary...BUT, you are out with your youngster, and are not aware of where he is when shooting? Glad you didn't shoot the box, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place. You can plink with kids, but don't try to do anything requiring concentration, such as sighting in. Primary responsibility is to keep an eye on your kid, and make the outing intresting and fun for him. A youngster could not possibly care less about you shooting groups, and is going to get antsy.

Nomercy

One rule that I made for myself years ago about taking kids shooting, basically for young kids: Take them shooting, but don't shoot. Let them shoot, that way you're not focusing on your own group, or sighting in your rifle. If they're there to have fun shooting, let them have fun shooting and watch them. You won't be distracted as easily that way, and if you're watching them shoot, it easily follows that you're watching them. I've got plenty of other time for myself to shoot 'seriously', and not much good gets done when I'm concentrating on keeping a kid safe too, so when I'm shooting, kids aren't around, when kids are around, only THEY are shooting.

Of course, if there's someone else there who's primary function is to watch the kids, then that's a different story, but when my primary function is watching kids, my secondary isn't shooting.

jones123

Had a less threatening but awakening story with my 16 yr old. He has "his" .270, given to him for his 16th, but cannot take it alone until he's 18.

This last season we were about two miles up a mountain trail. I decided to take a doe at around 200 yds. While we were gutting two other does looked over a rise at us, and my son asked if he could go take one. Sure.

Some time later, I hear a shot from about 400 yds away over the rise. Excellent! My son made his first stalk, decision, and shot without my coaching! Didn't care if he missed or not, I was proud.

Then it hits me like a truck - I sure hope that shot was on purpose! Wish there had been a second one so I know. Zach? ZACH!! ZACH!! No answer. I'm yelling and running through the snow and deadfall. Come up over the rise and see him on his knees, starting to gut. Whew!!! 2 minutes of terror! With the excitement, wind, and insulated ear hat, he couldn't hear me. When I got there, his chamber was empty and slightly open, muzzle pointing into the hill away from him. One clean high lung shot. Good Job!

Not a close call, but those two minutes were sure an awakening. I'm probably being conservative, but he won't be allowed "his" gun alone until 18.

Come to think of it, I guess I'd have reacted the same if he were 30, but you gotta let 'em go sometime. The military trusts them with automatic weapons when they're still kids to me.

SD Shooter

In 1976 I was an investigator with the Sheriff's Department in Routt County, Colorado. A rancher had his three children in his crew cab pickup. He pulled up at his house and ran in to make a phone call. The twelve year old son took a 6mm bolt action rifle out of the rack. He opened the action, closed it, and unintentionally chambered a round. We are not sure exactly what happened then, but the rifle discharged. The round hit his six year old brother in the head. He died instantly. Many lives changed that day.

I live on a ranch and we constantly keep guns at hand. I trained my children very early about firearms and they have never had any "curiosity" about them; in our family, guns are tools. We have always secured firearms when other children visit our home since we don't know how other children have been trained.

I am a hunter safety instructor, a law enforcement instructor, 4-H Shooting Sports instructor, etc. The rules are all the same and simple: muzzle in a safe directions, treat every gun as a loaded gun, finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target, etc.

We must be responsible in not only the safe storage of our firearms, but we must also be responsible in the education of our children in the safe handling and storage of firearms.

And remember, if your child doesn't learn about guns from you, they will certainly learn about them from a friend at a friend's home, probably without adult supervision. Even if you are not a member of the "gun culture," get your kids into a training program. The Eddie Eagle Program is terrific for very young children. As they get older, get them into one of the other classes - NRA, 4-H, Hunter Safety, etc.

Our children are our most precious blessings. They are also the future of our hunting and shooting traditions. We need to protect them by educating them.

Thanks for your attention.

SD Shooter