I was never curious about guns when I was younger, my dad had a case with a glass front, and I knew they were there and that I wasn’t supposed to mess with them, so I never did. Of course, the case was locked, but I think if you don’t hide stuff like this from kids, they are less likely to do something stupid when they eventually come in contact with it.
I think they should have these types of gun safety classes in schools. if they can teach kids how to put a condom on a banana I don’t see the harm in teaching some basic firearms safety material.
We had elective classes we could take after school. I took archery and computer programming in middle school. I could see firearms training falling into that category.
What is hilarious to me is that the people who think that kids should never be exposed to guns and should just be told “NO! BAD!” are the same ones who think that sex education should be detailed and insightful – more than just “NO! BAD!” abstinence training.
One more example of how conservatives and liberals are the same – they both just want to control the populace.
Full disclosure, I think that (1) parents need to be more involved in EVERY part of their child’s exposure to the world, and (2) everyone should be taught responsible gun handling and sex education – both are extremely weighty responsibilities and can ruin (and enhance) people’s lives. Also, everyone should learn how to drive a manual transmission.
Right after you say conservatives and liberals want to control the populace, you give your personal examples of how to control the populace.
@Ted
I do not see the correlation between conservatives and liberals here. First off this class is free, no one is forcing the kids to be there, also the parents are there as well. The parents have a choice whether or not to send their children. As Mike said the liberals in school are forcing kids to put a condums on banana’s, and lean how to have sex, both hedro and homosexual. That is liberalism at it’s worse.
Being a legitimate old fart, I can remember when high schools had rifle teams that competed…… imagine that now! I watched the little kids faces as they each got handed the gun and some had genuine fear in their eyes. The first time I ever handled a gun was when I was about 11 years old. A friend’s father took him and me out to shoot one afternoon. Good times!
Man I wished we had rifle teams when I was in school. I don’t doubt you, but I can hardly believe it nowadays.
I took rifle team as an after school program, in New York City, in the early sixties. It was school-supported.
Our school had a rifle team. I was on the swim team and I was dedicated to it at the time.
I was on my high school’s rifle team when I was a freshman in 2001-02.. Don’t know if they still have one now though..
This is a great idea, and I’m surprised that this news story stayed away from the “guns + kids = school shooting” theme.
The “guns+Kids=school shooting” logic holds about as much water as saying ice cream sales go up in the summer time, and incidents of rape go up in the summer. Therefor ice cream causes rape.
The teaching of gun safety in schools makes far too much sense for either the teachers unions or the Federal government to ever support. That is why we must wrest control of our schools back from those entities. Local control of the schools is the only way we can make sure schools are teaching our kids; not indoctrinating them.
virtualjohn, you are completely correct. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed. The NEA or AFT runs the schools, aided and abetted by their partners in crime, the political scum known as school boards and administrators.
My first hunter safety course was taught by NRA instructors and sponsored by my high school in New York City. Yeah, that New York City. Now that the inmates are running the asylum, writing the word “gun” for a spelling lesson is considered a moral outrage. So when an old guy starts a sentence with “back in my day,” don’t laugh. He’s talking about the good old days.
You mean, back when New York City wasn’t a city riddled with violent crime? Hm…
OK, so I’m another ol’ fart – we actually built a trap layout (2 fields) at my high school and shot trap on Wednesday afternoons. Our guns were locked up at all other times, as was the ammo, an arrangement which suited all of us involved…
How times have changed (sigh)
I got my first gun for my thirteenth birthday from my Dad along with Safe Shooting, Handling, Cleaning/Care and Storage (for gun and ammo) instruction. I still have that gun – a J.C. Whitney 22LR bolt action rifle (which was secretly a Marlin built for Sears Roebuck & Co’s J.C. Whitney Brand [never knew who J.C. Whitney actually was]). We would go shoot out in the desert, along with Bow and Arrow, and I had to share with my younger brother. It still goes with us almost every time we go shooting and my wife loves to shoot it. It has a scope on it and she’s a small woman who doesn’t like the .30 Cal and .223’s. Every time I clean it after a shooting outing it brings a flood of great memories of good Family times throughout my life. Yep. I love that gun! So “Neener!Neener!” Bill Maher!
I got my first gun from my Dad when I was twelve. I can’t remember whether it was a birthday present, but I don’t think so.
My rifle was a Remmy Nylon 66 in Mohawk Brown. It was awesome. A thread cutter. I haven’t seen it in almost 50 years and I’d probably blubber like a little girl if I did.
I had and still have my childhood Nylon 66. It still runs like a top.
I still have my Mossberg .410 shotgun my dad gave me when I was 10.
I don’t qualify as an old fart, but Dad and I split the cost and got my gun at age 15, a Ruger M77 Mk II in .30-06. I shot .22’s, a .30-30, and even a 12 gauge well before that, but the Ruger was MINE. It’s sitting in the closet now, waiting for its next trip out to the range or woods.
Props to responsible parents getting their kids instruction about guns! This is the kind of thing that can prevent a tragedy!
You guys posting about first guns brought to mind my first .22 and with it another difference between the world of then and now. My first .22 was a Winchester Model 67 short, long or long rifle single shot bolt action bought at the Police Auction around 1963 in San Antonio for $5. I just set it to the side of my desk to finish this.
I used the money from a lot of lawn-mowing to buy ammo for that gun. I learned to be careful with that first shot. Follow-up shots were dang difficult with that gun. It had to be a particularly stupid squirrel or rabbit for me to get a second chance.
But just think of all the beautiful guns that have been destroyed over the years since this asinine “guns bad” neurosis has overcome the United States. By the way, the Police Auction is where my first bike came from also, we were poor. I didn’t know that at the time.
When I was a counselor and firearms instructor at a Boy Scout camp, more kids signed up for the riflery merit badge than any other. We had to run the safety class three times a day. It was an amazing experience for these kids, many of whome had never seen a gun in real life before. We always made sure safety was #1. The in a matter of a couple of years it all changed. Some mom got mad that we allowed her son to touch a gun. It didn’t matter that she sent her son to camp, and that they could sign up for whatever merit badge they wanted. NO! She didn’t believe in guns (whatever the hell that means) and that we should have called her to tell her that her son wanted to shoot a rifle and we should have stopped him. So a few lawyers later, no more riflery merit badge, no more shotgun shooting merit badge, and no more archery merit badge. A year after that the canoeing merit badge went too, since some mom found out that the kids had to tip over their canoe and bail it out in order to get the merit badge. Didn’t matter that they were wearing life jackets and had to pass the basic swiming test to go canoeing. Didn’t matter that they tipped the canoe within 20 feet of shore and were being watched by counselors. Her son was in water over his head in a lake in Florida and that was unacceptable. I don’t know if the camp is even there anymore (it’s been some years since I last went). I have a feeling some kid got bit by a tick and some mom decided having a bunch of kids play outside for a week in the summer was just to dangerous and shut the whole thing down.
I’m happy to report that Rifle Shooting, Shotgun Shooting, and Canoeing are all still available merit badges. Fond memories and your post making it seem like they might be gone caused me to go looking. I found several badges that I remember vividly (Citizenship in the Community/World/Nation, Emergency Prep, Pioneering) and several that definitely didn’t exist when I was a Scout (Geocaching, Welding, Inventing). Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Big J – That was just the beginning of the pussification of America. We won’t make it another one hundred years at this rate…America as we all have known it will be gone if there are not radical changes that happen quickly.
On another note, back in the day, my very first gun was a Marlin .22 single shot bolt action rifle. It has no serial number ( I still have it) because it was made prior to 1968. I’d carry a pocket full of .22 Longs and thin out the swamp rabbit population for dinner at my granddad’s cattle ranch. This was in about 1960. I got the gun from the Boy Scouts by selling Christmas cards door to door. We boys also carried pocket knives at school. Never had a stabbing…a few butt kickings, but you took your licks and went on about your business.
Looking at this nation now, it makes me wonder what’s in store for the future. I don’t think it’s good.
I’m 30 and having my first son, hell first child for that matter. I know I will teach him gun safety and respect but shouldn’t everyone know this? Pretending that guns don’t exist is like pretending that cars don’t exist when crossing the street. If you are aware of them you will be more responsible in your actions.
I was never curious about guns when I was younger, my dad had a case with a glass front, and I knew they were there and that I wasn’t supposed to mess with them, so I never did. Of course, the case was locked, but I think if you don’t hide stuff like this from kids, they are less likely to do something stupid when they eventually come in contact with it.
I think they should have these types of gun safety classes in schools. if they can teach kids how to put a condom on a banana I don’t see the harm in teaching some basic firearms safety material.
We had elective classes we could take after school. I took archery and computer programming in middle school. I could see firearms training falling into that category.
What is hilarious to me is that the people who think that kids should never be exposed to guns and should just be told “NO! BAD!” are the same ones who think that sex education should be detailed and insightful – more than just “NO! BAD!” abstinence training.
One more example of how conservatives and liberals are the same – they both just want to control the populace.
Full disclosure, I think that (1) parents need to be more involved in EVERY part of their child’s exposure to the world, and (2) everyone should be taught responsible gun handling and sex education – both are extremely weighty responsibilities and can ruin (and enhance) people’s lives. Also, everyone should learn how to drive a manual transmission.
Right after you say conservatives and liberals want to control the populace, you give your personal examples of how to control the populace.
@Ted
I do not see the correlation between conservatives and liberals here. First off this class is free, no one is forcing the kids to be there, also the parents are there as well. The parents have a choice whether or not to send their children. As Mike said the liberals in school are forcing kids to put a condums on banana’s, and lean how to have sex, both hedro and homosexual. That is liberalism at it’s worse.
Being a legitimate old fart, I can remember when high schools had rifle teams that competed…… imagine that now! I watched the little kids faces as they each got handed the gun and some had genuine fear in their eyes. The first time I ever handled a gun was when I was about 11 years old. A friend’s father took him and me out to shoot one afternoon. Good times!
Man I wished we had rifle teams when I was in school. I don’t doubt you, but I can hardly believe it nowadays.
I took rifle team as an after school program, in New York City, in the early sixties. It was school-supported.
Our school had a rifle team. I was on the swim team and I was dedicated to it at the time.
I was on my high school’s rifle team when I was a freshman in 2001-02.. Don’t know if they still have one now though..
This is a great idea, and I’m surprised that this news story stayed away from the “guns + kids = school shooting” theme.
The “guns+Kids=school shooting” logic holds about as much water as saying ice cream sales go up in the summer time, and incidents of rape go up in the summer. Therefor ice cream causes rape.
The teaching of gun safety in schools makes far too much sense for either the teachers unions or the Federal government to ever support. That is why we must wrest control of our schools back from those entities. Local control of the schools is the only way we can make sure schools are teaching our kids; not indoctrinating them.
virtualjohn, you are completely correct. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed. The NEA or AFT runs the schools, aided and abetted by their partners in crime, the political scum known as school boards and administrators.
My first hunter safety course was taught by NRA instructors and sponsored by my high school in New York City. Yeah, that New York City. Now that the inmates are running the asylum, writing the word “gun” for a spelling lesson is considered a moral outrage. So when an old guy starts a sentence with “back in my day,” don’t laugh. He’s talking about the good old days.
You mean, back when New York City wasn’t a city riddled with violent crime? Hm…
OK, so I’m another ol’ fart – we actually built a trap layout (2 fields) at my high school and shot trap on Wednesday afternoons. Our guns were locked up at all other times, as was the ammo, an arrangement which suited all of us involved…
How times have changed (sigh)
I got my first gun for my thirteenth birthday from my Dad along with Safe Shooting, Handling, Cleaning/Care and Storage (for gun and ammo) instruction. I still have that gun – a J.C. Whitney 22LR bolt action rifle (which was secretly a Marlin built for Sears Roebuck & Co’s J.C. Whitney Brand [never knew who J.C. Whitney actually was]). We would go shoot out in the desert, along with Bow and Arrow, and I had to share with my younger brother. It still goes with us almost every time we go shooting and my wife loves to shoot it. It has a scope on it and she’s a small woman who doesn’t like the .30 Cal and .223’s. Every time I clean it after a shooting outing it brings a flood of great memories of good Family times throughout my life. Yep. I love that gun! So “Neener!Neener!” Bill Maher!
I got my first gun from my Dad when I was twelve. I can’t remember whether it was a birthday present, but I don’t think so.
My rifle was a Remmy Nylon 66 in Mohawk Brown. It was awesome. A thread cutter. I haven’t seen it in almost 50 years and I’d probably blubber like a little girl if I did.
I had and still have my childhood Nylon 66. It still runs like a top.
I still have my Mossberg .410 shotgun my dad gave me when I was 10.
I don’t qualify as an old fart, but Dad and I split the cost and got my gun at age 15, a Ruger M77 Mk II in .30-06. I shot .22’s, a .30-30, and even a 12 gauge well before that, but the Ruger was MINE. It’s sitting in the closet now, waiting for its next trip out to the range or woods.
Props to responsible parents getting their kids instruction about guns! This is the kind of thing that can prevent a tragedy!
You guys posting about first guns brought to mind my first .22 and with it another difference between the world of then and now. My first .22 was a Winchester Model 67 short, long or long rifle single shot bolt action bought at the Police Auction around 1963 in San Antonio for $5. I just set it to the side of my desk to finish this.
I used the money from a lot of lawn-mowing to buy ammo for that gun. I learned to be careful with that first shot. Follow-up shots were dang difficult with that gun. It had to be a particularly stupid squirrel or rabbit for me to get a second chance.
But just think of all the beautiful guns that have been destroyed over the years since this asinine “guns bad” neurosis has overcome the United States. By the way, the Police Auction is where my first bike came from also, we were poor. I didn’t know that at the time.
When I was a counselor and firearms instructor at a Boy Scout camp, more kids signed up for the riflery merit badge than any other. We had to run the safety class three times a day. It was an amazing experience for these kids, many of whome had never seen a gun in real life before. We always made sure safety was #1. The in a matter of a couple of years it all changed. Some mom got mad that we allowed her son to touch a gun. It didn’t matter that she sent her son to camp, and that they could sign up for whatever merit badge they wanted. NO! She didn’t believe in guns (whatever the hell that means) and that we should have called her to tell her that her son wanted to shoot a rifle and we should have stopped him. So a few lawyers later, no more riflery merit badge, no more shotgun shooting merit badge, and no more archery merit badge. A year after that the canoeing merit badge went too, since some mom found out that the kids had to tip over their canoe and bail it out in order to get the merit badge. Didn’t matter that they were wearing life jackets and had to pass the basic swiming test to go canoeing. Didn’t matter that they tipped the canoe within 20 feet of shore and were being watched by counselors. Her son was in water over his head in a lake in Florida and that was unacceptable. I don’t know if the camp is even there anymore (it’s been some years since I last went). I have a feeling some kid got bit by a tick and some mom decided having a bunch of kids play outside for a week in the summer was just to dangerous and shut the whole thing down.
I’m happy to report that Rifle Shooting, Shotgun Shooting, and Canoeing are all still available merit badges. Fond memories and your post making it seem like they might be gone caused me to go looking. I found several badges that I remember vividly (Citizenship in the Community/World/Nation, Emergency Prep, Pioneering) and several that definitely didn’t exist when I was a Scout (Geocaching, Welding, Inventing). Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Big J – That was just the beginning of the pussification of America. We won’t make it another one hundred years at this rate…America as we all have known it will be gone if there are not radical changes that happen quickly.
On another note, back in the day, my very first gun was a Marlin .22 single shot bolt action rifle. It has no serial number ( I still have it) because it was made prior to 1968. I’d carry a pocket full of .22 Longs and thin out the swamp rabbit population for dinner at my granddad’s cattle ranch. This was in about 1960. I got the gun from the Boy Scouts by selling Christmas cards door to door. We boys also carried pocket knives at school. Never had a stabbing…a few butt kickings, but you took your licks and went on about your business.
Looking at this nation now, it makes me wonder what’s in store for the future. I don’t think it’s good.
I’m 30 and having my first son, hell first child for that matter. I know I will teach him gun safety and respect but shouldn’t everyone know this? Pretending that guns don’t exist is like pretending that cars don’t exist when crossing the street. If you are aware of them you will be more responsible in your actions.
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