Discussion for article #228308
Learning to shoot on the back deck? Cross-generational ‘thinning the herd’
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Vandalia Ohio have regulations about shooting a firearm within city limits? specifically a 9mm off your deck?
Sounds responsible.
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“the gun unexpectedly discharged a round the second time her finger touched the trigger”
How do guns work?
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Why were their legs so close together. Is this the Appalachian part of Ohio?
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The gun “unexpectedly” fired when the trigger was “touched”?
Some of these words don’t mean what they think they do.
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Fourteen year olds need to learn to shoot, why?
I’d like to think it’s the same reason as letting your kid stick a fork in an electrical socket - to teach a lesson.
But I’m betting not.
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The right wingnuts are so much in gun-lust that they forget the VERY BASICS of teaching kids how to be competent with firearms: DON’T
Start with air rifles. BB guns, pump or pre-charged, CO2 even. Get them HIGHLY competent with air-powered ammunition, and make sure they know safety inside and out.
And then, in the fullness of time…let them fire a .22 rimfire. A bolt-action rifle, that is easy for an instructor to ensure is always pointing the right way. And then make sure they know how to use THAT safely and consistently, with good aim, before they fire anything else.
And THEN, in the fullness of time…maybe let them fire a larger gun. A .410 shotgun, maybe a 20 guage. A small handgun, like a .25 or a .32. In short, work them up, taking into account their lower body mass and weaker muscles. And always make them prove safety and competence (i.e., hitting the target, not firing randomly) at each stage.
And then, maybe a year or even two later, let them have a shot with daddy’s 9MM pistol, IF they are physically capable of handling the recoil and have proven themselves at each step first.
Oh, I forgot, the NRA USED TO TEACH THIS…before they became shills for the gun industry.
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Perhaps Airsoft needs to start lobbying harder.
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Flesh wounds aside, I always find myself enjoying the Wile E. Coyote quality of these stories.
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That’s exactly how I was trained.
It’s simple, really.
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“Small price to pay for freedom”. The NRA
The problem is that the NRA represents AMERICAN gun manufacturers for the most part, and the airsoft and bb gun production is now nearly all in Asia, whatever brand it is carrying. So no real money in it for the NRA.
But overall, the strategy laid out above actually makes people buy or rent multiple guns to train up on, so a safe strategy like that actually could raise gun purchases and/or rental demand. But smaller calibers fly in the face of macho American gun culture…regardless of how useful having a range of firearms is in the real world.
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For fuck’s sake.
Made in Asia? Even "What I want for Christmas is a Red Rider BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time…”
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My father taught me to shoot with a single shot .22 rifle and he constantly stressed that I was handling a weapon and not a toy that could result in deadly consequences for myself or others if not handled properly and safely. I guess that’s why I find it so irritating when someone makes the ridiculous claim that firearms are no more dangerous than knives or hammers.
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Begs the questions:
Was the first shot successful Because it hit dad? Or because it hit her? In either case I can see why one would “unexpectedly” hit the trigger. Again.
Or did the first bullet hit a target (successfully) and the second bullet hit both of them or ricocheted to the second one or what now?
My father (ex-Marine) said the same thing…when he gave me a lever-actioned .17 air-rifle. “It’s not a toy, and it can hurt and kill.”
I still shoot at least twice a month, many decades later. And I’ve only made one known procedural mistake in range safety in all those years - took a semi-auto off the firing point with an empty mag in it once, forgot to eject it to show “clear” because I had been shooting single-shot bolt-actions for many months before hand. Admonished myself and thought that “dad would have been VERY mad”…no matter that I am older now than he was when he taught me. That’s the product of good, responsible teaching…if only the NRA remembers those days.
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