FAMILY
Children Learn About Guns at an Early Age
By Travis Beck
What little kid has not played cowboys and Indians with a toy gun ? Almost all of boys , and many of the girls .
See why you need to educate children at an early age about firearms , in today ' s column from SlowFacts .
I ’ ve been interested in firearms as long as I can remember . Those early lessons last a lifetime . Even today , my parents tease me that my distrust of the government started when I was five years old and an airport security guard confiscated my toy cap pistol . My parents didn ’ t own guns .
When I was about nine , my father bought a Crossman BB gun to teach me basic rifle marksmanship . I was about 14 when I came across a huge stack of American Rifleman and Guns & Ammo magazines . Those periodicals were my first real exposure to American gun culture . I devoured them .
That is where I learned the NRA ’ s Rules of Firearms Safety . I followed the rules then , and teach those rules today . Firearms safety rules are important . Injuring yourself or someone else from a negligent discharge is almost impossible if you follow the rules . We teach and follow the rules because accidents happen .
Fast forward about fifteen years . I was now a husband and a father . We owned a few handguns and a . 22 rifle . The handguns were stored loaded in a small electronically locked safe . The rifle was kept unloaded in the closet .
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