I grew-up in a different era, where firearms (rifles and shotguns) were quite common... and hunting was a popular topic at the dinner-table. I began going with my dad squirrel-hunting when I was still too young to carry my own gun. I learned steath and stalk techniques, and on occasion was given the opportunity to shoot whatever dad was carrying. I remember once he was carrying an old A.H. Fox 12 gauge double-barrel shotgun with double triggers. Somehow--after dad told me to hold-on REAL tight--I pulled both triggers at the same time. Yes, it rocked my young world. The point I'm trying to make is we all grew-up around guns, and we learned to handle them safely. Not only that, we learned how to take them apart and clean them, so we understood their workings. We didn't just read a manual... there was always expert hands-on instruction. I can remember carrying a scoped .22 caliber bolt-action rifle with sling... or a holstered .22 cal. revolver down the street of our subdivison on the way to the woods as a teen. The neighbors never raised an eyebrow. I did a lot of squirrel hunting back then, and in the off-season I would pick a spot in the woods, sit-down and proceed to shoot limbs off-trees. I used the 4x scope to sight-in and kept plinking away til the limb dropped-off. That little Remington was/is a tack-driver. It still resides in my gun cabinet. It was a different time. I always had a pocket knife on me as well... even in school. Most every boy did back then. Tim
Many gun stores offer firearms training by NRA certified instructors. Some will even give you the course for free if you buy a gun from them. I would like to see this happen more than it does but at least it's a start. I think all 50 states require Hunter's Education now. It's a great idea and I enjoyed the course I took a few years ago. I was "grandfathered" in for Alabama but had to take an approved course in order to get a hunting license in other states.
Oh dear, you really shouldn't laugh, but... :lol: I suppose that if you have a country where a lot of people own guns, then statistically there are bound to be a number of dumb accidents.
That's true of anything human beings do. Look at the incredible number of truly idiotic car accidents that happen each year. :roll:
when actor charlten heston was a boy in michigen in the late 40s he and his chums used to take their rifles to SCHOOL on the bus in hunting season because the school was close to open woods and well out of town .. they would lock em in their lockers till school let out ,then poof . off to the woods , and walk or hitch a ride home at dusk ..lol , can you imagine ? ..tim , as a kid ,in the early seventies , i used to walk blocks through north ca bay area suburbia with a .22 on my way out to the woods and back , almost daily .......i dont know if such actions would fly today ...
woody: Those were the days... The very first AR-15 I ever saw was at school in the late 60s. The Colt AR-15 was--IIRC--the civilian version of the military's futuristic-looking M-16. (Yes, this was the Vietnam-era.) Mr Luginbill was my science teacher and I remember he brought his AR-15 to the classroom, and I got a chance to handle it a couple-times. I recall it having lots of 'plastic' (stock and forearm) and was much lighter than I would have imagined. I think he brought it in as a "Show and Tell" for us kids. We young-boys were VERY impressed. That all-black gun was a serious-looking firearm, and we had never seen anything quite like it. It looked so very different from the hunting guns we grew-up with. It most definitely WAS a different time. Somewhere along the line, we, as a nation lost our innocence. When I was a kid, we never locked our cars, and every house in our neighborhood was considered a "safe house" if we ever needed help. Tim