Folks, this morning I saw a couple pictures that were nice shots, taken by a granddad while the granddad was teaching the grandson to shoot. The child was apparently shooting both a long gun and a handgun. There was a problem with those pics though, one that could lead to a whole slew of recommended regulations being thought up by the anti-gun left.
The problem was that in the pics, while the child (who is well under 10) was wearing hearing protection, he evidently was not wearing any eye protection. This is something some libterd could choose as his personal anti-gun banner and the next thing you know is we would be loaded down with more regulations and possibly with Child Protective Services knocking at our doors should we decide to teach our young ones to shoot and then post pics about it, pics that show an obvious disregard for basic firearms safety.
Wearing eye protection while shooting is not among the over glorified and so called 4 Rules of Firearms Safety but nonetheless is definitely a longtime well known firearms safety rule we all should follow when shooting - and that is especially so when teaching children to shoot. How anyone could take one of their children or grandchildren shooting and not have the child wear protective eyewear is truly beyond my comprehension. It is not only very unsafe for the child but screams of extreme irresponsibility and negligence on the part of the person teaching the child how to shoot.
Secondly, in at least one of the photos, it is extremely obvious that there is no adult within arms reach of the child while he is handling firearms. Remember, we are talking a preteen child, a young one at that. No mater how smart and trustworthy you think is a young child in your care, you are being worse than merely foolish in allowing that child to handle firearms while both the child and the firearm are out of your immediate reach; to me, that constitutes negligence on your part. Teaching children to shoot at such a young age is a big responsibility and the child's safety and the safety of yourself and others is of paramount importance. Allowing yourself to feel as if the child is okay without you having hands on or at least being within easy arms reach is allowing yourself to be extremely foolish and negligent. Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye but if you are close enough you may be able to reach out and control the weapon and or the child before it gets to that point should you see it potentially going bad. When too far from the young shooter all you can do is see it happen and then bemoan your own foolishness should it result in serious injury. If your pride in yourself or in your young one(s) makes it too difficult for you to understand that - you need to take your head out of where the sun does not shine and look at things in the light of responsible firearms handling.
One other thing I will add, if you are going to teach a child to shoot, try to do it with guns that fit them. When my son was either 9 or 10, I bought him a youth sized 22 rifle. It fit him well and he learned well with it. Sure, you can let youngsters shot guns that are obviously too big for them - like a 12 gauge adult sized gun but when you do you had better be sure that the way the child holds it along with the child's stance, are not about to lend themselves to a potential injury to the little one. As far as size and grip go, the same thing goes for pistols. Allowing a child to grip a semi-auto pistol with both thumbs crossed over one another at the backstrap is teaching, or at least allowing to develop, a very bad habit that can easily result in injury to the shooter.
Now, I will grant, it might have been possible that the photos in the question had been staged and not actually taken while the child was shooting but text accompanying the photos indicated that he was actually shooting at least one of the guns at the time. Even if it was the case that the photos were staged, why give the leftist loons any ammo like that with which to attack our RKBA and our right to teach our loved ones how to shoot?
So, if you are going to post such pics, try to remember to assure you have everything right. Better yet, if you are going to teach your kids or grandkids (or anyone for that matter) to shoot, make sure to get it right for their safety's sake!
All the best,
Glenn B
The problem was that in the pics, while the child (who is well under 10) was wearing hearing protection, he evidently was not wearing any eye protection. This is something some libterd could choose as his personal anti-gun banner and the next thing you know is we would be loaded down with more regulations and possibly with Child Protective Services knocking at our doors should we decide to teach our young ones to shoot and then post pics about it, pics that show an obvious disregard for basic firearms safety.
Wearing eye protection while shooting is not among the over glorified and so called 4 Rules of Firearms Safety but nonetheless is definitely a longtime well known firearms safety rule we all should follow when shooting - and that is especially so when teaching children to shoot. How anyone could take one of their children or grandchildren shooting and not have the child wear protective eyewear is truly beyond my comprehension. It is not only very unsafe for the child but screams of extreme irresponsibility and negligence on the part of the person teaching the child how to shoot.
Secondly, in at least one of the photos, it is extremely obvious that there is no adult within arms reach of the child while he is handling firearms. Remember, we are talking a preteen child, a young one at that. No mater how smart and trustworthy you think is a young child in your care, you are being worse than merely foolish in allowing that child to handle firearms while both the child and the firearm are out of your immediate reach; to me, that constitutes negligence on your part. Teaching children to shoot at such a young age is a big responsibility and the child's safety and the safety of yourself and others is of paramount importance. Allowing yourself to feel as if the child is okay without you having hands on or at least being within easy arms reach is allowing yourself to be extremely foolish and negligent. Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye but if you are close enough you may be able to reach out and control the weapon and or the child before it gets to that point should you see it potentially going bad. When too far from the young shooter all you can do is see it happen and then bemoan your own foolishness should it result in serious injury. If your pride in yourself or in your young one(s) makes it too difficult for you to understand that - you need to take your head out of where the sun does not shine and look at things in the light of responsible firearms handling.
One other thing I will add, if you are going to teach a child to shoot, try to do it with guns that fit them. When my son was either 9 or 10, I bought him a youth sized 22 rifle. It fit him well and he learned well with it. Sure, you can let youngsters shot guns that are obviously too big for them - like a 12 gauge adult sized gun but when you do you had better be sure that the way the child holds it along with the child's stance, are not about to lend themselves to a potential injury to the little one. As far as size and grip go, the same thing goes for pistols. Allowing a child to grip a semi-auto pistol with both thumbs crossed over one another at the backstrap is teaching, or at least allowing to develop, a very bad habit that can easily result in injury to the shooter.
Now, I will grant, it might have been possible that the photos in the question had been staged and not actually taken while the child was shooting but text accompanying the photos indicated that he was actually shooting at least one of the guns at the time. Even if it was the case that the photos were staged, why give the leftist loons any ammo like that with which to attack our RKBA and our right to teach our loved ones how to shoot?
So, if you are going to post such pics, try to remember to assure you have everything right. Better yet, if you are going to teach your kids or grandkids (or anyone for that matter) to shoot, make sure to get it right for their safety's sake!
All the best,
Glenn B
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