Guns I had as a child

[Euclidean]

Inspired by the thread on THR...

I grew up in a household where there were guns for defense of the home, rifles, pistols, and shotguns alike.  From the time I was a baby onwards, there were guns in the house.

My parents taught me to coexist with the guns as far back as I can remember, just like they told me to go find a police officer if I ever got lost.  I knew guns were not toys and that they were very dangerous.  I knew that if I saw a gun that was unsupervised, I wasn't to touch it.  I was to leave the area and tell an adult.  The guns were kept in locking containers that no child could reasonably be expected to open.

I was taken out a time or two and allowed, nay encouraged, to shoot the guns as a small child, the biggest guns I was physically capable of firing.  My curiosity was sated, honestly.  I had no reason to try to go fiddle with dad's guns because I knew darn well exactly what would happen if I pulled the trigger.  I knew it was loud and went bang and fired a projectile.  I knew it was an effective weapon, and I knew it wasn't to be flaunted or played with.

My siblings got the same treatment.  And you know what?  Not a one of us ever had a close call with a gun.  We weren't lucky.  We weren't even well trained, honestly, we just had a wee bit of sense.  My parents were way, way more worried when I started driving than they were when I started owning my own gun.

See when I was ten, I was given stewardship of my very own Marlin model 60.  I was allowed the privilege of keeping it in my own room and had constant access to it.  At any time, I could have physically loaded and fired it at anything and everything in sight.  But I didn't, I knew that if I abused that privilege, I'd lose it, plus my parents would be really dissappointed in me and I'd probably wind up hurting somebody very badly to boot.  I was scared to death of actually hurting somebody.

Now I got to still shoot other guns, but this one was mine to keep.

When I turned 14 the privilege extended to a Mossberg 500.  So I had access to a "real", robust weapon at this point, one that any sane person would consider a viable and effective personal arm in many confrontations.

On top of that, as a teenager, when we made extended family trips, I was entrusted with a .357 revolver, for just in case. 

Today I hear constant references to people who are horrified at the thought of children having firearms or even operating them and quite frankly it confounds me.  For the record, I grew up in the 80s and 90s not the 50s and 60s.  Even in my home state of Texas it's illegal for a minor to have access to a firearm, a law which my family broke for several years apparently.

That's just madness.  Parents should decide when kids have access to firearms and under what conditions, not some damn government.  You couldn't pay me to have kids, but if I did I'd start them on guns even earlier.

Honestly, is this weird that I had such access?

[Fly320s]

Honestly, is this weird that I had such access?

No, not at all.

What is weird is that people believe that abstinence from gun related items and words is the best way to make kids safe.  It doesn't work with alcohol, drugs, sex, or violence.  Why do they think it will work with guns?

I guess that today's parents don't remember the Saturday morning cartoon, "Knowledge is Power.'

[HankB]

I was 4 years old when I got a BB gun - it was a Daisy, held 50 rounds in a tube near the muzzle, had both a peep and V-notch sight, and was pump action, with a toggle-type linkage connected to the slide. I was too little to work it or even shoot it unless I tucked the stock under my arm, so Dad was always with me when using it; we shot it in the backyard. I kept it in my room . . . until I grew a little bit, and my mother saw I'd grown strong enough to cock it myself, at which point it was "stored" behind the side door.

At age 7 I got a .22 rifle, a Marlin bolt action of some sort - I want to say it was a Model 81C, but that was too long ago for me to be sure . . .

Around 11 or 12 I got an air pistol - a .22 caliber Crosman 38C, and a Colt Diamondback .22 with a 2 1/2" barrel at age 13 for 8th grade graduation . . . wish I still had it. Bought a Colt National Match .45 out of my own money at age 14. (Dad signed for it - uh oh, straw purchase! )

I can honestly say it never occured to me to take any of these to school or elsewhere and do something overtly criminal . . . but then, I wasn't prescribed Prozac, Ritalin, or Luvox either.

Duh.

. . . Even in my home state of Texas it's illegal for a minor to have access to a firearm, a law which my family broke for several years apparently.

I'm a bit older than you, but I grew up  in Chicago . . . connect the dots. 

[charby]

I grew up in the same time period also. I had access to firearms and had my own gifted to me when I was 13, a Stevens 20 gauge shotgun, which I still have.

I used to have my shotgun behind the seat of my pickup in High School during hunting season because many times after school we would go hunting for a bit. Also a lot of my friends had .22 rifles in their vehicles year round, we used to go plinking once in a while after school and sometimes over lunch when we became seniors. No one cared and no was concerned that anyone was going to walk into school with gun a blazing.

When I lived my first year in college in the dorms I was shocked when I saw the no firearms policy, so I had to go one year without a firearm to go hunting with.

-C

[thebaldguy]

I still have my first rifle - a Crosman 760 pump I got at 6 back in the early 70's. I even put a 4X Weaver .22 scope on it when I was 10, even after I had real firearms. I loved that rifle, and the seals finally started leaking when 14. I kept the rifle and scope, but five years ago I got a nicer Crosman 2100 and put the old scope on it. I still have the non-working 760 in my safe; I still smile when I see it, and put some BBs and pellets downrange in my basement with the new rifle with the old scope.

[wooderson]

I had some kind of BB gun that I ran around the yard with - pump it, put the muzzle in the dirt, and then fire it dry, you got a big plume of 'smoke.' Don't remember ever actually shooting it with ammo.

My parents sold pretty much all of their guns to pay for eye surgeries for my brother and I (typed 'eye' there to start with) in the early-mid '80s, never had any more until the late '90s when times got better. since then my father has collected pretty much every cowboy action revolver and rifle that's out - made up for lost time) They then bought me my first pistol (a gen-u-ine CZ 75B) just after I turned 18, and a Ruger GP-100 a little bit after that.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

My dad taught me how to shoot his old Marlin .22 bolt action when I was about 4ish. I have plenty of memories of holding various .22 and .38 revolvers with his hand around mine about that time as well.  I probably shot a Colt Model 4 .22 short derringer before then. I do know I shot a 1911 for the first time at 6.

I got my first cock-action bb gun ( a Daisy target model) when I was 6. I went on my first 'real' deer hunt at 9, a family tradition. I carried a pre-war Winchester M94.  I'd been dove hunting as a tagalong and 'bird boy' prior to that.  On my 12th birthday I got my first .22 rifle, a Browning takedown, that I still own (of course).  At 15, my dad bought me a new Model 70 in .30-06. my first high-powered rifle 'of my own'.

I suppose part of it was tradition and growing up Texan. I'm sure the rest was growing up in an Army/FBI family, too.

Regards,
Rabbit.

[El Tejon]

Started getting guns when I was 6.  I still have many of them.  I kept them in my room.

My parents were more concerned with me taking up smoking, booze or women.