When And How To Teach Kids About Shooting Sports

I would like to start with a warning about ALWAYS keeping your firearms secure from children and unauthorized adults who live with you. In most states, according to the law, if someone gets hold one of your unsecured firearms and hurts somebody with it, YOU will be held responsible! Please keep firearms locked up securely at all times, unless they are in your direct control or in your hands. Your child may not ever develop any interest in taking up shooting sports, but if you own any kind of gun for any reason, you must teach your children about firearm safety. If you don’t believe this is true, then you have no business owning a gun.

Children are very curious creatures. Besides eating and sleeping, curiosity is probably the strongest instinct children have. Day and night they crave to learn; it never stops. Parents are responsible for steering their children in a direction that will help foster their desire for knowledge. For parents who are into shooting sports, your child’s education about firearm safety should be begun at a very early age. It is quite possible—and perhaps even necessary—to spend at least a year or more with your child to help him develop good habits in safe gun handling, cleaning, maintenance, and other responsibilities associated with firearms ownership before you ever actually take him to the range to fire his first shot. Note: I use "him" and "his" throughout this article simply for ease of discussion, not because gun safety should be taught only to boys. If you own a gun, every single one of your sons and daughters should be taught gun safety, period.

All children are different and mature at a completely different rate. If you want to teach your child about firearm safety, there is no set age to start. I have seen 5-year olds who were ready to start learning about the responsible handling of firearms, and yet I’ve also known some 12-year olds that I would not allow to touch even a squirt gun! For younger children, it is very important to begin with some basic questions about reality and make believe. You need to be sure your child knows that Sponge Bob Square Pants is just a cartoon and the police officer or fireman he saw on the way to the store with you is real. Your child needs to understand that video games—and the concept of being able to die repeatedly and still keep playing—are total fantasy, and have nothing to do with real life. Your child’s curiosity isn’t enough for you to decide to teach him about using a gun; he must have the emotional maturity necessary to understand the potential results of the use (or misuse) of a firearm. Until he reaches that age, be sure your guns are securely locked up in a place your child can’t get to.

Once you have made the decision that the time is right for your child to begin learning about firearm safety, the training you provide should proceed just like any educational lesson—with reading, studying, and testing—not with hands-on experimenting. The overall lesson plan you follow is up to you, but there is only one way to begin. Before you start explaining the parts of a gun, how a gun works, or how to act at a shooting range, your child simply must commit to memory the four vitally important, ironclad rules that every shooter of any age should have permanently imprinted on their brain:

1 Every gun in every situation should be considered to be loaded. Even if you’re certain a gun is empty, it should always be handled as if it were a loaded weapon.
2 Always point the gun in a safe direction, and never sweep the muzzle across anything you do not want to completely destroy.
3 Always keep your finger off the trigger and out of the trigger guard until you have made the decision to fire.
4 Always know your target, what is around your target, and what is beyond your target.

Once your child knows these rules inside and out, and can recite them without hesitation, he is probably ready to learn about more general issues, such as rules and regulations, range etiquette, and the wide variety of important information related to safely using firearms for sport shooting. The information you choose to teach your child is up to you and will depend on a variety of factors such as the age of your child, the type of sport shooting you do, and the specific questions or interests your child may have. But no matter what else you teach him, be sure that your child knows the four rules of safe firearms handling before he learns anything else. Those four rules can mean the difference between life and death. A good way to reinforce the rules would be for you to have your child recite them to you at the beginning and at the end of each lesson.

The next step in teaching your child about firearm safety is to actually introduce him to guns. Taking your child with you when you visit a gun store is a good start, although he should not be allowed to handle a firearm for the first time inside a gun store. You want to make that a special moment when you and he are alone, not only because it will give you a good bonding experience, but also to be sure that he handles it exactly the way you want him to. One of the first things you can do at home to help your child learn about the mechanics of firearm operation is to allow him to watch you as you clean and work on your firearms, without allowing him to touch anything. Then you can set up a rewards program to give him the opportunity, little by little, to begin to handle the various components of the gun. Quiz him regularly on the four rules of firearm safety and the other information you have taught him. Every time he gets something right, let him perform a task in handling or cleaning the gun—aligning the sights, helping you clean a component, loading a magazine, helping you assemble the gun, etc. Keep the tasks simple and do not overwhelm him with details until he has completely mastered each task and can do it on his own as you supervise. Be absolutely certain that your child understands he can handle the gun ONLY when you are present, and only when he has asked permission to do so. On the other hand, be careful about using the gun as a means of punishment by denying him the opportunity to spend time working with the gun, if the punishment is for something unrelated to shooting.

If your child’s curiosity about firearms develops into an interest in shooting sports, it will give you a terrific chance to spend time with him, enjoy watching him learn, and become a role model in his eyes. Spend as much time as you can at the very beginning to help him develop good and safe firearms handling procedures so that when you actually do go to the range and he fires his first shot, you will be a very proud parent of a responsible child. Most children who are raised in homes with firearms and are properly taught and monitored about safe firearms handling procedures grow up to be responsible citizens and good contributors to society. As a parent, you are the primary person in your child’s life who can ensure that result.