Letting kids shoot guns is good for them, says Time Magazine article

[Farley1324]

http://time.com/3211885/guns-children-firing-range-uzi/

Letting Kids Shoot Guns Is Good for Them

"Marksmanship builds concentration, confidence and trust

It’s a terrible time to say this, right after a 9-year-old girl killed her instructor with an Uzi, but shooting guns can be great for kids.

Of course, there’s shooting and there’s shooting. Handing a loaded submachine gun to a small child is patently crazy. Sadly, Charles Vacca, the instructor in Arizona, both paid for that mistake with his life and inflicted on the unnamed girl a life sentence of horror and regret. Lest anybody think that the gun-owning and gun-rights communities are defending Vacca’s judgment, rest assured that they’re not. I watch the gun blogosphere as part of my work, and even the most hard-core gunnies are appalled and infuriated.

What the shooting community worries about is that people will conflate this tragedy with proper marksmanship training for children. A lot happens in a good shooting class before a kid touches a gun. The first class often involves nothing but drilling on the rules of gun safety. When it comes time to shoot, that’s done prone, for stability, and the guns are long-barreled, single-shot .22s with minimal recoil. Kids are given one cartridge at a time, and any deviation from the rules — a muzzle moving in the wrong direction, a finger on the trigger too early — stops the whole class for more drilling. Compare that to an unschooled 9-year-old in standing position with a short-barreled, full-auto gun and a magazine holding 32 rounds of powerful, 9mm ammunition. It’s the difference between leading a child in circles on the back of a docile pony and sending her alone around a track on the back of a thoroughbred.

Shooting a rifle accurately requires children to quiet their minds. Lining up the sights on a distant target takes deep concentration. Children must slow their breathing and tune into the beat of their hearts to be able to squeeze the trigger at precisely the right moment. Holding a rifle steady takes large-motor skills, and touching the trigger correctly takes small motor skills; doing both at once engages the whole brain. Marksmanship is an exercise in a high order of body-hand-eye-mind coordination. It is as far from mindless electronic diversion as can be imagined.

Other activities build skills and concentration, too — archery, calligraphy, photography, painting — but shooting guns is in a class by itself precisely for the reason highlighted by last week’s accident: it can be deadly.

A single-shot .22, while easier to control than an Uzi, can kill you just as dead. So how can such rifles possibly be appropriate for use by children? Again, context is everything. Under proper instruction, shooting is a ritual. You do this for this reason and that for that reason, and you never, ever alter the process, because doing so is a matter of life and death. Learning to slow down and go through such essential steps can be valuable developmentally. The very danger involved gets children’s attention, as it would anybody’s. But there’s an added benefit to teaching children to shoot: it’s a gesture of respect for a group that doesn’t often get any.

Invite a child to learn how to shoot and the message is: I trust your ability to listen and learn. I trust your ability to concentrate. I welcome you into a dangerous adult activity because you are sensible and trustworthy. For young people accustomed to being constrained, belittled, ignored and told “no,” hearing an adult call them to their higher selves can be enormously empowering. Children come away from properly conducted shooting lessons as different people, taller in their shoes and more willing to tune into what adults say.

While traveling around the country talking to gun owners, I met several who told me that when their teenage sons or daughters were going “off the rails” — drinking, experimenting with drugs and getting poor grades — they started taking them shooting. The very counterintuitive nature of the invitation — giving guns to druggies? — snapped the children into focus. The chance to do something as forbidden and grownup as shooting overcame their resistance to spending time with dad or mom. The discipline and focus that marksmanship required, combined with its potential lethality, not only brought these adolescents back from self-destructive habits but deepened the bonds of trust between them and their parents.

Again, it has to be done right. You don’t buy a girl a rifle and let her keep it in her room; you keep it locked up and let her use it only under supervision. You don’t let a boy new to shooting touch a gun until he’s been well schooled in the safety rules. You don’t ever let people shoot guns they can’t handle. But when done right, marksmanship training can be just what a young mind and spirit needs."

[WnaLearnScience]

No cliffs whatsoever



And even if you did provide cliffs, I wouldn't care, cause I don't give a fuk

1 star thread

[TheDukeUSMC]

Merica.

[MA5Bergey]

I think it's stupid that we have to be 18 to get a gun license but can handle a gun at 9 years old. Especially a fully automatic one. Stories like the 9 year old girl who shot her instructor are just fuel for the fire for gun-control enthusiasts. Problem is no responsible parent should let their 9 year old handle a gun, and they're making responsible gun owners look like idiots.

[deerdiary]

[srom12]

didn't read

read first sentence about girl shooting uzi

lol'd at topic of article

[Farley1324]

I think it's stupid that we have to be 18 to get a gun license

I agree.

The entire premise behind requiring a "gun license" is absurd.

[winjones]

Shooting a rifle accurately requires children to quiet their minds. Lining up the sights on a distant target takes deep concentration. Children must slow their breathing and tune into the beat of their hearts to be able to squeeze the trigger at precisely the right moment. Holding a rifle steady takes large-motor skills, and touching the trigger correctly takes small motor skills; doing both at once engages the whole brain. Marksmanship is an exercise in a high order of body-hand-eye-mind coordination. It is as far from mindless electronic diversion as can be imagined.

I have nothing against guns but I'd rather get my kid into serious weight training... it has all the same benefits.

[Highwind7]

not surprised that sad affair happened though. most women can't hold a gun if it meant saving their life, what difference does it make if a 9 year old girl does

on the other hand, I wish they'd make obligatory survival camp or something so people can look after themself. we live in a society which pats you on the back for doing absolutely nothing just so you don't feel left out.

[Farley1324]

I have nothing against guns but I'd rather get my kid into serious weight training... it has all the same benefits.

Why is it one or the other?

[Evac33]

I agree OP, Rifle are a lot easier and less dangerous for kids, only 1 carefully aimed shot not crazy spray with compounding recoil. But still, there should be a minimum age where you can put something like that in their hand, when kids are 5-8 they don't understand smallest fraction of the scope and finality of life and death or the ability to inflict that on someone with a gun.

A good example of appreciating death was when my sister was 6 or 7 I was 9, we were shooting the pellet gun at popcans on the fence, later that got boring and she shot at a bird, well she actually hit it and killed it. She cried, felt terrible and wished for it to come back to life.

[Farley1324]

I Problem is no responsible parent should let their 9 year old handle a gun

Why are you gracing us with your ignorant uneducated inexperienced opinion without even reading the article?

[jimbob007]

Toy guns of course-we all played with them as kids. Live guns that kill people no.

[Farley1324]

Toy guns of course-we all played with them as kids. Live guns that kill people no.

What firearms experience do you have?

[Sakeoe]

"OPINION"

ok OP.

[Farley1324]

"OPINION"

ok OP.

Tell us about your firearms experience, particularly any experience with youth handling and shooting firearms.

[Aesthetical]

Read the article and still dont believe that a 9yr old has enough responsibility to handle a gun.

They dont even have enough responsibility to do their homework let alone handle a firearm.

[Farley1324]

Read the article and still dont believe that a 9yr old has enough responsibility to handle a gun.

They dont even have enough responsibility to do their homework let alone handle a firearm.

What relevant experience do you have? Tell us about it. On what do you base your opinion?

[jason_bh]

I think it's stupid that we have to be 18 to get a gun license but can handle a gun at 9 years old. Especially a fully automatic one. Stories like the 9 year old girl who shot her instructor are just fuel for the fire for gun-control enthusiasts. Problem is no responsible parent should let their 9 year old handle a gun, and they're making responsible gun owners look like idiots.

Know how I know that you didn't read the article?

[Reef58]

Farley, I am all for kids learning to shoot, but this appears to be an opinion piece and I did not see references to any research. Although I agree with the premise of the article it is what it is.

[jason_bh]

Read the article and still dont believe that a 9yr old has enough responsibility to handle a gun.

They dont even have enough responsibility to do their homework let alone handle a firearm.

When mine were younger than 9 they had no problems handling my firearms. I instructed them the whole way and even held onto the gun with them until I was comfortable.

So go on and tell us more about your experience with children and firearms.

Having a child handle a full auto SMG is a stupid idea.

[Farley1324]

Farley, I am all for kids learning to shoot, but this appears to be an opinion piece and I did not see references to any research. Although I agree with the premise of the article it is what it is.

What kind of 'research' do you have mind?

[Sakeoe]

Tell us about your firearms experience, particularly any experience with youth handling and shooting firearms.

Tell us about Dan Baum's firearms experience, particularly any experience with youth handling and shooting firearms. Also tell us about his qualifications as a scientist and his peer reviewed research to make this broad statement.

[AnonyMiscD]

[Reef58]

What kind of 'research' do you have mind?

Well teaching kids to shoot and observing the effects on their concentration self esteem ECT. Like I said I don't disagree with the notion, and I taught my daughter how to shoot, but it is not a peer reviewed study. It is an opinion

[Farley1324]

Tell us about Dan Baum's firearms experience, particularly any experience with youth handling and shooting firearms.

Perhaps there was some confusion, let me set the record straight: I am not Dan Baum

I do however have plenty of experience with handling and shooting firearms and instructing youth in handling and shooting firearms.

Do you?

[kingpiccolo]

Perhaps there was some confusion, let me set the record straight: I am not Dan Baum

I do however have plenty of experience with handling and shooting firearms and instructing youth in handling and shooting firearms.

Do you?

stop being a ******* just because people don't agree with you

[Farley1324]

Well teaching kids to shoot and observing the effects on their concentration self esteem ECT. Like I said I don't disagree with the notion, and I taught my daughter how to shoot, but it is not a peer reviewed study. It is an opinion

How would you conduct a "peer reviewed study" of this?

How do you quantify concentration?

Should we simply not discuss this topic at all because there is no "peer reviewed study" in existence?

[Farley1324]

stop being a ******* just because people don't agree with you

Do you have an opinion or relevant experience on this topic you can share with us?

[KingMisc]

that kid doesn't look 13