I get a little fired up about this subject... so I apologize for sounding brash before.

I guess I come from a different background from most people. I played with toy guns, and then moved up to a BB gun when I was 8. I was in hunter's safety class as soon as I could, and was hunting by myself at 12. I have always had respect for guns and the sportsmanship of what they were meant to be used for.

And I have done a lot of stupid things in my childhood/teenage years, but none of them ever involved anything more than paintball guns because of this respect. I guess I also shot a golf ball with my BB gun once and had it richochet back at my leg...

My children will be raised the same way.

Now, on the other hand, if my dad had a bunch of hunting guns laying around (which he did) and I was never involved with them, I would probably have been a lot more curious and probably would have handled them when nobody was around.