What age do you train your kids and allow them access to lethal home defense weaponry?

Wait until some other person calls safe2tell and anonymously reports your teen left school to commit suicide. Changed my mind a bit on what was at home and accessible. Thankfully it was a false report. It still caused a ton of issues though.

Most things are locked up when I'm not home. Home alarm system can text me when certain things are opened. At least I know, but doesn't mean I'm able to do much bout it from work though.

Kids were taught safe handling while young, 6 or 8. Hunter safety a few years later helped too.

One option is to leave something available, but they don't know it. If they call with an emergency need, tell them where to find it. Or how to open quick safe etc.






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It isn't an age thing...it is a maturity thing. When is a child mature enough to handle being taught to shoot. That all depends on the individual child.

I was shooting at about 6 or 7. Shot my first 12 gauge at 9.

There are adults that I don't allow to handle a firearm that I have personally cleared as they cannot be trusted with even an empty firearm.

Take the child to a range. Shoot with them. Buy them books on firearms safety.Take them hunting small game. Have them take the Hunter Safety education course. ad infinitum...

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Originally Posted by BushMasterBoy

Take the child to a range. Shoot with them. Buy them books on firearms safety.Take them hunting small game. Have them take the Hunter Safety education course. ad infinitum...

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I agree with all the above for general shooting, but when do you jump from that to defense?

There is a big logic disconnect going from what's taught in the target/plinking/hunting regeime to the self-defense and defense of others regieme.

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Originally Posted by .455_Hunter

There is a total different REALM between taking junior out to shoot some pop cans and giving them training/access to weapons for.defense.

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If you are talking about gearing up and hunting bad guys, you are correct.

If you are talking about a bad guy kicking at your door, which you talked about in your first post, then I see less of a difference.

When there is a fire, you have steps to take. Close your door. Open your window, leave the house.

When there is a bad guy, you have steps to take. No need for camo vests and room clearing drills. Call 911, get Dad's gun and hide in the room farthest from the threat.

If you are concerned enough about societal collapse that you think your children need training in military or police type tactics, you need to get out of the city (which it looks like you have) and build that compound!

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Originally Posted by .455_Hunter

I agree with all the above for general shooting, but when do you jump from that to defense?

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Only when they are willing to learn. Some may never be.

It's Christmas. Show them Diehard. Good ole John McClane. He knew guns and did his best to protect his family.

I gave our daughter her AR @ age 14.

To label it lethal home defense weaponry, is (imo) a misconception . We look at any firearm as a self preservation tool.

It's never intended to be lethal, merely a tool to stop a threat. Just as is anything when used correctly, an assault weapon.

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Originally Posted by .455_Hunter

but when do you jump from that to defense?.

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When they are ready for that you will know it. Most children that use a firearm in self defense have never had self defense training. There is the inherent survival instinct. It is probably 1000x more powerful than any self defense training.

I would re-examine it when they are a teenager. They may be ready then. I wouldn't consider it before then and even then I would look hard at the subject and as I read in a book...dread wisely.

My Oldest (10) wasn't even ready to shoot a BB gun until recently. However she has been taught gun safety since she started talking and has always followed the rules religiously. She'll even notify me when the Little (2) gets into the toy guns. But she's just not interested in shooting. And a lack of interest can lead to lack of attention. So her time spent actually shooting is limited.

The Middle (5) has always been more interested and has more focus and attention to detail. She got a BB gun for Christmas. She isn't strong enough to cycle the lever and the trigger is heavy for her. That didn't stop her from chastising me for messing up her sight picture when I was helping her pull the trigger on Christmas day. She nailed that Coke can 1st shot. She's gone to the range with me before but didn't express any interest in herself shooting until the last couple months.

I know this doesn't get to the answer regarding what age for self defense. But the point is, age doesn't have much to do with it. It's ability, maturity, etc. All kids are going to be ready at different ages.

But discussing plans of action is always a good thing. Both my Oldest and Middle have a plan and tasks to follow in case of bad guy, including gathering the Little, calling 911, locking doors, hiding, etc. The Middle has done a few lockdown drills at school so she's big on planning different scenarios and running through them at home right now. Might seem kinda odd for a 5 year old, but she's at ease knowing she has a plan.

When practicing lockdown at school during gym, she asked her teacher what they should do if they locked down in the locker room only to discover the bad guy was hiding in a locker. (Quite the imagination). Her teacher answered that if the bad guy gets locked in the room with them, then they will ALL need to fight the bad guy. That could be scary for a kindergartner, but it put her at ease knowing she wouldn't just be a sitting duck. If she continues to show that sort of maturity, she could very well learn armed self defense at an earlier age than my Oldest.

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Originally Posted by eddiememphis

We always knew where the guns were and that we weren't allow to touch them except in an emergency.

I say, the sooner the better. Kids exposed to firearms early won't have to have any biases broken.

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Originally Posted by RblDiver

I plan on introducing the girl to the guns in a "I will gladly show you them whenever you want, but you must not touch them on your own" sort of way, then when she's a bit older teaching her how to shoot.

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Originally Posted by bczandm

I think it really depends on the child. There are many adults my age (58) that I wouldn't want to know where my firearm is stored in the house. I also know many teenagers that likely could be trusted. "Access" requires thoughtfulness, maturity and the ability to logically and quickly make decisions. In my opinion you really need to evaluate each child individually and make a decision based upon their individual "worthiness".

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Great comments. This is much like how I was raised around firearms and how I raised my kids with them.

Some of my earliest memories are of my dad taking me shooting. He had to help me hold the firearm for a long time. I learned from these trips how they operated. It taught me how much damage they could do to the targets (often times we had cans set up on fence posts). This made it clear what damage they could do to a person.

Through what my dad did it took away my curiosity of firearms and how to respect them and the potential damage they could cause. It taught me that if I ever wanted to handle them, I could do so - only under the supervision of my dad; otherwise, they were off limits. But, I knew where they were and if needed (when I got a bit older), I knew how to use them to protect myself. We were never to tell our friends about them and if we found ourselves in someone elses home where a friend wanted to show us the guns in their home we were to immediately leave the home.

Kids are very curious creatures. If you have something around that they find but know nothing about they will investigate. This can result in very bad things happening. By removing the curiosity factor you help make everyone safer.

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Originally Posted by TEAMRICO

Trained my son to use an AR both stationary and on the move at age 8. Handgun training around 10 and he knows the rules of engagement for accessing the revolver when we are out. He is 15 now and is my assistant when I teach scouts for the rifle and shotgun merit badges.
They need to learn at the youngest age possible.

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Rico was kind enough to serve as RSO/Range Master for a shooting event I had a few years back for my military unit. Sadly, most of those folks had only handled firearms during their BMTS/OTS/Academy time. I have never in my experience had anyone so professional, so powerful and so safety conscious performing RSO/Range Master as Rico. We were very blessed to have him. My point is his focus on safety is unparalleled. If this is how he handles the issue with firearms and his children, you know it's well considered for safety.

As bczadm said though, every child and every situation is different. Only you as a parent will know if your kids are ready for the responsibility. But remember, if they don't learn about firearms from you they may find their curiosity overwhelming them or they may be checking out their friends dad's guns without supervision. That rarely ends well for anyone.