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

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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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Originally Posted by WETWRKS

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.

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This. Every kid is different.

My sons started shooting BBs and airguns at 5, 22s at 7 or 8, heavy rifles came shortly after. I held off on pistols until after 10. The boys pretty much determined when they were ready for the next level based on comfort and strength. They each got a box of AR parts at 14 to build their own rifle and understand how it works. All of this was under my watchful eye. I didn't let them go shooting on their own until around 16, I might not have been right at their elbow every time, but I was watching and making sure they were following my rules. Once they had proven to do it right even when they thought i wasn't watching, I started letting them go on their own.

My daughter is 29 and I would never let her shoot without me right there. She recently made mention of looking for a self defense weapon and I told her to get a baseball bat.

In my experience, for the average kiddo, start them early with shooting. It takes the mystery out of it. Bring stuff to destroy, watermelons and such. Let them learn how powerful firearms are. Let them learn a gun is a tool and not a magical pew pew like the movies. I didn't have a safe for a long time and never worried about the boys going into it without supervision. Recognize there are some children who should never be granted access to firearms.... like my daughter. :)

We raised our grandson (his parents are both druggie losers), and I introduced him to shooting around 10y.o. or so. First thing I showed him, before letting him shoot anything, was what real guns and real bullets will do to cans and plastic bottles full of water.

"Now, this is similar to what these will do to a human being. NEVER play with a gun around your friends, and NEVER point a gun at someone, unless you need to defend yourself."

I was impressed with how well he absorbed the seriousness of it, and then we could have some fun. We went several times, then he got too old and was BORED with Grandpa's obsession to pick up brass, and there were girls that needed his attention too, and cars, friends, etc.

But he quickly learned to respect them, I even bought him a 10/22 and a 9mm HiPoint carbine, and AFAIK he's never done anything stupid with them. They're still here, in fact, and he's living with roommates. He's also 23 now, and has joined the Navy - just waiting for his orders to ship out to basic.

I started my daughter shooting at 4 years, when she could dry fire my 686, I bought a 10-22, a brick of ammo and dropped her off with Grandpa for a week. They went shooting every day and she loved it.
We would go shooting every so often and then she went through the teenager "I hate you" stuff at which time she lost interest in shooting. I started her shooting handguns at 22 years and she has been back on board ever since. I bought her a SR22 to start training and then got her a M&P 9 2.0 which she likes a lot. My browning does not fit her and she doesn't like the weight of my 1911.
She is pretty good with it now and we have been through the Guns for everyone CCW course together, we will take it again and I will pay for her permit this year.

My son received his first bow at age four, first knife at age 5, starting shooting 22lr rifle at age 5, starting shooting 22lr pistol at age 6, and by age 8 he was shooting full power pistol, rifle, and shotgun. He's been training in martial arts since age 7. He received his first stripped AR lower at age 10, we finished it by age 13 along with his first Glock17 and his own safe, has numerous pre13 mags that I gave him before the law. When he reached 18, he trained MMA before joining the Marines. He is now a Marine. Certainly I provided him with a lot of safety training with regard to firearms, but most of his self defense and situational awareness came from all the martial arts training over the years. I would say by age 15, he was completely capable of defending himself against most adults with but mostly without a firearm. Ultimately, it comes down to the kid, his responsibility, and your relationship with the kid(do you know where the child's head is at). I was very close to my son, and knew his thought processes most of the time. I was in a split custody 50/50 situation, and his school was about 25 miles from my house. His friends from school didn't just drop by my place after school so that also played a major role in my decision to give him access because I wasn't worried about his friends. I would have been less likely to do it if other kids were in the house. I would say as far as concern goes, it was far more difficult to turn over the keys to a vehicle than giving him the code to the safe.

Start with longguns, pellet guns, bb guns, or shotguns first. Judge based on the maturity of a kid, as previously pointed out. Implement safe handling rules with a toy gun with they are young and see how they handle it. Possibly consider something like an airsoft rifle/pistol to develop their safe handling and respect for weapons first, if they are pretty young (3-6 years old). Back when my son was 3, I taught him of the dangers of a real vs toy handgun and the need to seek an adult (using an airsoft). It stuck. He remembered it over a year later. Nerf guns and water guns are for shooting people, toy guns have the same rules as real guns.

Generally keep them away from handguns, especially semi-automatic until they are much older - teenage or almost adult. The length of a rifle-style weapon provides a significant margin of safety as they develop and perfect weapon handling, and kids biologically don't have the attention span/focus that adults do. Ease of operation is important - e.g. any semi-automatic a kid often struggles with to charge, which impedes their focus on where the barrel is pointing, etc. [Except obvious stuff like a 22 rifle or something... but still, starting with bolts/breaks/etc. is often recommended]

Also it should be said - some kids the answer is "never." Note that personality disorders, clinical depression, etc. don't generally emerge until adolescence. If a kid is a little "off", error on the side of caution until they are old enough for you to figure out what kind of person they are becoming, and what issues they are going to have.