When did you (if you did) learn how to use a firearm? How were you taught safety and maintenance?

42 comments

1. For me it was from my dad around 9 years old. Then after that I went to a summer camp where you could do riflery. I didn’t learn maintenance at the camp just safety and technique. I learned caring for a firearm from my dad.

2. From my dad around 9 or 10.

3. Camp when I was 10 or 11, they used rifles. It was an elective class among the many other classes at the camp.

4. Marines when I was 17

5. Most of dad’s side of the family were/are law enforcement, my grandpa (who I spent at least a day with every week) was a US Marshal.

   He taught me muzzle/trigger discipline and how to do a brass check on a nerf gun when I was like 6. The fundamentals and importance of Safety and maintenance were pretty much drilled into me by the time I owned a bb gun (like 10). His lessons are still the reason I don’t really trust anything without an external hammer.

   At 11 the boyscouts taught me marksmanship and the finer points of rifle maintenance.

   My family never had a gun in the home growing up, guns weren’t something we talked about or were “involved with”. Even my uncle, who was head of his SWAT team, talked about guns about as much as he talked about Sonogram equipment. Still, everybody was proficient in firearms. Same way my friend’s family can all play an instrument or two.

6. Nobody really taught me that stuff. I had just to learn myself and observe through media. There were also sometimes I took it into my own hands literally.

7. Hunters safety course when I was 12.

8. My parents taught me when I was young but it probably could have been better. Around me early 20s and when I was in the Air Force my buddies were into guns so I eventually did as well. They were extremely competent with handling them safely so I guess I was more refined with what I knew then.

9. I was taught by my dad sometime when I was in boy scouts. He had some small rifle and a shotgun. Was never taught maintenance, which isn’t an issue because I’ll never own a gun.

   I think I only saw his guns twice. He recently sold one of those guns. Offered to give it to me first, but I declined.

10. I first went shooting at 5 and got my first rifle at 7. I learned from my family and family friends.

11. Got a decently long introduction to the M9 pistol from an Army instructor on an Army base at around 13 as part of a camp an organization I was with did.

    Other than that it’s mostly been the internet.

    ————

    Edit: I’ll add I’m pretty sure it was an army base, and the instructors were definitely Army or National Guard, but I can’t swear to it I guess. It was a pretty long bus ride somewhere in south or central Georgia

12. Dad taught me when I was 7 with a .22 Winmag. Then had a hunter’s safety course at 12.

13. Boy Scout camp when I was like 12.

14. My grandpa taught me some basics with a .22 rifle when I was 6. As I recall this did not please my parents…

    I took a hunters safety course later and that did a bit more. Read some on my own. I tried hunting, but found I didn’t care for it. Don’t have the stomach for it…yeah, I’m a meat-eating hypocrite. I know.

    I find guns interesting and totally get the appeal of target shooting, but I am turned off significantly by large portions of the “community.”

15. Boy scouts around 12 to 13

16. Boy scout camp in 1966. They provided the 22 caliber rifles, you were allowed to bring up to 200 bullets( 4 boxes of 50 each) in your gear to store in your tent. Jiffy pop popcorn, candles, matches and bullets with a week away from parents. It was a 10 year olds dream vacation

17. When I was seven. I grew up in a family of hunters.

18. Young my grandfather taught me starting with a BB gun as a kid.

    We’re a fairly rural area and it was just something the vast majority of us learned.

19. When I was 8 I got a Red Ryder BB gun, no I didn’t shoot my eye out. I learned the basics of gun safety, ie never point it at anything you don’t intend to shoot, treat every gun as if it’s loaded, etc before then as my dad had several guns in the house. I got my first .22 when I was 10.

20. When I was 5 my dad taught me how to shoot and gun safety. I got a state hunting permit when I was 8.

21. Boy Scout camp when I was 12. They had two ranges, one had .22 rifles and the other had 12 gauge shotguns and you shot clay pigeons.

22. My dad taught me the basics with his 30-30 when I was 6 and we started hunting. Army taught me the rest at 18.

23. Basics from my parents first time they let me use one. More in depth in hunter’s safety at 13 or 14.

24. At some point in my teens. Safety and maintenance are so simple and straightforward. Being “taught” the four fundamental rules takes seconds, and if you follow them – you’re good. No rocket science involved.

25. I took a gun/hunters safety class when I was 11 before I was even allowed to touch a gun. (I’ve actually still got the safety qualification on the back of my license)

    I believe that is the only way to do it, you need a driver’s license to drive a car you should need a gun safety course to shoot a gun.

26. In my late 20s. Probably 27 or 28? My boyfriend went over basic safety before bringing out his unloaded guns for me to see/hold (I had never seen a gun in real life before). Awhile later he took me shooting and went over safety again before going in to the range. I don’t know maintenance, I’ve watched him clean his guns and he explained what he was doing, but I don’t know it well enough to do it on my own. I’d learn if I ever got my own gun, but I doubt I ever will

27. Shooting with a friend and his dad when I was 9.

28. Growing up in Eastern Kentucky being around guns was just kinda normal. As a kid you were taught not to play with or touch real guns. And I never did even though they were never locked up and I could have if I wanted to. It was pretty much the same in everyone’s house.

    As for learning to shoot and such, that started around age 7 or so. My grandfather taught me on a .22 rifle. He taught me everything. Marksmanship, safety, maintenance, everything.

    I started going hunting with my grandfather around 8 years old. The first year I just went with him, I didn’t actually have a gun or take any shots. Starting at 9 years old I would be able to take a gun and take some shots when hunting smaller game (rabbits, squirrels, ducks, etc). At 10 I got my first turkey and 11 my first deer.

    I got my first firearm of my very own at 12. Two actually. A youth model 20 gauge shotgun and a .22 rifle.

    When I was 18 and about to move to college my grandfather bought me a Mossberg 500 shotgun setup in a home defense configuration. I think that was his way of making sure I would be safe. To make sure I had something for home defense if I needed it.

    To clarify, I wasn’t going to be living on campus, I was living off campus in a private apartment with a friend so having it with me wasn’t an issue.

    I don’t have any kids of my own (and don’t plan to) but I’ve taught countless adult friends and family members on my wife’s side marksmanship, safety and maintenance. I’ve also taught 5 of their kids so far and taken one of those kids on a deer hunt with me. So I do what I can to pass it forward.

29. Dad taught me when i was about 8

30. BB gun when I was 10, shotgun when I was 14. My whole family hunted so we all learned at a young age.

31. initially, Uncle’s place in Missouri when I was like 12. Some time in University, I signed up for an NRA pistol shooting course in advance of buying my own.

32. As a young teen in Boy Scouts. Rifles anyway, not shotguns or hand guns that I recall.

    They ran you through the whole rigmarole. Safety, cleaning, aiming at various positions at the target range, etc. They did bow/arrow training and practice there also.

    It was pretty cool looking back, although I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Just something we did alongside canoeing, backpacking, fishing, woodcraft, camp fires events, etc. I didn’t really have too much interest, but it has served me well in times where I find myself firing a weapon.

33. I don’t recall exactly how old, but probably around 5-6 with my grandpa. He had a 20 gauge he would let us shoot. Most like pull the trigger while he held it.

    My grandpa died when I was 7. I learned more handling, safety, and operation of firearms from my dad though.

34. Started shooting .22’s with my father when I was 8. Before we (my brother and I) were allowed to shoot we had to be able to recite from memory the 4 primary gun safety rules. Dad showed us everything about how to field strip rifles/handguns and clean them after a day of shooting. He showed us the gun safe and reminded us that only HE had keys to it. We absolutely knew what the consequences would be if we ever tried to access that gun safe without permission and we followed his rules to the letter.

35. I learned myself as an adult. After a high-profile mass shooting, I wanted to understand opposition to gun control, so I started researching guns and firearms. Being a mechanical person in general, I started getting interested and bought one. I now own several.

36. I was… 5 or 6? Got to learn to use small caliber rifles, like a chipmunk .22. My father was big on hunting and target shooting and wanted me and my brother familiar with firearms from an early age. A big part of that was making sure we didn’t view guns as toys or forbidden items, but as tools to be respected. The fundamental rules and habits of gun safety were drilled into us early and often.

    I also got put into hunters safety courses at age 9 so I could go hunting.

37. I grew up with it my entire life. I’m not sure exactly how old I was the first time I actually shot a gun, but I was very young. Safety started before I can even consciously remember, and maintenance under supervision around 8 years old.

38. I got the basics from my dad as we have firearms in the house. I was probably around 11.

    I had actual instruction on this in high school. We had an air soft shooting range in the school in the jrotc area and a competitive shooting team which I was on.

39. From my dad as a kid. We’d go shooting every Saturday morning, and clean the guns afterward. I still think of those days every time I smell 3-in-1 oil. Later, when I was around 12, took a more formal firearms safety class at the VFW.

40. I was in my 20s. My mom was militantly anti-gun when I was a kid, despite living in a rural area where nearly all of my friends and family owned guns. I’d always been curious and decided to take a beginner class to learn to shoot. I’m a big fan and own several guns now.

41. Dad took me to a shooting range when i was 9 or 10, been long enough since then that i had to relearn everything

42. My father taught me. I was hunting with him from a young age. First squirrels and doves, then deer and turkeys. For handguns, that came later through class instruction.