The first experience with firearms is virtual. If you don't have Call of Duty, his freind does.

This is starting to sound like back when they targeted smoking ads at kids. Except when kids smoked, it took decades and decades to kill, and even then only killed those that smoked.

@ 2 beat me to it. I thought of cigarettes immediately, too.

I remember hearing some stat decades ago - people who didn't start smoking by age 21 virtually never picked up the habit. I wonder if the gun industry has found a similar correlation (are most adult gun owners people who got into guns as adolescents)?

My old grandad "recruited" me into the nefarious world of guns at the tender age of 10 with a single-shot .22 rifle. He also indoctrinated me in the rules of safe handling and taught me to respect firearms. Too bad more kids today don't get that experience.

Matt, @4's story closely resembles mine (except that I was even younger), so yeah, I'd say that most responsible gun owners start out pretty early.

Yes, there is a brand new archery range on Bainbridge at The Sportsman Club in response to a huge interest sparked by the Hunger Games books/movies and the movie Brave (mostly younger girls, I think) but I really doubt many of those kids will be shifting down a few yards to the shooting range.....

I learned to shoot back in the boy scouts. I guess it didn't take. Most of the people I've known to be gun enthusiasts started in college while dealing drugs. Maybe they should start marketing to drug dealers.

They're pissing in the wind. It's the same fundamental demographic shift that is pulling every other sector of America, slowly, slowly, into the 21st century.

I'm with @7 and @9. Like NOM, they'll throw money at trying to stave off the inevitable, but there's a real disconnect between our kids' love of violent play and actual violence. They're chasing an illusion by trying to turn it into weapon sales.

As a kid there was very little play that did not involve all us Cap Hill rugrats gathering what toy guns some of us were allowed (not me!) together with pistol-shaped sticks and spending all day every day murdering each other.

Later I spent much Camp Orkila time earning rifle range marksmanship patches, and have always indulged heavily in every sort of shoot-em video game.

Yet when it comes to real violence in the real world, the one fight I was in was unarmed, and she kicked my ass right there on the Stevens Elementary playground during recess. Twice. Nothing since.

@9, Gus, you're wrong. You have no idea of the size of this beast. And don't be so sure you want to wake it up.

My introduction to guns (from my father, who came from a huntin'/fishin' family and had been on his ROTC rifle team) came at about age 6 when he handed me a cap gun that he'd found while out hiking. His instructions were, "Have fun. And if I ever see or hear of you pointing this at a human being, you'll never see it again and you'll get my belt across your backside." (This was not an idle threat; Dad didn't spank often, and if he did he normally delivered one or two swats with his hand - which was big enough that you could drop a quarter through his wedding ring. The fact that he considered a belt as worse should clue you in.)

Future training continued along the same lines, though with modification in punishment vs. reward. At about age 10, Dad let me handle the rifle he was cleaning and checking for a weekend hunting trip; when I briefly took my eyes off of where the muzzle was pointing, I was instantly relieved of it with an annoyed (and sad) "Maybe next year." I got my first BB gun at age 11, and was shooting .22s and others (NOT black rifles) at age 12 or 13.

By me, this is not a bad way (or age) to deal with gun protocols. It is a fact of Western culture (and Western-influenced culture - Japan is one of the most gun-fetishist countries I've seen despite their highly restrictive firearms laws) that kids want to point something and shout 'Bang!'. Better that we teach safety and ethics from early days.

(And this is NOT an argument for the NRA position. I've never joined them, and my Dad has now joined and resigned twice over the years due to their insanity. But if guns are going to remain part of our culture - and they are - education and training are paramount.)

As kids we used to play bb-gun tag: It was exactly like tag, but the seeker had a bb-gun and instead of tagging you, he'd shoot you. (It was terrifying when hyperactive Jed was "it," as he proudly violated the one-pump rule.)

As fun as that was - and being "it" was truly a blast - I still have no desire to own a real gun, so I'm not sure their theory holds up.

And really, who cares that the percentage of gun owners is declining? The "Obama's gonna take your guns" tactic is working pretty well to make the gullible base feel like they need to own an arsenal.

@11

Well, wake up, beast! Wake up. What are you waiting for?

A black president? National health care? Gays serving openly? Gay marriage? Oh, oh, oh, wait. The gun beast is a whole other beast, right? This sleeping giant is way more fearsome. Those other sleeping giants were just bluffs.

No bluffing here. It's real. Really. Boo! Scary!

@11, c'mon, it's not akin to any sort of "beast", it's more like the typewriter industry. They can burn all the reserves they want paying Madison Avenue for campaign ideas to slow the losses. But Smith & Wesson is going the way of Smith-Corona.

@14 thank you for your daily dose of reason, sanity, and douchebag-deflatery.

For everyone else, my upbringing mirrors most of what's been said. Dad was a subsistence hunter (i.e. he grew up very poor, and what you hunted you ate, because you were on the verge of starving). I learned about not pointing guns at stuff one didn't plan on shooting. I learned about checking the chamber. I was a pretty okay shot when I was a kid (20-gauge, 12-gauge, .22, .270, .38, .357). I have all my dad's guns now plus a few of my own.

Never been hunting myself, no interest. Hardly ever go to the range. Agree completely with restricting gun ownership, limits on ammunition bulk purchases (and a registry, a la cold medicine), and eliminating the gun show loophole. Reasonable, common-sense measures that will help reduce the risk inherent with owning guns.

There is no "sleeping beast", it's just one dingbat attempting to whip up fear. The rest of us sane folks have a better grasp of the problem, and what the solutions are.

Frankly I would rather more people know about using a gun properly and safely. I'm not really worried about the threat of target shooters and collectors.

Conservatives love to say that there are other high gun ownership counties with low gun deaths, but they ignore the fact that all those countries also have high rates of gun training. Usually through military service.

If we are going to have this many guns we might as well learn to use them safely.

Kids should learn to hurl projectiles like I did back in the old day.

Find the concrete they dumped at the empty lot, break off some rubble and hit it with an aluminum bat.

Builds character.

The NRA published their "enemy list".
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/…

@14: It's a sad paradox,but it explains much of the NRA's lunacy over the past couple of decades:

A well-made gun (whether rifle, shotgun or handgun) will last one or more lifetimes in the hands of a responsible buyer who knows how (and takes the time) to clean and maintain it properly...and that's not difficult.

So how do you sell him ANOTHER one? With the average hunter and/or shooter, you can get a bit of mileage from new and improved calibers and designs (and in fairness some of those have been worthwhile)...but over the years it seems the favored tactics have been A) macho bullshit and B) paranoia (whether against the Govt. (sic) or whatever ethnic group you fear most.)

@16

Your situation pretty much mirrors mine. My grandfather indoctrinated me to firearms on his homestead in Alaska when I was five. Our nearest neighbors were miles away and the nearest law was hundreds of miles away.

There were no cellphones or satellite phones and there was no law. Funny thing is that we never had any trouble. Everyone up there was in the same boat and you were just happy to see another human... but everybody had guns.

These days I'm vilified on these threads by what I previously thought were open-minded, thoughtful people. Now I know they're just as batshit crazy as right-wing zealots.

I carry a gun for my work, which is required, but haven't carried one off duty for 25 years.

Because I choose to challenge my fellow liberals of their folly of feel-good gun control, I get to take a ton of shit here, without anybody seeing the irony of their narrow minded convictions.

It's been a learning experience. I've looked down my noise with superiority for years at republicans, but have found nothing but the same here when I have a dissenting opinion.

In that regard, the SLOG is no different an echo chamber than Fox & Friends.

Edit:

Noise = nose
Although looking down my noise at someone is probably a more accurate description, for both myself and many gun control commenters on the SLOG.

My point stands.

CPN, I don't think the rabid kooks here are even all that typical a representation of Seattle, far less the rest of the country. Don't let it bother you too much. You've been one of the few voices of reason and sanity here, and I appreciate it.

It is kind of disconcerting to discover how irrational some of your fellow liberals are, though, I agree with you there. They're no better than Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and all the other brain-dead right-wingers.

That's so cute that 5280 thinks he's the "Voice of Reason".

Meanwhile in the rest of the world, gun nuts heckle one of the parents of a child killed in the Newtown massacre.

Way to go, gun nuts. Way to go.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20…

“Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a Bushmaster AR-15 under your tree some frosty Christmas morning!”

@24, well, at least I know the difference between reality and living in a fantasy world, so yeah, "reasonable" may be an appropriate choice of words. You people are just fucking dingbats.

Oh, and as for that "heckled" thing, it was a public hearing. Have you ever been to one. (Didn't think so.) That sort of thing happens all the time. Once again, it's called "reality."

Maybe you ought to put the bong down for a while.

@26

"I know the difference between reality and living in a fantasy world"...

...And? ...And? What was your cue to tell everyone about the race problem.