Being a parent of a small child and a firearms owner, I came up with a way to introduce her to the idea of firearms safety through play, and wanted to share it here in case it may be of some benefit to other parents out there. I used Nerf guns as a means of both ingraining safety while simultaneously getting her ready early for hitting the range once she's old enough. We went over the four rules of gun safety, and I set up some plastic cups at different stations in a makeshift range. We treated it like a real hot range with "safe" directions the Nerf guns could be pointed, and eye protection. She got to practice sight picture, sight alignment, and transitioning between targets. Whenever she did anything that would be unsafe with a real gun (turning around and flagging me, bracing the muzzle against her own leg to load, etc) I'd call her out on it. It's turned into a fun game that she sets up on her own sometimes now. She's gotten good about being safe with a toy gun, even called me out for pointing a Nerf gun at the TV. I keep my real firearms secured; but now I feel much better that if, God forbid, I ever accidentally left one out her first instinct wouldn't be to point it at someone or put her finger on the trigger.
If you want to try this at your home, all you need is some cups, some space, a dart gun, and safety glasses. Young children can get used to not pointing a toy gun at someone, trigger discipline, and paying attention to their surroundings.
This is beautiful! :bow: Almost makes me wish my kids were young enough to go back and teach them this way!
Almost ;)
Thanks! And sorry, I saw your post about using Imgur after I uploaded this.
Quote from: Caife Trean on October 07, 2021, 03:21:58 PM
Thanks! And sorry, I saw your post about using Imgur after I uploaded this.
meh. It's all good. Next time ;)
Very cool, these days go extremely fast.â˜¹ï¸ Enjoy them!
I like it!
Other young children firearm training techniques:
* When they read a comic book or graphic novel, any time there are guns in them they have to tell me if
safe gun handling was used. Fingers are always on triggers in drawings.
* My kids can run around with nerf guns, but their fingers have to be off the triggers until their sights are on
the target.
* For muzzle control, I hand out bananas and have a group of kids try and walk around the room without flagging people with their
banana. If you are going to sweep someone, better swing that banana up into the air first, then complete your turn. If it goes well, we can proceed to BB guns.
* If it looks real, treat it as real. This means no airsoft guns for us. They can have fun with nerf and shooting friends, but realistic stuff isn't allowed, because
they've moved onto firearms and need to practice safety full time. Here is an airsoft pistol example: https://www.airsoftmegastore.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=38800