5 year old finds sawed off shotgun in a wrapped up Army jacket...

[FTLOSM]

The thread title is true and the boy (GULP) was ME!

I was 5 and playing outside, our house was at the end of the block next to a restaurant, and their back lot and alley were visible from our driveway and side yard.

I was playing with my sister (4 yrs older than me) and saw a car drive up behind the restaurant, the car door opened and the guy laid something on the ground wrapped in a green jacket, this is the kicker he looked RIGHT at me as he laid it down (wow what a freakin' JERK now that I am an adult and relive it).

He left and I would say it was about 10-15 mins later out of curiosity I went over to check it out, wrapped in the jacket was a sawed off shotgun, loaded and ready to go! As a 5 yr old who played with lots of play guns yet never had any experience about REAL guns and what they could do damage wise. My first impulse was to chase my sister with it, (NO NO NO - I know now but at age 5, well I was dumb).

Lucky for me the trigger was way too heavy for me to pull, altho I never did have my sister in the sights, that darn thing was heavy! I took it in to ask my mom if she could fix my gun and within 5 mins the yard was full of police and I was being asked a million questions by my mom and the police about the man the car etc.

Never did find out anything more about the incident, SO very glad I could not pull that trigger, and I really HOPE kids are more educated than I was 37 years ago when I found that wrapped up gun in a jacket.

I have two kids and am buying my first handgun soon, ironically I already own a big safe here at home and will encourage my daughters (10 and 2 currently) to learn about firearms safety (most importantly to not touch them and tell an adult and so much more).

The issues of safety, storage, education and training are all HIGH on my list as that incident years ago is still clear as day for me, I am not even sure if they offered those kinds of things to kids in schools or anything but I sure do HOPE more schools and places DO consider having safety classes for kids.

Bill

[JustInCase]

:shocked:

[jrak123]

As a child I was never around firearms, my parents weren't against them, then just never owned them. I guess my dad dealt with them enough after 38 months in Vietnam. When I proudly followed in his footsteps and joined the Army, I was finally introduced to firearms, having only fired a .22 in 6th grade camp at this point. I learned that guns are good and people are for the most part stupid.

Fast forward a bit, now I have a 10 year old daughter, I am out of the military and one morning I open the safe and begin cleaning my guns. My daughter wakes up and sees what I am doing, I saw her curiosity. I thought to myself, ah hell I better hurry up and put these away. Then I decided, well everything is field stripped, cleaned and unloaded... the ammo is upstairs. So I decided to teach my 10 year old about guns right then and there. I let her pick them up, look down the sights, pull the trigger. I went over how to check the action. I explained that guns are good and are a specialized "tool" and not to be played with. I explained that I wanted to show her this stuff to remove curiosity from her. That is one day she was to come across a gun she wouldn't be curious anymore and wouldn't be tempted to "play" with it. Then I promised her that when she got older I would take her to the range and teach her to shoot.

Well my daughter will be 16 in a couple of months and now that I am back into firearms ownership, we go to the range once every couple of months to blast a few shots off. She is a hell of a shot and enjoys shooting everything from my 9mm, the .38 revolver up to my .45 bersa. Kinda makes me proud to see my kid pick up a gun, check the action, plop a magazine in, chamber a round and then proceed to put 10 shots into the chest of a target at 25ft.

What makes it even better, is that it's not me dragging her to the range, it is her asking.... dad, can we go to the range this weekend? I love my kid!

So with that said, gun education is extremely important for kids if there are going to be firearms around. A lot of my left wing friends think that all kids need to know about guns is "they are bad and you shouldn't touch them" This very attitude is what encourages accidents with kids and guns. I am happy to say that I have convinced one of my left wing bleeding heart single mom friend to consider a firearm for home protection. She was dead against it at first, but after I explained safety and education of guns with kids, She began to understand the importance.

[7.62 Nato]

I am happy to say that I have convinced one of my left wing bleeding heart single mom friend to consider a firearm for home protection. She was dead against it at first, but after I explained safety and education of guns with kids, She began to understand the importance.

Why not have your daughter invite her to one of your range sessions ?

[jrak123]

Why not have your daughter invite her to one of your range sessions ?
That's that plan, but not unitl after the holidays, been a bit busy for everyone but me... I'm off til the 4th

[langenc]

Why not have your daughter invite her to one of your range sessions ?


She could alos invite some of her school friends. That could get sticky considering the other parents mind set..

[ArmedinGB]

What makes it even better, is that it's not me dragging her to the range, it is her asking.... dad, can we go to the range this weekend? I love my kid!



My daughter just turned 14 and she has me take her to the range the first Saturday of the month. Guess where she had her 14th birthday party.:pistols:

[tdbrown1969]

I have a friend who was married to a lady that had a son from a previous marriage.When his mom and stepdad divorced he continued to come to the church I am a member at.He knows enough about me to know I carry a pistol and own several firearms.Finally last summer I ask him if he wanted to go shooting at my parents house.After clearing it with the people from church who he is staying with thier 4 kids ask if they could come along.What started as me asking one kid to go shooting turned into 9 kids total(ages 14-17) and 2 parents and 2 grandparents.We started with a 22lr pistol and rifle and ended with a Mosin 91/30 and my Mossberg shotgun.It was a great time to educate the kids about firearm saftey.The parents tried to pay me some money for ammo but I refused it.I walked away from the whole situation feeling very blessed to be able to show kids how to safely handle a fiream and shoot.It was the talk of the church for quite awhile and led to the pastor asking me to CC during church services.It is our duty as responsible firearm owners to educate our own kids but also(IMO) those kids who may cross our paths who have parents who are open to you taking the time to show thier kid firearm saftey.Chances are before your done you will have a half dozen kids/parents who want to learn to shoot also.td

[langenc]

That is great. Thank you.

[scoutmaster]

The thread title is true and the boy (GULP) was ME!





He left and I would say it was about 10-15 mins later out of curiosity I went over to check it out, wrapped in the jacket was a sawed off shotgun, loaded and ready to go! As a 5 yr old who played with lots of play guns yet never had any experience about REAL guns and what they could do damage wise. My first impulse was to chase my sister with it, (NO NO NO - I know now but at age 5, well I was dumb).


Bill

One of the very good reasons all kids should have firearms training, then they can take it or leave it.

[justin92]

like all the stories on this page :ukliam2:

[jrak123]

My daughter just turned 14 and she has me take her to the range the first Saturday of the month. Guess where she had her 14th birthday party.:pistols:
Well if you guys ever want to have a couple more along shooting, let me know. I'll grab my daughter and meet up with you and yours.

[franny365]

:crazy:

[Moosedog]

When I was on the job I did the Eddy Eagle NRA firearms safety program for some number of years. I felt it was a good program and I hope it helped someone.
Education is one of those things thats hard to gauge how much of an impact it has on kids. If they do something wrong you'll find out about it but if they do something right, most likely you'll never hear about it.

[lizardking8610]

If children were taught about weapons in a safe environment and learned to respect them I beleive that these sort of incidents would drop of dramatically.

[lil_freak_66]

If children were taught about weapons in a safe environment and learned to respect them I beleive that these sort of incidents would drop of dramatically.

+1

[mopedman]

:wtf: :wtf:

[dirtyharry]

As a child I was never around firearms, my parents weren't against them, then just never owned them. I guess my dad dealt with them enough after 38 months in Vietnam. When I proudly followed in his footsteps and joined the Army, I was finally introduced to firearms, having only fired a .22 in 6th grade camp at this point. I learned that guns are good and people are for the most part stupid.

Fast forward a bit, now I have a 10 year old daughter, I am out of the military and one morning I open the safe and begin cleaning my guns. My daughter wakes up and sees what I am doing, I saw her curiosity. I thought to myself, ah hell I better hurry up and put these away. Then I decided, well everything is field stripped, cleaned and unloaded... the ammo is upstairs. So I decided to teach my 10 year old about guns right then and there. I let her pick them up, look down the sights, pull the trigger. I went over how to check the action. I explained that guns are good and are a specialized "tool" and not to be played with. I explained that I wanted to show her this stuff to remove curiosity from her. That is one day she was to come across a gun she wouldn't be curious anymore and wouldn't be tempted to "play" with it. Then I promised her that when she got older I would take her to the range and teach her to shoot....

I can only hope that my kids will show an interest in shooting (when I have them). The only "issue" that I had was that you didn't take her when she was 10. Although, I am sure you had your reasons.

[jrak123]

I can only hope that my kids will show an interest in shooting (when I have them). The only "issue" that I had was that you didn't take her when she was 10. Although, I am sure you had your reasons.
She seemed a bit too afraid of them still, I wanted to wait a while longer.