;_;
its better that they learn guns are dangerous now, than when theyre using a real one to gun down their peers in school
I agree with that statement. Still don't think I would be giving my own kids guns if I had either, but with proper supervision that might work out better in the long run. I'm sure there is some benefit. Learning how to properly respect and handle a gun is an improvement over folks that just wave the damn things around first chance they get when they are older and buy one themselves when they think they know everything.
You would have to make sure they have proper supervision though, which I'm sure a lot of people who would consiter buying their kids a gun aren't. I know I'm not, and my Dad isn't. My dad got me a BB gun once and I shot the family dog with it. Intentionally. The dog was fine fortunately. I was never taught the thing was dangerous, I would hate to imagine what happened if it was my dad's hunting rifle instead. But I learned a lot in my young impressionable mind, I learned the kind of respect you can really only get from being ignorant and doing harm.
Anybody who isn't "proper supervision" won't be buying a youth-model rifle for their kid. Those cost a fair bit of money, and it's much cheaper just to train them on the old squirrel gun you never bother with anymore. Not that that is, in itself, any indicator of anything. It's what my father did, and his father, and his father before him.
Of course, there's a common misconception that often comes up in situations like this, namely that a child given a gun will have unlimited access to said gun. In nearly all cases, that's not the situation. Despite the stereotype, any household that has guns and takes them seriously (as opposed to sticking a cannon in your nightstand and thinking that will keep you safe, even though you're afraid of it) takes them
seriously