Guest Post by Francis Marion
Prologue:
I wrote this piece back in 2001. I have left it unedited – though there are a few things I would change today I don’t think I knew just how relevant it would be to today’s society ‘way back then’. I thought it would tie in nicely with Stucky’s question of the day regarding the ‘one reason’ so here it is.
I was 11 years old when my parents gave me my first real firearm. It was a Lakefield Mark II .22 caliber repeater that I still own. It’s killed a lot of squirrels and grouse in the last seventeen years and in the process I’m convinced that it — with a little help from my father — saved my life.
Of course it never downed a charging grizzly or wounded a marauding thief. Nope. All it did was keep dad and I busy on the weekends filling the freezer with grouse and slaying errant pop cans. But those activities coupled with the sense of responsibility the ownership of such a tool entailed were enough to keep me out of a lot of trouble that other kids — mostly friends of mine — seemed to have an easy time finding.
Now I’m not saying I was an angel as a young man. I too had something of a taste for adventure and like a lot of other teens in the small community I lived in I suffered all too often from the Saturday morning flue and other similar self induced ailments. But I never participated in destructive activities and I never hurt anyone. I had — whether I could articulate it or not — a very clear understanding of the concepts of property and justice. I understood from the time I was quite young that a man is responsible for his actions and that I would be held accountable for any damage I perpetrated on another human being.
Deadly Tools and Responsibility…
Canada’s antigun lobby is fond of poking fun at gun owners for getting kids involved in firearms oriented activities. They equate the push to involve youth in such activities to putting car keys in the hands of an eight year old. But there is a flaw in this line of reasoning that gun owners thus far have failed to address that goes beyond the mere mechanics of an eight year old driving a car versus an eight year old with a .22 in hand; that being not that children are capable of learning and exercising responsibility (which they are) but rather that it is absolutely integral that they do so if they are to mature into capable and responsible adults.
Competence, confidence, responsibility, and accountability are things that children must learn at a young age in order to become healthy functioning human beings. But these are not values that can be taught in the classroom or learned by watching television. They are values that are attained through performing and doing various activities that represent — for lack of a better term — a right of passage.
And much to the yelling, screaming and general sniveling of Canada’s left wing establishment the fact of the matter is that learning how to safely own and operate a firearm is one of these passages. How so you may ask?
Primarily, it puts the power of life and death directly into the hands of the youngster thus creating a level playing field — at least physically speaking — between him and his mentor. It gives him a sense that in some way he and his teacher are equal and thus he has entered a new stage in life where he is no longer a mere child suckling at his mothers tit. Second, it teaches him that with this power or equality eventually comes the duty to act responsibly on a much broader scale. It teaches the child those four valuable lessons: First comes competence. He learns that in order to begin the journey to adulthood he must first learn how to use the tool properly. Through competence he learns confidence — the idea that he is capable of operating a potentially deadly tool intelligently [that he is capable of thinking] which leads to the concept of responsibility.
With confidence and competence [the realization that he can think and act like an adult] a child is ready to learn that he and he alone is responsible for whatever happens while that tool is in his hands which in turn leads to an understanding of accountability. Accountability is an aspect of justice which has two possible consequences — punishment or reward. The child learns that what he does with his life — i.e. how responsibly he acts — will lead to one of those two outcomes.
These understandings — although a youth may not articulate them in quite the same manner — are integral to his moral and ethical development. Besides being the beginning of understanding the concept of ‘rights’ they are also the underpinnings of the one primary virtue that no free society can do without: self sufficiency.
The Virtue of Self Sufficiency…
When we speak of self sufficiency as a value we do not necessarily speak of being able to live alone in the woods without any help from others or modern industrial society (although this may be an aspect of the concept). The virtue of self sufficiency pertains more to the ability to act responsibly, independently and in ones own self interest.
Can you imagine what the world would be like if we waited until each human being was the age of majority before we exposed them to any remotely or potentially dangerous activity involving an exercise in personal responsibility? If you believe we live in a world of whiners, wimps and no brain thugs now consider what a world of ‘nineteen-year-old five-year-olds’ would be like. It’s a scary thought.
Thus self sufficiency is integral to the flourishing of a free society. It is taught by the giving and accepting of responsibility and the subsequent understanding of accountability. A child who has never been given the chance to prove that he is responsible for his actions through participation in activities generally thought of as adult will come to see himself as an adult much later in life than a child who does. His ability to be self sufficient will thus be hampered. Moreover, the possibility that the child will be morally and ethically deficient is increased. Of course there may be other ways to learn these lessons but learning how to own, use and maintain a firearm is as clear a first step to adulthood as any.
Indeed, if liberals truly wanted to save the children [and society for that matter] they’d stop championing gun control and start giving their kids shooting lessons. Until then the concept of self sufficiency will be lost on many of our young people and parents will continue to produce twenty year old infants who are unable to think and act responsibly without direction from home or the state.
Nice essay! I’ve actually been thinking about this quite a bit recently with all the gun regulation efforts going on. Here in the US, many schools used to have shooting clubs as an extracurricular activity. There were also a number of shooting clubs across the country that had a big emphasis on teaching kids how to safely handle, use and maintain firearms.
A local gun club here has a decent youth program that has fielded a couple of kids competing at the Olympic level but the number of kids is rather small.
I was thinking that now would be a great time for any of these old groups that still exist to advertise hot and heavy and start getting lots of kids involved. I know that a few still exist but only because I’ve heard of them through my local gun club. One of them has a program selling old M-1 carbines and ammo.
I’ve seen a couple of different firearms manufacturers running TV commercials recently which sort of blew my mind as I don’t ever recall seeing gun ads on TV before. If they can advertise I see no reason why some ads cannot be run promoting youth shooting sports.
One thing is for sure and certain…..TPTB are teaching all the children today that ANYTHING having to do with guns is bad and they’re doing it through our schools. This will create generations of kids who will ultimately be all too happy to abolish the Second Amendment. National and regional youth shooting sports organizations would spoil that plan if implemented now.
+100
My parents wouldn’t even buy me a cap-gun. They didn’t even like when I played cowboys-and-indians with my friends. “Why do you have to pretend to shoot people?!”. I guess it was cuz of their experiences in WWII.
My ex-wife, raised Mennonite, absolutely refused to also even allow toy guns in the house. Yeah, I fucked up with that marriage.
And now the insanity spread to Ms Freud’s grandkids. We once bought a bubble-making machine …. it was shaped like a gun. Later on, the fat lawyer wife told us — thanks, but in the future please refrain from gun-toys. Fuck.
Damn old dog (Stucky), how many women have you married?
When I was young it was almost universal for a boy to get a new .22 on his 12th birthday. Sometimes it was a .410 shotgun and the best of all was a real 20 or 12 gauge. An unofficial right of passage into manhood (and we were expected to start becoming men at that age).
We usually carried them to school with us at least occasionally, many of us went rabbit hunting on our way home to help feed our families.
I recall taking a civil war musket -a passed down civil war family heirloom- to school in the third grade for “show and tell” and other kids sometimes brought them as well.
I was a member of our Jr High boys rifle team and went to shooting competitions with other schools, there was a girls rifle team as well and an archery team (that practiced on the schools baseball field after school.
No one ever shot anyone, we had no gangs, and we had no accidents worth mention that I can recall either.
Why is it different today? Something has changed, identify what it is and change it back and you’ll see the problem solved the way it was then before we had it.
sorry to hear that stucky. Reality might bite them kinda hard. My oldest is a little over two, Ill probably wait til he is about 5, then start him on a single shot 22. Rossi makes a rifle that can be switched between .22 and 410 shotgun just with a barrel swap, and can be purchased with a couple different barrels, so thats probably what I will start him with. Ill probably wait a couple years after that for handguns, thats the plan, anyway, but Ill see how he does with the rifle and then go from there.
Stucky,
My first [and current] wife is mennonite background as well. Fortunately, she has never had an issue with firearms in the house and has even on somewhat rare occasions accompanied the kids and I to the range for target practice. In 2008 her and both of my whelps went to Africa with me for a month of travel and hunting. She said it was the best vacation she had ever had. The girls didn’t hunt with me but my son [who was 7 at the time] did.
Before we left for the trip we endured quite a bit of ridicule from folks who said we were crazy for going to to do what we were doing with our children. It just wasn’t ‘safe’ you know.
When we returned home my son returned to school at the end of the summer as per usual. A few days later we got a phone call from his teacher. She was concerned about his propensity for story telling – that maybe he was not living in reality like a normal child. Apparently he was telling the most fantastic tales about killing a Wildebeest in some place called the Limpopo. Great story she said but if we could get him back in touch with reality that would be great. There was a pause and I said “Ummmm…. sorry but he’s not lying to you. He went hunting in Africa with me over the summer.”
Dead silence on the other end of the phone.
“Oh.” she says.
More silence.
“Well maybe you could come in and put on a slide show for the class so they can see for themselves what he is talking about?”
Two weeks later my 7 year old son was presenting a slide show to his grade 2/3 split class on hunting and traveling in South Africa.
The lesson?
Let your kids be kids but don’t shield them from the _wonder_ of the world. Let them explore and think and fiddle/experiment and play and take calculated risks. They’ll be better more well rounded people when they get older.
My Dad got a .22 and was already driving at 7. Of course, this was an a dude ranch on the edge of the wilderness near Cody, WY. It was really still the old west.
I think there is a part of my Dad that wanted to shield his kids from that kind of childhood. He taught us to camp and fish and some archery, but never taught us to shoot.
In high school we shot guns on school property all 4 years. I graduated high school in 1979 and the next year they stopped the program because some women complain and threatened to sue the school. Just the threat of being sued ended a tradition that had been going on since the founding of my home town .Damn shame.
My first 22 rifle when I was 10. I have yet to kill or wound or even point it at another human. Eatin critters a different matter entirely. I can still recall hunting with my Dad, Mother and brother when young. Today my 16 and 14 year old have 22 rifle and they are both very good with them. Both at a target and. With firearms safety. The responsibility placed upon them by using firearms has helped them grow and appreciate the sacrifice of those who have given their life In the service of others.
Excellent essay, FM and I LOVED the story about hunting in Africa! Priceless!
I completely agree with you about the gun thing–I did pretty much the same with my son, starting a bit older, but he’s grown up to be a very responsible and self-sufficient 18 year old. Bonus: his knowledge of all things guns is impressive for his age.
However, don’t discount the time spent with your dad, his modeling of responsible behavior, and certainly the conversations you must have had. Boys need a dad/male figure, or at least, a mom like I am who totally understands The Way Boys Are. I spent a LOT of time parenting my kids instead of “having my own life”, and I don’t regret it one bit. You had a really great dad!
Anonymous asks this question: “Why is it different today? Something has changed, identify what it is and change it back and you’ll see the problem solved the way it was then before we had it.”
Two things have changed drastically: cultural feminization and bad (or no) parenting. I did my part to change it back.
Wip
One too many.
I grew up knowing my father had a gun (38 revolver) in the house. My father was a strict disciplinarian and he made it clear we were to never touch that gun.
I was given my first pocket knife at 6, a B-B gun at 9 and a 22 at 12. So my learning about guns came from actual experience and training as I was growing up. I grew up knowing that the way guns are portrayed in the movies and TV is pure nonsense. Using guns during the years I was growing up, it’s obvious that it’s another tool, and like any tool it has its use, it has its dangers and one needs to know the proper, safe handling and care of that tool. A chain-saw is extremely dangerous but you can learn the proper handling of that tool and you can safely handle a chain saw without hurting yourself or anyone else your entire life. The same is true for any tool including the gun.
I think that growing up in the country made the difference. If we had lived in the city at that time in my life then I’m sure I would not have had the same exposure to guns. Today most kids grow up in the cities and the only exposure to guns they ever have is what they see in the movies and TV. And that is a shame because they learn all the Hollywood nonsense that guns are all about being macho and for revenge and it all total bullshit. And of course the anti-gun crowd is learning about guns in the same place. The anti-gun crowd has no practical understanding of guns; they have some Hollywood fantasy understanding of guns that is pure nonsense.
ASIG, +100!
I was lucky enough to grow up in many different environments including living out in the sticks. I prefer the sticks to the cities by a wide margin but I’m grateful for all those experiences. Luckily guns were a part of my upbringing all along the way. Like you I look at guns as a tool.
My friend Paul moved to Oregon when his son was nine. He began to express interest in shooting guns so at age 12 he got a pellet gun. They went out to the shore below McNary damn so he could do some target shooting. Afterwards he was plinking at driftwood when a chipmunk caught his attention scampering around. He drew a bead on him, never expecting to hit the thing, but he did. He was immediately horrified and ran to it. He wanted to take him to a vet but his father explained that he needed to finish him off to end the suffering he had caused. A discussion ensued about never pointing a gun at anything you do not intend to kill. He’s grown now and enjoys sport shooting rather than hunting.
Great article, thank you for that, brings back lots of memories. I grew up with guns. My father was in the military and owned a number of guns. As early as I can remember, I went with him and his buddies to a field outside of town and they slung and shot their own clays. At each break, my job was to find the ones they missed that didn’t break when they hit the tall grass. I wasn’t old enough yet to join them shooting, but I was still part of the whole day, I had a job to do, and I was rewarded with accoldates from grown men when I showed up with all the clays they had missed that round (they counted). Later on, at age 8, data showed me where he kept the guns in the house, and then taught me how to assemble and disassemble each one, even before I ever shot my first gun. Then we went over the fundamentals of safety, and finally to the range. My family and cousins all had guns,the annual family get togethers were shooting first at the home-made range on the farm, then bbq and beer (never beer before shooting). We would not have seen each other for the year, but the first topic of conversation was what folks had brought to shoot with that they didn’t have the last year. In high school, I went to a military school, there was a shooting range under the gym. We could bring our guns (in our cars, unloaded, action open) to school and carry them on campus and check them in and leave them at the military office. Then over lunch, go get the gun, go over to the range, check in with the range officer, shoot over lunch, and then leave it there until the end of school, go home. Not once did anyone do anything bad, threaten anyone or anything with violence. Dad never actually bought me a gun other than a BB gun, I used his until I was old enough to own my own. Since then, I have a nice collection of various firearms. My brother and I are very different people, we don’t talk much, but one thing we have in common is we love to shoot together and talk all manner of guns, I advise him, he advises me. I married my wife years ago, she had never shot a gun, didn’t grow up with them, she was intimidated and scared of guns at first until she learned that they won’t jump off the table and kill you, that has to happen at the will of the one operating it. Now she’s a better long range shot than me (tighter groups, drives me crazy) and she has her own sporting clays/skeet gun and we shoot regularly together, which we both really enjoy. Now I wait for my future children to start the cycle again like my dad did, and in my America we will be able to do that. What’s interesting in the article and the comments is, most of them involve a father or father figure. Maybe that’s what we need in America, more fathers taking an interest in their sons (and daughters, not excluding the ladies here).