Priest:Slain dad had taught boy,8, to use guns

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081109/ap_on_re_us/child_charged

The title of this article is also the name of this web article with the address above.

I was given a .22 17 shot rifle that my father had since he was about 6 years old when I was 8. However, I was taught to be very adult by the time I was 6 and my father was 6 when he first went hunting with his older and younger brother without adults. This is a hundreds of year old tradition in the United States that goes back to the old Blunderbus rifles of the 1600s. Since my first relatives came up the Philadelphia river in something like the Mayflower from Germany and before that Switzerland in about 1725 this tradition can be traced at least this far back and possibly as far back as the 1500s near Zurich, Switzerland where my family originally came from.

However, in my era people were expected to be extremely responsible by age 4 to 6 years old. When children are infantalized like they are often today they might never be capable of handling weapons. When children are trained to be as responsible as adults and forced to be that way like I and my Dad were they are then perfectly safe with guns. But when most children are treated like life has no consequences ever they never grow up. However, there will be some children that never should have weapons because they still always live in a fantasy. Only people capable of not being in a fantasy when they are using weapons should use weapons. It doesn't matter whether these people are 4 or 80. If people live in a fantasy they shouldn't use weapons. Unless fear and consequences are present in a person's life hard core they shouldn't be given weapons at any age.