The good thing about this is boys over 6 were given guns if they were thought sane and rational enough at that age to be trained as hunters and warriors and protectors of the home and hearth. (Even though mostly what this meant was killing varmints, hunting for food for the family in their spare time, and very very rarely actually shooting someone who invaded your home or tried to rape or kill a member of your family.
However, beginning with the Viet Nam War this changed.
WHY?
Because people realized what happens when you train a bunch of men children to go kill anything and then don't train them to be able to make their own decisions well at the same time. So, when they are banded together as armies of men often they go off and get killed often with no reason at all that anyone can figure out (LIke the Viet Nam War which was a war to accomplish what?)
So, this changed American society a lot both for the better and for the worse in many many different ways.
So, you don't see as many people training their kids from age 6 on anymore to hunt and shoot.
Another reason is this didn't happen as much in cities ever for a variety of reasons. So, if you weren't raised more in the country you were not taught to hunt and shoot unless you were very rich and went hunting just for sport.
However, West of the Mississippi River and South of the Mason Dixon line teaching your children to hunt and shoot is still pretty common in the country everywhere. So, this is the paradox of the United States at this point.
I was handed my father's .22 rifle that was a pump action that shot about 17 bullets as fast as I could pump the rifle each time I fired or once every second or half second depending upon how ON my game I was that day when I was 8 or more years of age.
My father was given a gun at age 6 which would be 1922 in Coos Bay Oregon, his older brother was given a shotgun 9, and his younger brother 4 was given a Woodsman .22 automatic pistol. They didn't know the difference between quail and robins and so the oldest brother brought back robins instead. Their mother dutifully cooked their first thing they ever hunted. My father said there wasn't much meat at all on a robin and they spent most of the time spitting out shotgun pellets from their mouths back then in 1922.
But, this is not a story told much today at all for better and for worse in many different ways.
Is our gun culture still useful?
I would have to say "Yes!"
Because without at least one free people armed a world wide dictatorship is inevitable here on earth.
The U.S. NEVER NEVER could have existed like it is now without all the men in the country being armed and dangerous.
The U.S. never never would continue to exist as a free country if many or most people aren't armed today.
Leadership right now might be fine. But what if Trump or Carson or someone worse than that gets in?
What happens then.
We need to be armed to defend against all enemies both foreign and domestic.
We are one of the last fully armed nations still on earth and without US I can guarantee the world will be a dictatorship within 50 to 75 years. This is a given if you understand human nature.
If we are not armed the odds against the U.S. surviving as a free nation are great if not insurmountable.
Look at the terrorists and criminals in the world or look at the over 400,000 people killed by guns in the U.S. since 9-11.
Anyway you look at it if you take away guns from the average law abiding citizen, terrorists, criminals and the criminally insane are going to have a field day here in the U.S. shooting everyone they feel like on any given day.
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