I was taught a Gun was a tool like a shovel or a rake or a hoe so you respected it because it was potentially dangerous but also it was a tool for survival just like a shovel or rake or hoe would be to grow food. But, in the case of a rifle it was to get food if you ate meat or to protect your family and yourself and your friends from rabid animals or rabid humans harming you or your family. So, to be given a weapon to protect my family and myself at age 8 was a very great honor and part of the initiation into manhood then.
Like my forebears for at least 297 years now in the U.S. since my father's ancestors arrived from Switzerland via England in 1725 up the Delaware River to Philadelphia on a Ship then I was trained by age 8 years old just like my father was trained at age 6 and his younger brother age 4 and their older brother age 12 in Coos Bay, Oregon to hunt for food.
But, my experience was sort of paradoxical because my father raised me a Lacto Ovo Vegetarian because he was a student of Paul Bragg who was Jack Lalanne's teacher too. So, my father was very into organic foods and being a lacto ovo vegetarian and all that to basically live forever. This was his goal.
So, even though I was taught to hunt I wasn't going to be eating anything we shot. So, mostly I shot things like jackrabbits in the desert with my two 5 years older cousins. So, my grandmother gave me my father's old Remington pump action .22 rifle which could shoot about 17 times very quickly if you wanted to before reloading. I kept this rifle in my bedroom in the 1950s and ammunition up high in my closet so other children couldn't get at it.
To be given a gun and bullets was traditional in the 1950s and all my friends by age 10 had their own .22 rifles. So, by the time the Viet Nam war happened we all were excellent shots.
To be given a rifle just meant that the men in the family thought you could be trusted with a gun to not shoot yourself or your friends or anyone else. So, this was a very great honor for someone in the 1950s.
In some ways by age 4 a boy was already a man in the 1950s compared to now. It's very different now that some people never grow up no matter how long they live.
Then if you did something wrong you could expect your parents or friends to either beat you to death or kill you. So, you were very careful what you did then more than now.
There were consequences that could be fatal every step of the way from about age 4 years old onward if you were a boy and many didn't survive these consequences. But, you knew what the consequences were so you acted accordingly if you wanted to survive to actually grow up.
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