On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 17:13:37 -0800 (PST), True North wrote:

On Friday, 23 February 2018 16:11:50 UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 2/23/2018 2:23 PM, Bill wrote:
Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 2/23/2018 12:21 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 03:24:19 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 2/22/2018 10:48 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 16:11:18 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 2/22/2018 3:45 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 14:21:01 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 2/22/2018 12:13 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 07:25:20 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Here's a weird one. In Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states, a
15 year old can legally purchase and own a long gun with his/her
parent's permission.


If the parents are OK with it, can't a kid have any gun they want at
any age? Who is going to stop them?
I had my first shotgun at 14-15 when I started to hunt but I had a .22
for years before that. I suppose technically it was my dad's, handed
down from my grandfather but I had free access to it and they sold
ammo at the 7-11.


Fortunately, most parents I know personally have more smarts and a sense
of responsibility to allow their kids at any minor age to own guns.


That is Acela corridor thinking again and big city thinking at that.
In the early 60s hunting was a thing most of my friends did before
they could drive and this was just outside of DC in PG county.
Like I said, the 7-11 sold shotgun shells and .22s
I am sure that sounds strange today but you could walk in the woods
all the way from the DC line behind Eastover shopping center and
Forest Heights to the river, down past where National Harbor is now
and never see a thing but woods. That was 4 or 5 square miles
contiguous with the woods behind my house before they built the
interstate. Typically we did not really do much hunting east of 210
but there were some good quail and rabbit fields before you got there,
pretty much where the right of way for I-495 is now. West of 210 there
was just about anything you could expect to find in Maryland.
The strange thing is there is still a pretty big undeveloped parcel
down there right now.



There are plenty people who hunt in Massachusetts and the areas we've
lived in are probably more heavily wooded than your experience in
Maryland. The last house I lived in with my parents as a kid was
surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of woods and undeveloped land.

I still don't know of any parent I know who would allow a minor child to
have his/her very own gun. BB guns, yes. Firearms ... no.



===

I grew up in a semi-rural area of upstate NY and many of my friends
had their own 22s and/or shot guns. Not one was ever injured or
involved in any gun related incident.


Did your friends have AR-15s and have a Rambo mindset?


Now you have changed the subject then haven't you?
You went from "no minor should ever have anything but a BB gun" to
assuming we want our kid to have an AR. That being said, I am sure out
west where it is relatively safe to shoot one, there are teenagers
with ARs. They would usually start with a .22rf and demonstrate that
they are safe and knowledgable first but there are plenty of people
out in flyover country who understand a gun is a tool.



How have I changed the subject? My point was that you really can't
compare what was common 50 years ago to today. AR-15s had not been
invented that I know of and I don't think a teenager could run down
to the local gun store back then and buy a rifle designed for the
military back then.


Sure they could. M1, M1 carbine. Bunch of enfields. My buddy bought a
303 English army rifle in high school. Was about $15. Only problem was
finding ammo. Was just a different configuration of semi auto rifle.
Most places you can not buy a Military grade rifle as hey are select fire.
All the others are cosmetic. I shot my dad’s Browning Semi Auto 12guage
duck hunting at 14 years old.



I shot handguns as a young kid (under 10 years old) in my Grandfather's
range he had in his basement. He was a gun nut of sorts and had some
beautiful and somewhat rare firearms. But it was always under constant,
close supervision by him and my dad (who was not so much of a gun nut).
I was supposed to inherit a Swedish, bolt action Mauser carbine and an
authentic WWI German Luger when I was older but my father made sure that
never happened.

I just didn't grow up with my parents saying, "Why don't you go out and
play with your .22 rifle" just to get me out of their hair. It was bad
enough when (in the middle of the summer) they finally caught me going
outside with a winter coat, knit hat and carrying swimming googles.
They weren't aware of the BB gun fights a bunch of us had.


Yeah but...if The John didn't go out to rassle up some vittles for supper, the family would go to bed hungry.

No, my mother baked bread. We'd always have some bread and peanut butter to fall back on. I'm sure
the idea that rabbit, squirrel, and catfish played a big part in a family's diet is foreign to you.
But some of our parents didn't have the money your folks had. And you know what? Out of the five
boys, not one grew up to be a janitor for the Canadian government.