Coach a Kid

[JonJ]

3 Weeks ago, I signed my 13 yr old daughter up for the Youth Marksmanship Program at the Plymouth Rod and Gun Club. Such a deal, 6 weeks (1 day a week) free firearm to use, ammo, hearing and eye protecttion. ZERO cost.
I had to leave the orientation/sign up early so my wife stayed with her. Later that evening my wife told me that Sarah was signed up and my wife volunteered me as a Coach. surprise!
We have 20 kids, 2 lines of 10. Each coach has 2 kids and they make sure you don't have your own child.
We have shot 2 weeks now and all the kids are having a blast! This is the first time that I've ever done anything like this and I'm having a great time.
These kids are the future of our sport and we owe it to them and ourselves to get out there and promote it. What better way????
This is proving to be quite rewarding and I think that by trying to teach the kids, I can make improvements in my own shooting skills. practice what you preach!

 

[Admin]

That is absolutely awesome. I can't wait until my boys are older.

 

[Lynne]

That is fantastic hun! Ed and I always tell our students to get their kids involved and teach then firearms safety, but it also helps to get the younger ones interested. I can't wait for our nephew to get another year or so older so we can take him to the range. He's 7 now, but he's still very much a "little" boy (and I don't mean size), so we're gonna wait a bit.

BTW - a number of years back (Ken and Len will probably remember this), Janet Reno's Justice Department did a study on kids raised with guns. They committed 0 (that's ZERO) percent violent crime, compared to 40 some odd (if memory serves) percent of kids raised in homes w/o guns. They also committed a VERY small percent of non violent crimes (IIRC it was like 1% or less), compared to a vastly higher rate of non-gun kids.

It makes them a lot more responsible when you show them how to handle a firearm and that you trust them to handle one (while in adult company, ofcourse)

 

[C-pher]

Yea, we do something like that at our club. Thought it's not a multi-week class. But we do have the scouts come out and we teach them firearm safety and good shooting practices. It also helps then towards their shooting merit badge.

And Lynne, I saw a study also that was similar. There were two sets of preschool children, or kindergarden, I don't remember. But one set grew up in homes where there were firearms, one didn't.

They planted "real looking" firearms around the room mixed in with the toys. The ones that grew up in a home with them, would stop and get a teacher to come over and get it.

The ones that didn't, would pick them up, and play with them, pretending to shoot one another.


When my child is old enough, I plan on taking her to the range and getting her into shooting sports. Hell, I'm starting her early. When I'm watching "Sighting in" or "Shooting USA" she will sit next to me and watch along. She almost seems more interested in that than in the Wiggles.