When "No" ment "No"

[beezapilot]

My mom was cleaning out stuff and found a box of old photographs. The attached was the living room wall in the house I grew up in until I was about 13- My sister and I didn't have the slightest urge to play with anything that did not belong to us, and our parents had told us that these weren't to be touched, so they were not. (period)

87317

I can only imagine todays standards. Happy that I learned right from wrong, respect for other peoples property, and how valuable trust was.

[perotter]

I was brought up the same way and in a house where guns/ammo was not hidden. Even when I got my own .22 at age 8, for the 1st year or so I always asked if I could take it out hunting. I was never told that I had to ask, but I must have thought it was the right thing to do.

[aspangler]

I taught my daughter the same thing. When she was 9 she ask for and got a 22 rifle for Christmas. When she opened the box she looked up at me and said "Daddy, can I take it out of the box?"

[Garyshome]

Those days are long gone!

[starmac]

Those days are long gone!

Not everywhere. I have grandkids learning the same thing now.

[smokeywolf]

Dad was a gunsmith. There was a rifle leaning against every corner in the house; some were loaded, some weren't. All were treated as though they were loaded. None were touched without permission and direct supervision. That's the way it was from my earliest memories.
Not for one second did I ever think about touching a rifle or pistol without asking.

smokeywolf

[JWFilips]

Same as our House: Guns were tools...My son was brought up that way! No need for the tool until it is needed!
I remember my nephew who was brought up anti-gun and was forbidden to have toy guns ...coming to stay with us for a few days when both kids were about 10 years old .....My nephew, looking into my gun room and telling my son "Hey can we play with those?" my 10 year old son's response to him was "they are not to play with they are only used when they need to be used"! I have always been proud of my son's respose at that young age... for knowing right from wrong.

He was shooting with his red rider at 6 years old & only at targets I set for him because living creatures were not targets ( unless certain ones were "game" during hunting season) & then they would provide food for our table. That means most anything! I remember culling woodchuck raiders to our garden when he was a baby, yes they too got in to the pot & My fondest memories of that was when I asked what part he wanted to eat & he said I'll have the face!:grin:

[paul h]

Even though my now teenage boys are starting to drive me nuts, as teenage boys do. I have had loaded guns around the house at various times without any fear of them touching them without asking.

From a young age they have learned to properly handle firearms and went through hunter safety training. Because of the influence of their piers they do not have the respect for adults that I did growing up (they say things I wouldn't contemplate saying to my parents) but that doesn't mean their is no hope for teaching todays youth firearm safety. I'm a firm believer in teaching firearm safety and de-mistifying firearms by allowing them to safely handle them whenever they are interested and taking them shooting whenever feasible.

[ftut]

I raised my kids much the same way. There were always guns sitting in the corners of the house. They never touched them without permission. Any time they would ask to see a gun I always went and got it out of the corner no matter how tired I was. I never denied them seeing a gun. I would sit them on my lap or on the floor in front of me and show them how to check the chamber. I explained every time to treat every gun as if it was loaded just as I was taught. They would look that gun over from one end to the other and ask many questions about the different parts. I let them look until they were done. My kids are grown now and you can watch them pick up a gun and the first thing they will do every time is check the chamber. Good kids if I do say so myself.

[bayjoe]

Tell a kid no now days and somebody will report you to DHS.

[MaryB]

It was the same around my house growing up, guns hanging on the walls, I had my own 22 at 8 that I was only allowed to use when I asked and had supervision from an older brother or sister or mom or dad. 12 gauge was always loaded with #4 for garden raiders(rabbits) and once I turned 14 I was allowed to use my 22 whenever I wanted and dads guns if I asked. My entire family hunted for food, with 7 people to feed and being poor it kept us in meat. We all fished and foraged too. Helped at grandpas farm, raised a couple head of beef, pigs, chickens for the family.

Kids these days will report you for abuse if you make them work on the farm and they are from the city. I remember friends from town coming out and complaining about getting up at 5AM to do morning chores before breakfast. I would go help milk the 40 dairy cows grandpa had and took home a couple gallons for that days use as payment. Friends from town were grossed out when the milk came direct from the cow to their glass for breakfast! Often times still warm. We lived 1/4 mile up the road on a small 5 acre farm site that was part of the farm so a lot of time was spent working to help grandpa.

[Love Life]

Grown ups/older people these days let America plop into the toilet that it is now swirling around in. Thanks a bunch.

Generalizing a whole generation is quite rude and preposterous.

You'd be surprised how many kids these days were raised the same way as you are all describing. The only difference is that they have been so demonized by the socialist school systems and propaganda that they keep their home raising private...as they should anyway.

If your America was better than mine, and you came along before me, and the freedoms have eroded over time, and you have been on earth longer than me, and the change took generations, and you are an older generation than me....

Rant off.

[Hamish]

While I did find and occasionally peruse the old mans playboys, it never even crossed my mind to mess with the firearms inappropriately. Kind of blows my mind. I thought nothing of hiding out on the roof of the junior high, but I never even had a thought of even looking at the guns at the wrong time. God bless my father, it's a wonder he didn't wear that belt out,,,,,

[jonk]

Three things I knew from a young age.

1. That food is for the cat. You aren't to eat it, and he won't eat your food.
2. The stuff under the sink and in the paint cabinet isn't to eat or drink. Don't touch it.
3. Guns aren't to be touched. Not the shotgun in the closet or the pistol hanging in the basement.

In ascending order of importance.

I never questioned that. Why?

I didn't want to do number one.
Only a moron would do number two. If your kid thinks that a gallon of chlorine bleach is something tasty to drink... well, the gene pool NEEDS chlorine.
Number three meant dad would tan me from one end and mom would hold me down at the other.

Nuff said.

[smokeywolf]

Because we live in the most anti-gun area of one of the most anti-Bill of Rights, anti-Constitution and anti-American States in the U.S., I have instructed my children to never utter a word about guns or gun related items or topics outside the house. Also warned them about pointing their fingers in a way or shape that might resemble a handgun. Schools out here would have a kid arrested for pointing their finger and saying BANG.

smokeywolf

[steg]

My kids were brought up the old way, only not nearly as harshly as I was. now a days it's nothing to see a child sass his parents back, and to top it off the parent concedes and the kid gets his way. God forbid if we tried that when we were kids, we would be trying to remember the license of that truck!

[country gent]

Being raised on a small working farm the crops and livestock were our income and food. Whena varmint was eating crops or getting into the livestock a gun was the "tool" needed and used to deal with it. While we didnt play with Dads guns, if the need arose we did use them in defense of the crops or livestock. Normally a 22 rifle or 410 shotgun. I started around age 8 or 9. At the farm guns were tools like a saw hammer or pliers

[Lead Fred]

My ole man was a WWII vet & a ballistic expert for the local PD.
When each of us turned 10, he showed us picture of accidental firearm deaths.

He had a loaded 1911 in his bed stand for as long as I knew him.

NO ONE ever touched the bed stand, let alone opened the drawer

[freebullet]

Nice pic, thanks fer sharing. My father didn't have that many, but they were on the wall just like that.

[waksupi]

When we were kids, and got our first BB guns, we were encouraged to shoot every sparrow, pigeon, or rat that would give a shot. They were nasty dirty vermin. The real shooting days were when we would shell all of the corn out of the cribs. Dozens of rats. By the end of the day, we would have a worn out rat terrier, and piles of dead rats. That was farm living though, 50 some years ago.

[bretNorCal]

I think that hiding them, making them taboo, makes them more desirable. Of course there are external factors as well since the kids often go outside of the home and into the rest of the world. Because they are taboo everywhere else they are more desired.

[rattletrap1970]

Schools and Media (TV, Radio, etc). I don't care what anyone says.. A 6 or 7 year old does not need a cell phone. If I had kids they would be home schooled, there is no way I would leave their learning and values to some wingnut 20 something year old teacher who has no concept of that the world is about.

[Fishman]

My son has the same gunrack in his room that I had in my room growing up. No tv either. I think he's coming along fine.

[popper]

Dad's rule - NO guns, NO booze in HIS house. And you didn't want to make him angry. For some reason we just didn't push any of his rules much.