Yes, and granted, and it's hard to make an educated judgement without all the fcats, I understand that.
We all make mistakes and misassumptions, Jake not excluded. He shot what he concieved as a handy target, an inanimate object, not a person or an animal, something he assumed was useless. Bear in mind his crime was not in using the gun, it was in his choice of targets. He could have shot BB's into an empty cardboard box all day long and I wouldn't have cared. I think it did surprise him that it did as much damage as it did, but until I called him on it, he never dreamed that he destroyed anything important.
He started out at seven with a hunter safety course and followed that up with an additional gun safety handling course. He knows how to handle firearms. He's been hunting a stand alone for five years. He can identify the shells for every gun we own. He has taken apart and put together nearly every gun we have, cleaned oiled, etc.
He just had a UPS delivery yesterday, the stock he had on his .243 split and since it was still under warranty he mailed it in and got a new one and put it on himself. He had to ask me to open the safe of course but, other than that he handled all of it on his own. Looked up the address for the mfr, packaged the broken one, mailed it, and so on. I was very proud of him.
I keep trying to talk him into going into ballistics in some form either for the military or the police department maybe even forensics. He wants to be in wildlife management. He's only fourteen so he's got time.
He knows what a 'real' gun can do. A BB gun can do harm, but depending on the model is typically not deadly or even seriously dangerous, short of putting out an eye and he would never aim a gun at anyone, loaded or unloaded BB gun or not. Even a slingshot can put out an eye. He knows better than that.
I know people today who are still walking around with BB's under their skin from childhood mishaps. I myself have been shot with a BB gun before but it seems to me that they are making them a litle more powerful now than they used to.
Anyway, the BB gun is locked in the safe with all the others, except the shotgun by the door and now never gets used. I don't know what will come of it. I imagine it will discreetly disappear at some point. I appreciate your concern, but remember I live in this house too, danged if I want to be accidently shot. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Another thing. Jake goes regularly to the hunt club where guns are left out all the time during season. No one there locks up their gun between hunts. He HAD to learn how to act around them. Some lean in the corner, some hang in the rack, some are left loaded, some are not. None are touched by anyone but the owner without express permission for just that reason. Thanks for your concern though. I do appreciate the fact that you care, and cared enough to respond.
Little "Jimmy" (grin)
