I'm clutching my pearls

[isabel]

A girl I played soccer with in high school just posted a picture of her 4-year-old sister (major age gap) with the caption that little sister went hunting with her grandparents. There's a photo of the little girl posing with a huge buck. I'm appalled at the idea of taking a 4-year-old on a hunting trip.  :-#

[minerswife17]

Wow. That's entirely too young. I'm also surprised a 4 year old could sit still and stay quiet long enough to go hunting.

[snipsnsnails]

Growing up in rural flyover country, that's really typical for when boys and girls would start hunting with family. Or at least accompanying them on hunting trips.

[penguintamer]

That's the age I first went hunting, and I turned out alright. It's pretty common around here. Every part of the deer was used, and it actually helped hammer in the permanence of death and that guns are not toys, so we (myself, little brother, and cousins) NEVER had any desire to play with guns. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from the deer lease.

[isabel]

Nov 18, 2015 0:22:36 GMT -5 penguintamer said:

That's the age I first went hunting, and I turned out alright. It's pretty common around here. Every part of the deer was used, and it actually helped hammer in the permanence of death and that guns are not toys, so we (myself, little brother, and cousins) NEVER had any desire to play with guns. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from the deer lease.

I have no issue with the killing part. I know they'll use the whole deer and it's for food, etc. You make a good point about the gun thing, but it still makes me cringe a bit. I don't like the idea of little kids being around guns like that.

[nursecramer]

Nov 18, 2015 0:24:45 GMT -5 isabel said:

Nov 18, 2015 0:22:36 GMT -5 penguintamer said:

That's the age I first went hunting, and I turned out alright. It's pretty common around here. Every part of the deer was used, and it actually helped hammer in the permanence of death and that guns are not toys, so we (myself, little brother, and cousins) NEVER had any desire to play with guns. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from the deer lease.

I have no issue with the killing part. I know they'll use the whole deer and it's for food, etc. You make a good point about the gun thing, but it still makes me cringe a bit. I don't like the idea of little kids being around guns like that.

My dad always used to take us with us when he went to deer camp. We never got to sit in the blind with him until we were much much older-- in our teens. When we were young, we'd spend the day visiting with "Noni"... the mother of one of dad's hunting buddies. She'd feed us goulash and play with us. It was like having another grandmother. 

We saw/touched/"helped" with the deer, but only once it was hanging in the garage. I can remember being amazed at what things look like INSIDE. It was so cool. 
I'm not a gun advocate in the slightest, I don't know anyone who hunts now (outside of my dad and uncles), but like penguintamer, I do have really great memories of it and learned a lot.

[awick14]

I started going hunting with my dad at that age as well. I learned a lot about guns and safety around guns. We were not shooting the guns that young just watching dad do it.

[Deleted]

This does not horrify me. But, I grew up in the country and know that, if my cousins and brother didn't hunt that young, it was only because the older people didn't want them making noise and scaring away the deer.

Guns are legal in America. And it's a constitutional right, so there's absolutely no way that's changing any time soon. In view of that, it is probably safer for children to see what a gun can do, and watch adults using them responsibly.

I never wanted to hunt, and never went hunting, but I did grow up with a grandfather who left guns in his living room, and I can't remember a time when I didn't know that a gun was like a hot fire- not for children to touch. This was engrained so deeply in me that, to this day, I have a strong physical reaction when I see H touch a gun inside the house, like I am still a kid who could get in trouble for not immediately leaving them room and telling an adult my "friend" had a gun out. That's how you keep kids safe - I mean, obviously, not having a gun, or locking up the gun, is the first and best defense. But if you live in an area where people have them, then I think ignoring guns is a million times more dangerous than just teaching children what they are capable of, and how to act safely around them.

[lagom]

Meh.
I see nothing wrong with hunting as a family event. It's a great learning experience for children, and a calm environment like a deer hunt is much different than hunting for ducks or pheasant, for instance.