[Captain Vlad]

I grew up surrounded by people who'd learned to handle a firearm well before they were teenagers. All survived until adulthood without shooting themselves. Now, I, personally am not letting my 8 year old kid fire a notoriously uncontrollable weapon. I might buy him or her their own .22 and teach them to operate and handle it safely.

In fact, I believe it's better to teach such things at a young age, simply to make sure safe firearms practices becomes second nature. Most people I've met that did stupid things with guns never picked one up until they were an adolescent.