i have always subscribed to the notion that if a child is to grow up with respect for something he should be introduced to it early.
allow your kid to have a beer once in a while when he is 13 years old. dont let him get trashed mind you... dont hook him up with a can of beer every week... but one twelve ounce can of beer with the old man around a camp fire, or one can of beer on some other special occasion wont kill him. it yanks the mystique out of alcohol. it makes it less risque and mysterious.
the same applies to guns
Allow your kid to accompany you to the gun range, or on a hunting trip when he is a curious child. Buy him a .22 and let him shoot it under strictly controlled supervision.
when you allow kids to do these things in moderation - they usually grow up to look at it as being no big deal. thereby finding it easier to resist the temptation and peer pressure to get drunk, or to play with a gun.
face it, kids do things like that because they are curious about the forbidden fruit aspect. its appealing to them because it is strictly off limits.
EDIT:
on the case of it not belonging to the parents... thats what makes my statements here more sensible. the kid could theoretically find himself in a situation to receive a gun from anyone... a neighbor kid, a friend, a friend of the family who was watching the kids for a couple of hours. it might not come from the parents, so the kid has to be equipped - raised - to believe that guns are not this forbidden, tempting thing.
like my mom told me once "You can't watch your kid all the time."
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