Category: Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today’s Classroom
New Shooter = Supervision required! Frank’s daughter did great in her first 30-minute live-fire backyard shooting session. Years of casual preparation got her ready.
I knew this would be the year to teach my daughter to shoot a handgun. I’ve been laying the groundwork of responsible gun handling since she was 2 through grave parental warnings, imaginative playtime, laser indoor training simulators like the LaserLyte laser marksmanship trainer pistol and electronic target, and more recently familiarization with the actual manual of arms of real guns using Umarex’s realistically operating CO2 BB guns that have the slide function, safety controls and magazine releases that match the genuine guns they are modeled after.
Frank could tell Nyah-Nyah wasn’t satisfied with her marksmanship, so he informed her, “Your shooting is good enough to qualify for a Kentucky concealed deadly weapons permit.” To which she replied, “I’m only 11 years old.”
A lesson in why it’s important to know what’s beyond your target when shooting. Here, Frank’s daughter observes gouges in the soil where her shots ricocheted off the surface … and into the heavy forest behind the target stand.
It’s Time …
Last year, I could see she had reached the level of maturity, awareness and responsibility needed to make the decisions required to safely handle firearms. This year, she’s finally physically strong enough to operate a real-life handgun. When she fired her first bullets downrange, she did so fearlessly with an ease that seemed anti-climactic for me.
I was secretly disappointed later when she told me she neither liked nor disliked the experience, but I was impressed and pleased with the seriousness and attentiveness she went about it. I will give her more opportunities to shoot, at least monthly, and in doing so, she may eventually find something she enjoys. If she doesn’t, that’s okay. I will have accomplished my goal of making her, like my son, a thoroughly competent marksman. I’m sure I can find a buyer for the brace of Trump 45 laser-engraved Desert Eagles I set aside for her.
