Amazing to not know how to use a gun. I thought it was a common man’s right of passage.
We lived in town when I was young and yet I began hunting when I was between 4 and 5. Not so much really hunting but making the walk for upland game bird hunting and seeing how working over the dogs was done.
I got an Ithica single shot drop block .22 for my fifth birthday. Dad took me out somewhere to shoot often and being a Marine was a strict disciplinarian in gun safety and other things.
I got a 12 gauge single shot shotgun when I was about 7 or 8 and it kicked like a mule. It was a long time before I learned that shooting didn’t have to hurt your shoulder. I eventually got the Remington 1100 I have hunted with for nearly 60 years now. Not a thing wrong with it.
When I was in High School just about all of us had gun racks in our trucks and most contained a shotgun and an rifle just in case we went hunting before or after school. Nobody I knew was a shoot ‘em up reckless type of guy. Nobody ever even thought about going to the parking lot for a gun. Never once heard a whisper of it.
I have had a lifetime of hunting and guns and still don’t have the urge to kill anyone without cause.
If I grew up in small town America, yes, it would be weird. Growing up in PRC (Politically Repressive Canada), especially in a city, not hunting or using a gun is not unusual. I do regret however, that I never learned how to hunt or got my ‘Firearms Acquisition Certificate’. I suspect that the qualifications will be changed so that no one will qualify now.