I had a good upbringing with guns, starting with spring BB guns, to lever compressed air BB guns, then .22 shorts, .22LR, then a shotgun, and finally pistols, which I remember I didn’t like at first because they were too short and far less accurate. I got over it.
Somewhere in there I developed a fondness for knives and studied karate, which I liked a lot more for the fighting theory than the actual fisticuffs.
But the one itch I could never scratch was archery. Be it longbow, compound bow or crossbow, I felt I missed out on a big part of weapons craft. You shoot a few hundred BBs, and you really learn the BB gun; but you have to shoot a few hundred arrows to get the *zen* of archery.
And recently, with the popularity of the animated movie Brave, and The Hunger Games, there is a window of opportunity for both boys and girls who may be hesitant with guns, to still learn some weapons skills that will eventually carry over to guns.
That’s funny, my experience started with archery and went on to firearms. I can say with full sincerity my experience with archery helped me pick up firearms skills faster when the time came for training. I started as a archery instructor and ended up a fiearms instructor.
CC