Posted on 05/17/2004 6:03:27 AM PDT by Puppage
Ten-year-old Michael Cantafio of Milford never handled a real firearm until Saturday.
Shannon Anderson, 9, of Fairfield had, but was interested in learning more about firearm safety.
The two got what they were looking for and more during the first free children's firearms safety course at the Bridgeport Shooting Range, 1918 Stratford Ave.
"Our role is to educate as many people as possible on the safety of firearms," said Jamie Keever, the range manager. "I always say it's not the gun that hurts people, it's the people behind the gun."
So on Saturday morning, Keever and Jeff DiStasio, a firearms instructor spent more than an hour with the two fourth-graders showing them how to safely load, point and fire a revolver, semiautomatic and a rifle. They began the course using plastic bullets.
"You always want to keep the muzzle pointed away from everything," DiStasio told Anderson. "So what should you do when you come upon a gun?"
"Tell a grown-up," Anderson replied.
"And if there's no grown-up around?"
"Contact the police," she said.
Before long Shannon moved from the classroom to the range where the plastic bullets were replaced with .22 caliber live rounds.
"Shannon's shot before," said Roger Anderson, who frequents the range. Anderson pointed out that his wife, Cathy, shot in competition "when she was Shannon's age."
"I think it's very important that children realize guns aren't toys and how dangerous they are," Anderson said. "But if you are taught how to handle them safely, you can enjoy them in a competition."
Safety was on Phyllis Cantafio's mind. She brought Michael to make sure he understood how dangerous a gun can be.
"I don't like guns. I don't want them in the house but I want him educated on how to handle them safely," she said.
Michael was itching to shoot the three weapons. Unfortunately, he had to get a rain check because he had a scheduled baseball game.
Shannon twice fired the semiautomatic but shied away from the revolver and rifle.
"We'll probably conduct the [children's] course every three months or so," Keever said. "If more people are interested, we'll do it more often."
Persons interested can contact the Bridgeport Shooting Range at 330-9772.
My only apprehension at this article is that the location and activity is publicized to the "million" moms and others who would rather ban all private gun ownership outright. After all, if the town of Greenwich banned sledding, one can guess accurately what will happen to a kids-with-guns program when a few PTA liberals read the nooz paper about it.
Yep when I right click the X, it's photobucket.
Sorry to hear that. I like the service and the quality of the pictures. I started with OneBigVillage but they stopped letting me send pictures. I'm going to resize the first picture as soon as it's deleted. From now on, I'm going to shrink everything I send out.
The gun club has a great program for kids. It's odd to converse about guns with a fellow competitor who's half your size. The kid in the foreground at the High Power match is loading his own mags. I wouldn't trust most adults to load mine. It's also odd to see the kids act so intelligent while they're shooting but after a match, one of the adults had to tell them to stay out of playing in the rain puddles.
I don't know why the firewall at work doesn't like photobucket, no problem at home.
When I was in the USAF stationed at McConnell AFB, Kansas in the early 70's, a bunch of us became instructors in the state safe hunting program. We held classes on base and used the range for hands-on safety portion and target practice.
Safety is so simple that it eludes most people who haven't been trained. It is good to see more young people learning to shoot and learning it safely. Now that my kids are grown and I have more time, I need to get involved in the Alabama Safe Hunting program.
My kids knew more about firearm safety at 6 than the average adult male does.
The kids get it but some of the adults don't. I think it's because children are always being shown something different and the world is so new to them. They can accept learning new things constantly.
The biggest danger I have seen is letting the adults and parents accept bad behavior because it was "an accident" or it was a "mistake". I told our kids if they shoot me, I'll just shoot them back. One kid who always got away with anything he wanted to because the parents went through a bad divorce finally understood I didn't believe in accidents.
It also helped they didn't know I was bluffing.
Excellent form!
I take a lot of heat because I truly do not believe there is any such thing as an accident when humans are involved. Of course the flamers have yet to give me an instance that I could not pick apart.
Kinda sucks that my daughter has to wait until she is 12 in the PRNY.
Then again, our Jr's did win the Nat'l championship this year.
Connecticut?
Astounding.
I'm a little concerned about the way she is holding her shotgun....Is it just me or is this a bit unsafe?
Geez, looks like Chelsea.
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