How Old Should a Kid be Before They’re Allowed to use a Firearm? [POLL]

We were having a "water cooler" discussion yesterday about kids and guns here at the radio station. Some of my co-workers firmly believe kids younger than 12 should never be allowed to shoot firearms, while others argued that it's perfectly ok for kids as young as 7-8 years old to use them.

After that discussion, I decided to pose the question to all of our listeners/readers and get their thoughts on the matter. I remember learning to shoot a BB/Pellet gun as early as 7-8 years old. By the time I was 10 I have a .22 and had a shotgun by 12. On the other hand, my son is 10 and there's no way in the world I'd let him have a gun at this point. Just the other day he shot me in the head with one of those plastic toy guns that shoot the little bullets with suction cups on them. He's simply not ready.

My belief is that it really doesn't matter how old a kid is, what matters is how mature they are and how much they respect firearms. We were taught from a young age to respect the fact that a gun can kill you or someone else or cause irreparable damage to a person. They were to be respected and treated like they were loaded at all times, never pointed at anything we didn't intend to shoot and carefully handled. There were stiff consequences for anything that even remotely resembled misuse of a firearm.

What do you think? Take the poll below and feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section!