^ Good Post, RB/J...
Some of my unforgettable/fondest memories are of my maternal Grandfather, (a fookin genius civil engineering and environmental nut before the word environmental was coined), teaching me to shoot his .300 Savage when I was about 8. He had just bought it, was a deer hunter nut and saved his fanny off to buy that long gun, circa 1955.
We did several weekend trips to his cabin on the Mio River in northern lower peninsula of MI, over the next several summers and I learned to shoot that sumbitch...I have his/that gun to this day.
My Ol'Man was a WWII paratrooper jockey jumping out of planes in the Aleutian Islands for 4 years, snapping off a few at the Japanese nuts sneaking up onto the islands off Alaska, and he & I spent many an hour on the gun ranges when I was a kid. He was rated Expert, the highest below the burgeoning Sniper gang. I was always OK to good, depending on the day...my Father was a remarkable shooter.
My point is, besides the fond mems, is I have only regard and respect for fire arms, and learned my lessons well, as a kid. I have a few, want more, and careful and prudent gun ownership is a Right and a privilege.