We had family in from out of town, I knew my 13 year old cousin has been playing with airsoft guns for about 2 years. They are similar to BB guns. Hm and his friends go out in the woods and shoot them at each other., playing soldiers. I have to say I did not approve of this but he is not my kid, and he never discussed it in front of my son after being asked not to. He does live in a very rural area where children are raised around guns. I remember a lot of my older cousins hunting squirrels with BB guns from a early age, and by 10 or so they were going deer and turkey hunting with my uncle. After one of my cousins shot the other in the belly with a BB they were supervised with those and never allowed access to the rifles unless they were going hunting. This was like 20 years ago.
Back to the story, now my younger cousin has moved from air soft guns to real ones. I do not know how many he has but his mom said guns. I was shocked that she takes him to the shooting range or lets him shoot them in her back yard, "to blow off steam." This is a couple times a week occurrence. I personally found it unhealthy to have this form of stress relief. We live in an urban area where guns are used daily to kill someone, so we do view them a bit differently. My cousin is arrogant, racist, and a homophobe, he thinks it is okay to beat up someone who dresses or acts differently than he does. My mom and I wonder how long before he takes a life, we just feel that 13 is to young to have free access to guns. BTW, they are not locked up. They are his guns and in his room in his own gun safe which he has a key for. :(
