A recent thread brings this story to light. Feel free to share your own experiences.
When I was a kid I once spent the weekend at my uncle Bill's farm in Ohio. Bill had two sons who were roughly my age, maybe 8-11 years old. I wasn't raised around firearms but my two cousins were farm boys and hunters and were introduced to firearms at an early age.
We were goofing around in the basement and one of the boys had put on a Superman costume, maybe it was around Halloween. The other boy just pointed an air rifle at him, didn't pull the trigger, just pointed it at him. The idea was that the Superman costume would deflect bullets, like the tv show. Boys being boys.
What they didn't count on was my uncle Bill walking in at that exact moment. My uncle Bill, one of the kindest and gentlest men I ever knew, went ballistic. He wore both of those boys out with the belt, because they should have known better than to ever point any kind of weapon at anyone as a joke, and he had taught them better than that. And he was right.
It's funny how you remember things. That was over forty years ago and I have never forgotten that lesson. It's sad though. I never told my uncle Bill what an impression this little incident made on me. He never knew that years later I would develop an interest in firearms and would relay this story to my own son as we shared range time together. Uncle Bill passed away last week at the age of 78 but what I learned from him lives on.
Rest in Peace, Bill.
When I was a kid I once spent the weekend at my uncle Bill's farm in Ohio. Bill had two sons who were roughly my age, maybe 8-11 years old. I wasn't raised around firearms but my two cousins were farm boys and hunters and were introduced to firearms at an early age.
We were goofing around in the basement and one of the boys had put on a Superman costume, maybe it was around Halloween. The other boy just pointed an air rifle at him, didn't pull the trigger, just pointed it at him. The idea was that the Superman costume would deflect bullets, like the tv show. Boys being boys.
What they didn't count on was my uncle Bill walking in at that exact moment. My uncle Bill, one of the kindest and gentlest men I ever knew, went ballistic. He wore both of those boys out with the belt, because they should have known better than to ever point any kind of weapon at anyone as a joke, and he had taught them better than that. And he was right.
It's funny how you remember things. That was over forty years ago and I have never forgotten that lesson. It's sad though. I never told my uncle Bill what an impression this little incident made on me. He never knew that years later I would develop an interest in firearms and would relay this story to my own son as we shared range time together. Uncle Bill passed away last week at the age of 78 but what I learned from him lives on.
Rest in Peace, Bill.
