Would you host a kid's party at a gun range? Texas Gun Range to Host Kid Parties
|
|
|||||
|
16 votes
|
|
36% | ||
|
29 votes
|
|
64% | ||
owners of the Eagle Gun Range in Lewisville, Tex. The gun range is set
to open at the end of summer 2012. (Courtesy David Prince)
Instead of bowling alley or laser tag birthdays, Texas parents will soon
be able to host parties at a less traditional venue, a family-friendly
gun range set to open this summer.
The range will have two rooms for children's birthday parties so the
young partygoers can attend a class and then fire a few rounds before
cake and presents.
"A lot of people don't know how to shoot a gun so we're providing
education and training for shooters of all ages," range owner David
Prince told ABCNews.com. "They have birthday parties with go-karts and
trampolines -- with proper education before going into a gun range, why
not a birthday party?"
The Eagle Gun Range in Lewisville will be a 24-lane facility targeted
toward both avid and novice shooters. Children eight years and older,
who are tall enough to shoot over the shooting table, will be able to
fire at the range. According to Texas guns laws, parents or guardians
must give written permission for children under 18 to possess or fire a
weapon.
"They'll be in the classroom, walk into the range, shoot, go back to the
classroom, and have cake and ice cream," Prince said. "There's no
pinata. It's not festive like that. There are safety glasses, ear
protection, and that's the only time they test the gun."
Prince said that both parents and children will attend a safety class
taught by a National Rifle Association (NRA) certified instructor before
going anywhere near a gun.
"A parent or guardian or NRA instructor will all be in arm's range," he
said. "There's no child that will be walking around with a gun at a
birthday party."
The young children will be shooting BB guns and .22 pistols and can move up from there as they get older.
"We're reaching out and trying to educate people so they understand
there is a responsibility that goes with the right and privilege to bear
arms," said Prince, 62. "It's a responsibility to learn how to do it
effectively and safely."
"It's been 30 years since a gun range was built in Dallas," he added.
"There's huge demand and little supply so I reached out to meet the
supply. This is all parent-driven. We're not going out pulling kids off
the street. Parents are coming in and want this for their children."
Prince said he has received hundreds of emails from supportive parents
who want to bring their children and said he does not know of any other
range that offers similar training and education for children.
But some parents are already expressing concern over the new party spot.
"It makes me very nervous," Dawn McMullan told ABC News' Dallas affiliate WFAA. "I think eight-year-olds, developmentally, can't tell the difference between play and reality sometimes."
McMullan is an East Dallas mother of two boys who has been involved in gun control advocacy.
"To put it in a party or game atmosphere just seems to not respect a gun as much as we should respect guns," she told WFAA.
The Eagle Gun Range has found itself at the center of a national debate
over gun rights, discussions about how young is too young and even a
source of material for comedians.
On "Jimmy Kimmel Live," the comedian joked, "The range says kids, for
them to be able to shoot, they have to be eight years old and need to be
tall enough to see over the shooting table, but other than that, the
only rule is no shooting in the bouncy house."
Kimmel also shot a spoof video where a Chuck E. Cheese's became a Chuck
E. Norris and children ate cake off of guns and took aim at each other.
Prince said the range is "thankful and blessed" for the attention and he enjoyed Kimmel's skit.
"We thought it was hilarious," Prince said of the sketch. "I don't care
for him as a comedian, but that particular skit was funny."
Prince maintains that what he is doing at the range is no different from
the Boy Scouts' being trained in rifle shooting or children playing
video games with guns.
"[Kids] have been aiming and shooting guns forever with video games. Why
not use a real gun and let them know what the differences are? It's not
a toy. They need to know that. How are they going to know that if we
don't tell them and show them?"
The gun range is scheduled to open later this summer.
Top Opinion
-
Jackie G - Poker Playing Pa... 2012/06/11 17:35:00yes
+4Sure, teaching kids the correct information about gun ownership is a good thing and a party makes it better
However, that is not to say there is something wrong with other people doing so. If children live in a house with guns it is imperative that they learn how to properly respect them and the damage they can cause. This could be a fun way for them to learn
Just a few months ago, in Texas I believe, a father handed his young son a military style
weapon with a short barrel at a shooting range, which the boy began to fire and the recoil turned the barrel under his chin as he fired the next round and blew his brains all over Daddy.
How can this ignorance be stopped? Do we now need to ask intelligent adults to make a law forbidding allowing children to play with real guns? Good God, every day it just gets more absurd.
There is no better place for children to learn these basics than at a safe range with a NRA certified instructor.
I owned my first firearm, a Winchaster 37, 410 ga, at the age of 12, but had shot a 16 ga shotgun several years before while squirrel hunting.
When I was young, the 4-H club held firearm training and we shot single shot .22 rifles under adult supervision, and sometimes a facrory shooter would put on a demonstration..
Also before liberals started crying about it, several high schoos used to have rifle teams, where the shooters strived for a college rifle team, and finally the Olimpic rifle team.
We must remember that the children of today are going to be the shooters of tomorrow, and the earlier they learn firearm safety, the better.
Most states now require a hunter safety class before a young person can receive their first hunting license, and those classes are held at firing ranges, or gun clubs.
I realize that there are those that do not agree with our right to keep and bear arms, but since that is our right and heritage, children should learn how to handle firearms safely, because not to do so can be determinal to their safety.
All my children and grandchildren can handle firearms safely, and are good at gun control, which is being able to hit your target.
My uncle began teaching me about guns and shooting around age 6. He preempted the shooting instruction with a thorough indoctrination of gun and shooting safety, which I have passed on to my children (also at an early age).
A gun is NEVER to be thought of or treated like a toy.
A gun is NEVER to be considered unloaded until it is inspected and found to be so.
A gun is NEVER to be pointed at anything or anyone you don't intend to shoot.
And matter of fact, while I was not a child at the time, my 22nd birthday was spent at a proper gun range last November. It was the best by far I've had (it beat going to stinking Disneyland at 3 even). I got to shoot all kinds of firearms I'd never otherwise have had the opportunity to shoot (being of course that they are incredibly very expensive these days - it's not possible for everyone to buy any and every caliber and type just to try them out and then resell them at a highly diminished value after the fact). And I was also able to actually see how good of a shot I was, with grouping and accuracy of where I was able to place my shots (something you can't really do in backwoods shooting at cans or bo...
And matter of fact, while I was not a child at the time, my 22nd birthday was spent at a proper gun range last November. It was the best by far I've had (it beat going to stinking Disneyland at 3 even). I got to shoot all kinds of firearms I'd never otherwise have had the opportunity to shoot (being of course that they are incredibly very expensive these days - it's not possible for everyone to buy any and every caliber and type just to try them out and then resell them at a highly diminished value after the fact). And I was also able to actually see how good of a shot I was, with grouping and accuracy of where I was able to place my shots (something you can't really do in backwoods shooting at cans or bottles).
Those points aside, being that it is becoming more and more difficult to find anywhere to shoot other than at gun ranges, it made it all the more cool that my parents (mom and step dad) arranged that for me (I certainly wouldn't pay the outlandish fees totaling hundreds of dollars in annual fees just to go somewhere to use my own guns and exercise my 2nd Amendment Right as an American Citizen that was to remain completely unmolested and as-is in the first place). That little swaray set us back $150 just for that one and awesome day in gun rentals and ammunition purchases alone, to give you some inclination of what I'm talking about.
And going back to kid thing, I don't believe you will ever find a kid who doesn't think using a firearm is fun once they've had the opportunity to do so. I've certainly never come across one. But I didn't find it any less fun with being educated about them at the same time, not even when I was seven years old. And hey, if a minor decides that's what he or she wants to do for their birthday, and with their parents consent, what's the problem with it? Is it ANY of our business what that child's parent's decision is going to be? I rather don't think it is. But I personally see nothing wrong with it.
I was brought up with guns (from a very early age) and was taught that there use was not a game and very serious.
If you asked me what I would have wanted for a birthday party as a kid, it would be fun without a lesson...
Fun is fine
Their dad's philosophy on how to keep his children out of his firearms was to keep them in the dark about them, never taking the time to educate his children about them any further than "just don't touch them". So one day, as kids are wont to do, they found one of their dad's firearms. It was not locked up and it was loaded, without the safety on. So naturally, they decided to play "cops and robbers" with it. In the end, the sister shot her brother and killed him, instantly (she shot him in the head at point-blank rage). These kids were around the same as I was when I'd started to be introduced to and educated about firearms, too.
So you tell me, which is the better alternative here? Educating or not educating your own children about firearms (especially if you are a firearm's owner)? And so I believe this to be a good thing. Even better than being taken out into the woods and taught to shoot. At least at a gun-range it is an entirely controlled setting and with well-experienced firearms users ...
Their dad's philosophy on how to keep his children out of his firearms was to keep them in the dark about them, never taking the time to educate his children about them any further than "just don't touch them". So one day, as kids are wont to do, they found one of their dad's firearms. It was not locked up and it was loaded, without the safety on. So naturally, they decided to play "cops and robbers" with it. In the end, the sister shot her brother and killed him, instantly (she shot him in the head at point-blank rage). These kids were around the same as I was when I'd started to be introduced to and educated about firearms, too.
So you tell me, which is the better alternative here? Educating or not educating your own children about firearms (especially if you are a firearm's owner)? And so I believe this to be a good thing. Even better than being taken out into the woods and taught to shoot. At least at a gun-range it is an entirely controlled setting and with well-experienced firearms users there to handle the situation and to mitigate the small chance of somebody doing anything that would put these kids -or others- in jeopardy.
But that said, nothing demonstrates the devastating power of a bullet than shooting through a 1" thick piece of steel with a M-16 out in the woods, that also goes straight through a centuries old Fir tree! That is something shooting at a paper target will NEVER demonstrate.
My dad took me shooting starting around age 7. It was a very positive experience.