I grew up around guns like many of us here, I was exposed to them pretty early by default (protection against packs of coyotes and rattle snakes if we wandered off into the deep deserts of West Texas). Now I live in the city, and I don’t have a “natural” way of easing my little ones into the fundamentals of simply being “around” weapons and what that means. The lessons that were taught to me were simple, we needed them for protection against animals…so integrated lessons were fun and there was an actual purpose behind it. In the city, it’s harder to just say, let’s walk around with our .22 so I can show you how to fend off coyotes if needed. I’m not gonna use the lesson of, let’s walk around the city to show you how to fend off bad people. Well, with the world we live in…it sucks to say but I’m educating my 4 and 2.5 year old now (much earlier than I wanted) with some ultra basic language and behaviors while around a “gun”. Calling them “little guns for now”. I exposed them to a nerf gun recently, shooting at plastic bottles and little items for them to try and knock down (don’t aim at people or heads…it could hurt them etc). They haven’t seen the air soft gun nor the red ryder rifle. Eventually, I want them to know what these “tools” do, and how dangerous they are if not handled properly. I will progress to the bigger guns after a few months/years with each etc. I don’t even know why im posting this here, but maybe it helps someone else think about how to educate our children early on. Guns aren’t going/leaving anywhere in this country, for me, it’s better to educate our children for the obvious purpose of safety/practice and for them to start recognizing any potential future dangers quickly if needed. Better than having them be clueless about what is going on during an emergency. TLDR; the pic shows the progression I’ll use to introduce my little ones into the world of gun safety/knowledge before I even get to a .22.