One of my students turned 16 yesterday. His b-day gift? An AK-47

[Coventina]

His dad bought it for him.

My student showed a photo of it on his phone.

Why would a parent do this?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. Ignorance?

[blueinredohio]

2. What happened to cars for your 16th b-day?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

5. That's exactly what i got for my 16th bday,

I got my dad's 1962 Ford Ranchero, what fun me and my friends had in that car.

[blueinredohio]

12. We got all our kids cars for their birthday.

They weren't expensive but it got them from point a to point b.

[Skittles]

45. must be nice!

I got my first car when I was an airgal in the Air Force!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. Lol death by car numbers were worse for teens than guns until very recently.

[patphil]

3. I remember my parents gave me a BB gun when I was 13. I feel so neglected.

I agree, why would parents do this?

[RobinA]

25. You Feel Neglected???

I didn’t get a gun OR a car for my 16th birthday.

[Tetrachloride]

30. I sense pat was sarcastic

[patphil]

53. You can't put a sarcasm emoji on the title line.

I thought it was obvious...sorry.

[dchill]

4. Small members are hereditary?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Do better.

[dchill]

18. No.

[Aristus]

6. Good luck making it to his 17th.

These nimrods almost always end up shooting their own fool heads off.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

10. ...

[TheProle]

35. Do they though?

I think it's a stupid gift for a 16 y.o. and readily recognize the damage guns have done to American society, but find this claim highly dubious.

[former9thward]

44. If the claim was true there would be hundreds of thousands dead each year.

If not millions. Where are they?

[CrispyQ]

7. Where would he even use it?

Are there shooting ranges for these weapons? Or is he going to go out in the woods & shoot at whatever moves?

[Coventina]

8. I shudder to think.

[Kaleva]

9. You can take it to most any shooting range

It's a semi auto

[Arthur_Frain]

24. Bold of you to assume they'd go to a shooting range

instead of just the neighborhood gravel pit. That’s what normally happens.

[Kaleva]

37. Where did I assume they'd take the gun to a shooting range?

I simply answered a question about if one could take such a gun there. Read post #7.

[Arthur_Frain]

41. Your post I responded to literally says "They could take it to a shooting range"

In the title.

I was making light of the fact that people like that aren’t really likely to abide by any rules and go to a legal shooting range, instead they’re far more likely to blast away at some gravel pit in the neighborhood.

[Kaleva]

49. And the post I responded to literally asked " Are there are shooting ranges

for these weapons?"

It's a drive to the nearest shooting range where I live and one has to be a member or a guest of a member to use it so most people use a place a mile outside of town which is a field bordered by a high bank to the west to target practice and sight in their hunting rifles.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

11. Just about any shooting range will allow you to shoot a semi auto. nt

[Aristus]

16. Oh, there are shooting ranges out there for this kind of bang-bang.

They're usually run by some guy calling himself Mastiff, who has three teeth, never showers, and calls the report from a firing assault rifle "Th' saound uvv FREE-dum!..."

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Not The One I Used To Go To

Owned by a corporate lawyer & run by a guy who worked for a small bank as an auditor. Had his own accounting & tax firm on the side.
I haven't shot in target competition for many years, though. I don't even have ammo for the rifle.
It's closed now because the town to the north exploded in population and the land was worth 10-12x the value of the club.
There's still a very nice target range in the county to our west, but I don't have the interest any longer. Could probably get a grand for the rifle. Not sure why I haven't sold it.
But, that place was a very nice place run by pros. No drinking on the line, no going to the line after drinking. Had to pass their safety test to get a card. Not a bunch of yahoos with guns.
Thing is, I never saw any rifles other than hunting stuff. (Except mine which was a 75th anniversary reissue of the Springfield 1903, and a guy who had an M-1.)
This was serious target shooting and high volume weapons were never a thing.

[madville]

23. OP says it's AZ, lots of desert

People can easily go shoot in the desert there.

[CrispyQ]

36. And if he misses his target, how far would the bullet travel?

Remembering a CSI where someone shot a gun in their backyard, missed the target, & someone blocks away was killed. Did they take poetic license or could that happen?

[Jedi Guy]

39. It can most certainly happen.

Every year dumbshits fire their guns into the air on New Year's. Most of the time those bullets land without hurting or killing anyone. Sometimes, though, they do come down on a person. The old adage of "what goes up must come down" is apparently lost on some folks.

Then there are the people who are killed as inadvertent victims of drive-by or other shootings. The shooter opens fire, the bullet passes through a wall (or perhaps two, depending on how thin they are) and strikes someone who had nothing to do with it.

If the gun is aimed at about the height of a human being, a 9mm bullet will travel a little less than 200 yards before striking the ground, as an example. Different calibers will, of course, travel different distances based on the weight of the bullet, the amount of powder, etc. etc.

[ripcord]

48. People shoot on BLM land daily across the country

More than 95% of BLM land is open to hunting and recreational shooting and you almost never hear about an accidental shooting. It seems around here that legal possession of a gun is more serious than the assholes who use them when committing crimes.

[Zeitghost]

50. Yes

Any shooting range suitable for rifles work just fine.

[SYFROYH]

13. As long as the parent keeps it locked and supervises when its in use.

It's unlikely to be an issue.

[Skittles]

47. LOL

ALRIGHTY THEN

[TheRealNorth]

17. It is fucked up

It's not like it's a hunting rifle that you would use for deer hunting (you COULD use it to hunt deer, but it's not ideal).

[Kaleva]

38. Depends

It would be fine in any hunting situation one would use a 30-30 in.

[LAS14]

19. What state? nt

[Coventina]

20. AZ n/t

[MarineCombatEngineer]

22. It figures,

I live in AZ when not on the road.

[fierywoman]

26. What's your opinion of his mental state? Do you feel threatened?

[Coventina]

29. No, I don't feel threatened. He's actually a pretty cheerful kid.

Seems to get along with others in the class well.

I suspect he might be ADHD, as he has a hard time sitting still and focusing, but he's really gone out of his way to cultivate a good relationship with me.

I'm more concerned with him injuring himself than anyone else, really.

I also got the vibe from him that the gun was not something he "wanted", rather his dad wanted him to have it.

[fierywoman]

34. Poor kid!

[Hekate]

27. Why? Toxic masculinity, father to son

[Runningdawg]

28. Living in OK where this is common, let me just say now he wont be using his dads gun any longer.

Anyone that gets a gun for their 16th probably fired their first one, with dad holding the gun, somewhere around age 5.

[Vinca]

31. That's sad. It really is. Heaven forbid he should give him a book.

[brush]

32. Keep a careful eye on that kid. He's gonna want to shoot that gun.

[TheBlackAdder]

33. Better make sure you're his bestie teacher.

[littlewolf]

40. OH please

I got my first gun .22 spring field at age 7
dad and I wud go squirral hunting and rabbit hunting
was the best .. didn't matter if we got anything or not
taught me to sit absolutly still and silent.

age 10 got a 410 shotgun bolt action loved that
got lots more rabbits and my first deer (using slugs)

age 14 got my 12 ga. pump

age 18 bought my first gun 30.06 really nice deer rifle

age 38 got my first SBR (scary black rifle) 5.56
at my job we used them and I need to have to
to stay accurate and keep my job.

that is it for long guns .. still have all of em too .. added a side by side 20 ga
shotgun somewhere in there .. nice bird gun.

having guns taught me responsibility
taught me how to be safe and be careful
around other people. taught me these are NOT
toys .. as a result never played "army" with a stick
I knew this stuff was real and deadly

so give weapons to your kids and supervise them
teach them they are not toys but tools (in my case to put meat
on the table) respect them know them all aspects of them.

so there ya go .. flame away.

as far as this kid goes .. you can hunt with a AK but I prob would have
gone with a 30.06.
but I don't know the kid ... dad must be comfortable with it.

[Meowmee]

42. We could be reading about another mass shooting at some point

And the father and gm will get off the hook I am sure.



Anyone who needs that to hunt is not much of a hunter.

[Zeitghost]

51. Why would that be?

7.62x39 has similar ballistics to the .30-30, the cartridge that's taken more deer in this country than any other.

The AK platform isn't all that accurate, at least compared to a deer rifle, meaning it would take more skill to take game, not less.

[Dysfunctional]

43. Around here in rural NC, many children get a 12 gauge shotgun for their 12 birthday.

Deer rifles come later, and if the family can afford it, when they get their license, an 8-year-old pickup with 150,000 miles on it. A pickup with less than 100,000 miles just ain't broken in yet.

[Skittles]

46. because dad is a gun-humping piece of shit

who wants to turn his son into a gun humping piece of shit

[moondust]

52. Grooming.

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