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All I want for Christmas is a .22,
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
All I want for Christmas is a .22 In rural America, many boys will find a gun under the tree By Shirley LeungTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL SIDNEY, Neb., Dec. 5 - For Christmas, 10-year-old Jack Arterburn wants something many parents would never consider giving their child. He wants a gun. SCHOOL SHOOTINGS have darkened the popular image of a boy with a gun. But in rural towns such as Sidney, guns on children's holiday wish lists evoke nostalgia. Guns are what boys wanted for Christmas a hundred years ago, both for hunting and as a rite of passage. A gun is what Jack's father, 44-year-old Joe Arterburn, remembers receiving when he was 10. "A .22-caliber bolt-action Remington," recalls Arterburn fondly. So on Christmas morning, young Jack Arterburn will find a Remington 20-gauge shotgun under the Christmas tree. Then he will no longer feel like the odd kid out. Five of his friends already have their own guns, says Jack. "That's why I want one." Advertisement The gun his father bought him, which Jack doesn't know about, is youth-sized, meaning that it's shorter than a shotgun for adults. Of the 200,000 guns expected to be given as gifts this Christmas, more than 100,000 will be youth-sized rifles and shotguns - also known as long guns, says the Professional Gun Retailers Association. (Handguns, for the most part, aren't given to children, experts say). The long-gun market is so popular that the number of gun makers offering youth models has doubled in the past decade to about 20 companies, says Robin Sharpless, a gun marketing executive who is a member of the National Rifle Association's Youth Programs Committee. "One has to recruit the next generation of participants," says Sharpless. "If golf did not have short clubs, you're not going to have as many kids getting into golfing." This Christmas, gun sales for children and adults could get an added boost from the self-defense fever inspired by the events of Sept. 11. "Hopefully, America realizes now, more than ever, how important it is for each citizen to have the right to bear arms," says Ferris Bavousett, a 51-year-old middle-school teacher in Flower Mound, Texas. Do you think it's appropriate for rural children to have guns? Yes No Vote to see results Do you think it's appropriate for rural children to have guns? * 4410 responses Yes 79% No 21% Survey results tallied every 60 seconds. Live Votes reflect respondents' views and are not scientifically valid surveys. For Christmas, Bavousett has bought his 12-year-old son a $350 20-gauge Remington shotgun and his 16-year-old daughter a $600 Winchester .25-06 rifle. It will be his son's first gun, his daughter's second. The companies that sell guns for children, and the parents who buy them, realize that much of society doesn't approve. Some customers have complained about outdoor-goods retailer Orvis Co. showing a photograph in a recent catalog of a child holding a gun - albeit a cap gun. The holiday catalog of Ducks Unlimited, a wetlands conservation group, features a gun-toting child on its cover, but only because the publication goes strictly to hunters and sportsmen. "I'm not sure the general public is that comfortable with guns," says Tildy LaFarge, a spokeswoman for Ducks Unlimited. Gun proponents point out, however, that in some high-profile school shootings - such as the one at Columbine High School, where 12 students and a teacher were killed - the kids firing the shots didn't get their weapons from parents. To the contrary, they say, children who grow up in hunting families develop a deep respect for guns and their dangers. When such a child receives his own gun, the weapon itself delivers only half the thrill; the other half comes from the trust it conveys. "It's a deposit of trust: `I trust you to carry this deadly weapon and not shoot me, the dog or the neighbor,' " says Chris Draffen, a gun salesman in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The age when that trust is granted differs widely. Under federal law, a youth must be 18 years old to purchase a long gun - that is, a shotgun or rifle - and 21 years old to buy a handgun. But it's legal by federal law to buy a gun for someone else as long as he or she is not legally prohibited from owning a firearm, as convicted felons are. Many parents first subject children to hours of official safety training, typically conducted by state wildlife agencies; about half of the 750,000 people who take such training annually are under age 18, according to the International Hunter Education Association. In most states, any child old enough to understand the training is welcome to take it and then hunt, although there are some age restrictions on hunting big game. Some adults say the best way to determine a child's readiness is to take him hunting. When Ken Babcock, a 58-year-old wildlife biologist in Jackson, Miss., took his 10-year-old grandson squirrel hunting two months ago, the 10-year-old boy showed extraordinary restraint, firing his gun only twice in several hours. Concluding that the boy, Dalton Sochinski, "showed he had an appreciation for what hunting was about," Babcock has decided to give Dalton a Browning .22-caliber rifle for Christmas. Babcock won the rifle in a raffle five years ago, and has been waiting for the right moment to hand it down. Will Dalton be pleased to find it under the Christmas tree? His mother, Jennifer Sochinski, herself a hunter, says he has only three items on his Christmas list: a portable CD player, a Nintendo video game and a gun. Here in the west Nebraska plains, there are few diversions other than hunting. The town of Sidney, located a couple hundred miles from the nearest big city, is famous mainly for serving as the headquarters of Cabela's, a private chain of hunting and fishing stores. As communications manager for Cabela's, Arterburn - father of 10-year-old Jack - is a college-educated former journalist. He is also an avid hunter. When he hunts, his three sons love to tag along. The oldest son, named Hunter, received his first gun two years ago at Christmas, when he was 10. His second son is Jack, who this fall took a state-sponsored 10-hour hunter-safety course, complete with an exam, in the hopes of receiving his own gun this Christmas. Although Jack suspects he may get his wish, he thinks it will be a hand-me-down from his older brother - not the gleaming new Remington 870 his father has bought for him. Joe Arterburn's wife, Cathy, says guns worry her no more than any other potential peril. However, Arterburn's 76-year-old mother, Alyce Arterburn, says, "Of course you worry about guns because they are lethal. I guess I just put the trust in Joe to see that everything will be all right." To promote safety, Arterburn keeps all guns in the house in a vault and the ammunition in a separate locked cabinet. He also keeps the keys to his kids' trigger locks. Still, Arterburn concedes he can protect his kids only so much. "It's like driving," he says. "You give them all the tools and education and throw them into the world. You just hope everything you taught them sees them through." Copyright c 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.All Rights Reserved. http://www.msnbc.com/news/667762.asp
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