Exactly, you can't legislate stupidity. My grandad taught me to shoot when I was 4, but would he have left a loaded rifle in the corner of the room where I could get at it?

I'd call letting a 4 year old fire real weapons utter stupidity, but each to their own.

I didn't have any guns when the children were small (coincidence? of course not). I have some now and a dim memory of small children. I don't think a four year old could reach the trigger on long guns (not conventionally, one could put a stick though the trigger guard, hold the barrel in his or her mouth and jump on the stick). A small child could operate a lightly pressured trigger on a hand gun but now we're talking about a level of parental stupidity such that the toddler would probably already have burned the house down learning to light the paraffin lamps.

Pink rifles aren't just for kids, btw, we used to have pink plastic (well, the stock was plastic) full sized .22, iirc it was also available in a glittery version. Ideal for the gun rack on one's eetle.

Rather a heavy price to pay for a political statement.

Indeed.

The United States of America: Where even morgues full of our kids can't make us think twice.

I'm proud of the UK response after the Dunblane tragedy. At least we tried to make sure it couldn't happen again.

Well said.

I won't let my husband near one! They don't market kiddie sized chain saws "my first chainsaw" imagine the furore if they did.

If only I were stinking rich, I'd waste money marketing that into America and then point out the irony when the uproar started

Is that any less absurd or dangerous than My First Bible?

Bravo!

Four is clearly to young an age for kids to be playing with air rifles, but what age is about right? I'd say twelve upwards.

It's one of those things you can't put a definitive age on. Some 12 year olds shouldn't be using one either so it really is down to the parents to ascertain whether or not their child can understand everything you need to know about owning / using a rifle.

I'm being pedantic here but you don't 'play' with any kind of rifle

When I was younger I once knew a fellow 15 year old who thought it was funny to shoot people with an air gun. He shot me in the arse, but thankfully he was some distance away and it didn't embed. Bloody hurt though.

You're legally allowed to use a potentially lethal weapon when you get your drivers licence, so perhaps it should be the same age as driving.

Yeah ... sorry about that