Children are large enough to control a weapon and have enough of a sense of consequences to understand why it's important. Even at that, it's usually .22 rifles, and sometimes just air rifles. The junior rifle training program, which uses .22s, accepts kids ages 12 to 20.

BB guns aren't out of the question for younger children though. Jean Shepherd's holiday classic, A Christmas Story, is a fictionalized memoir centering around his desire for a BB gun. Personally, I didn't want to have one in the house. They aren't allowed on rifle ranges, and shooting up the back yard, as close as we are to other houses, violates the law, so they only invite mayhem.

Open houses at shooting clubs usually include displays, demos and sometimes controlled use of restricted or unusual weapons. We've had full-auto demos, cannon, blackpowder muskets and rifles, and rifles with absolutely huge bullets. (I don't remember the caliber. There's a funny story about controlled use of one that I'd tell if we weren't discussing the death of an 8-year-old.) We have a height and weight limit that eliminates children who haven't reached middle school from controlled use activities.