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Capybara · September 30, 2012, 05:41 PM

I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s. I recall being about 9 or 10 years old. My parents were pretty anti-gun but they at least let me have a BB gun but would never let me around real guns. A neighbor of ours had an old Marlin semi-auto .22. It was broken so he discarded the entire bolt and internals, it was just an empty receiver, barrel and stock, and gave it to me. I showed it to my parents and showed them that is was totally non-functional and they let me keep it to play Army with.

I was the envy of the other kids in the neighborhood but looking back on it, I knew how to treat my BB gun as far as gun safety but it probably wasn't wise to let me run around with a real (non-functioning) .22, having pretend shootouts with my friends who had plastic M16s. Imagine if a cop would have seen me from a distance. Nothing ever happened though, I kept it to our front and backyard, didn't carry it around the neighborhood.

September 30, 2012, 05:41 PM	#46
Capybara Senior Member Join Date: April 8, 2012 Posts: 180	I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s. I recall being about 9 or 10 years old. My parents were pretty anti-gun but they at least let me have a BB gun but would never let me around real guns. A neighbor of ours had an old Marlin semi-auto .22. It was broken so he discarded the entire bolt and internals, it was just an empty receiver, barrel and stock, and gave it to me. I showed it to my parents and showed them that is was totally non-functional and they let me keep it to play Army with. I was the envy of the other kids in the neighborhood but looking back on it, I knew how to treat my BB gun as far as gun safety but it probably wasn't wise to let me run around with a real (non-functioning) .22, having pretend shootouts with my friends who had plastic M16s. Imagine if a cop would have seen me from a distance. Nothing ever happened though, I kept it to our front and backyard, didn't carry it around the neighborhood.