i sell guns for a living, you must be 18 to purchase a gun or knife in new york state. you must be 16 to purchase and air rifle. i take gun safety very very seriously. i think that the vast majority of parents do as well.
guns can be locked and rules can be made that if a child wants to go hunting, a parent or gaurdian must be present. hell i'm 30 years old and i still don't hunt without my father. it a saftey issue that i take very seriously.
people get killed in the woods all the time, look at what happened with dick cheney, the guy didn't die but cheney's buddy still got shot. it was an accident. 99% of the shootings that happen while hunting are accidents.
any parent that lets thier child go hunting without supervision is just irresponsible. it also seems to me that there is really no logical reason why a child would hide the fact that he wants to go hunting. the same cannot be said for gambling online.
if your child comes up to you and says: hey lets go hunting, or hey deposit 25 bucks into my
pokerstars acct. which are you more likely to respond yes to.
in most cases, children, and at 17, you are a child, do not have the maturity level to manage many of the issues that most adults face everyday.
lets say a 16 year old kid with no job, gets a prepaid
visa card for his birthday, fakes his age on pokerstars and deposits it. said child experiences a good run then loses it all. child says to self, i did pretty good there for awhile. i want to try this again. said child cannot use the initial method of depositing again due to not having any income. so the child says well if i just had 10 dollars i could put it on. well where is this child going to get the money. lie to his parents about needing something for school, raid thier parents dresser drawers, or parents wallet when they are asleep. i think you can see where i am going with this.
if a child is going to play
poker online then proper supervision is key. the kid will figure out a way whether the parents like it or not. so why not supervise and regulate. i'd rather the child be honest about it then steal or lie.