I'm going to teach my daughter to shoot when she's old enough, and she'll learn The Four Rules even younger.

It makes sense that in a society where firearms are so prevalent, you'd want to teach your children to handle them properly. An instinct inside me says that it may not be a good idea to teach a child shooting because it somehow propagates the desire to shoot or even violence, but rationally, I understand that it's much better to let the kid know what she's doing when a dangerous tool ends up in her hands.

My lack of understanding - and a pinch of disagreement with the idea of gun prevalence - stem from the fact that in Russia and the former Soviet Union countries, much like the rest of the world, firearms aren't as prominent or nearly as frequently appearing. Sure, guns exist, but they're restricted to people whom you would expect to handle one: the police, the army, paramilitary and home defence services, - and young boys tend to look up to people who own the firearms with awe. In other words, it's just "not my thing"; I don't understand it because I haven't touched it (the culture of gun ownership) personally, even though I understand the feeling of power that comes with handling it (the gun). I wonder what it feels like and what people who own guns feel about the guns themselves and the culture.