Hell, I learned to shoot at age six, and got my first Daisy air rifle not long after. Can't say as it did me or anyone else any harm, except for the one time I bounced a ricochet off the bridge of my nose and had a welt for a couple of days - I've never so much as aimed a firearm at another human being, and that includes the air gun wars which were the occasional recreation of the more reckless among my cohort.

On the other hand, nine might've been too young to take my first deer; I've never had any particular desire to hunt since then, although if it were that or starve, I suppose I'd do the former - not that it'd be hard around here, where whitetail are abundant and have no fear of humans. It did teach me a great deal, though I might rather have learned it a few years later than when I did; on the other hand, I doubt I'd have been able to. In any case, while I certainly still eat venison when the opportunity presents, on the whole I'm still much happier to shoot deer with a camera than a rifle.

I never really noticed much one way or the other about video game guns. Seems like a lot of stew from one oyster, but I don't suppose anyone should take the word of a Mississippi Borderer brat for much of anything.