In 30 states, it’s legal for a child to possess a rifle or shotgun, which advocates say teaches them to use guns responsibly – but critics see it laying a path for danger

In early 2017, a video went viral of a 10-year-old girl named Presley receiving a gift. In the back seat of a car, Presley’s parents hand her a box at least half her size; it might be some kind of musical instrument. Presley, though, overcome with emotion, seems to clock what’s inside instantly: her very first gun.

Armed to the milk teeth: America's gun-toting kids Read more

It’s a 686 Silver Pigeon, an over-under shotgun used primarily for hunting. Beretta, the Italian manufacturer that makes the 686, went on to promote the video on its Facebook page with the caption: “She opens the Beretta box. Her reaction will make you cry.” It added the hashtag #BerettaJoy.

The comments section on the post, with more than 20m views, is reliably tribal. Some called the shotgun a “disgusting gift for a child” and others rebuked “anti-gun people” ignorant of “the level of skill and personal discipline that young lady had to show before her parents bought her a tool”. The viral clip got coverage, too, in the Mirror, Yahoo, and Breitbart, making Presley and her parents lightning rods for the kinds of fractious debates inspired by guns and those who oppose them.

There are many videos like the one of Presley: a quick YouTube search pulls up footage of a boy named Nick, who looks to be no older than five or six, receiving a Savage Rascal .22 long rifle on Christmas morning; a child named Dylan being gifted a rifle; and another, Jared, finding a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun beneath the Christmas tree.

To firearms aficionados, introducing children to guns at an early age, and under adult supervision, ensures that they will use them responsibly and be more mindful of the privilege it is to own and operate one. “We do not have youths participate in any shooting sports without immediate supervision by a trained instructor who has gone through, at the state level, 12 to 15 hours of training, and at the national level, up to three days of training,” says Todd Kesner, director of Montana State University’s 4-H Center for Youth Development. “They need to know what they’re operating is not a toy.”

Critics, on the other hand, see these videos, and the many gun manufacturers who make and market youth-specific firearms, as some of the most corrosive elements of American gun culture.

Since the deaths of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school nearly three weeks ago, the gun debate has endured, thanks in large part to the Parkland students who have pushed for stricter gun legislation at the White House, on CNN, and on social media.

In response, Donald Trump has endorsed – and later reneged on, and then endorsed again – a proposal to raise the federal minimum age at which Americans can purchase firearms from 18 to 21.

However, as it stands, in 13 different states where gun laws are more lenient than federal restrictions, there is no minimum age for possession or purchase of a long gun or handgun. In 30 states, it is legal for a child to possess a rifle or shotgun.

The how-young-is-too-young debate was revived in 2013, after a five-year-old in Kentucky accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister with a Crickett .22 rifle gifted to him the year before. Manufactured by the Pennsylvania-based Keystone Sporting Arms, the Crickett rifle is advertised as youth-specific, touting its manual cocking bolt alongside the tagline “My first rifle”.

Other manufacturers, such as Marlin Firearms, also make guns specifically for young shooters, including the XT-22 series, featured in the company’s brochure with the slogan “First Love. First Car. First Rimfire”. These firearms tend to come in an array of colors, including Annie Oakley pink for girls. Kesner explains that, at National 4-H Shooting Sports, “the difference between the adult firearm and youth firearm is that it’s made to fit or adapted to fit a young person so that they can maneuver that piece of equipment and it’s not overly cumbersome”.

The gun industry’s youth-targeted initiatives are numerous and broadly conceived, including lines of rifles like the Crickett and since-discontinued Chipmunk, publications like Junior Shooters magazine, and programs and organizations such as Youth Shooters for America, the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, and the National Youth Shooting Sports Cooperative Program, an NRA subsidiary that gives grants to 4-H groups, JROTC units, and the Boy Scouts of America.

The Volume 18 cover of Junior Shooters. Photograph: Junior Shooters Magazine

According to a 2013 New York Times investigation, the NRA doled out $21m in grants in 2010; the Times story goes on to explain how, in the gun industry’s youth-centric research, these initiatives are encouraged to use the lexicon of sport and patriotism, including the words “sharing the experience”, “family”, and “fun”, while framing youth marksmanship as engagement with a national and familial pastime.

The website for Junior Shooters, based in Boise, Idaho and edited by Andy Fink, is sandwiched by advertisements for various firearms – including the Bushmaster AR-15, the same make and model used in the Sandy Hook shooting – and accessories from companies including Creedmoor Sports and MGM Targets. In an article titled “A word from your editor”, featured in the Spring 2012 issue of Junior Shooters, Fink asks: “What market isn’t tied to juniors? I really can’t think of any. Military and law enforcement firearms have civilian versions which are applicable. The Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) market has firearms which hold 10-rounds which is the limit for IDPA [International Defensive Pistol Association] competition. When the junior turns 21 they can get a CCW permit. What do they buy? It is usually a gun from a manufacturer they are familiar with.”

We do not need a militia of toddlers State representative Kirsten Running-Marquardt

In contrast to stalled efforts to pass tougher gun legislation, states have successfully rolled back age restrictions as recently as last year, when Iowa, one of the country’s most lax states for gun owners, passed a comprehensive bill that included a provision allowing children under 14 to operate pistols and revolvers so long as they are supervised by an adult over 21.

After the bill passed, the Democratic state representative Kirsten Running-Marquardt said: “We do not need a militia of toddlers,” while the Republican representative Jake Highfill said that “allowing people to learn at a young age the respect that a gun commands is one of the most important things you can do”.

At the 4-H program, children can begin using air pistols and air rifles around the age of nine or ten, according to Kesner. He says that while some children attend the program with dreams of being an Olympic shooter, “our focus has been to develop the character of the 4-H members, not necessarily the marksmanship of the 4-H members”.

Kesner adds: “We always say we’d rather have blue-ribbon kids than blue-ribbon projects.”