Vesta, if someone tried to carjack me (no matter their age) and even hinted that they had a gun... then they would have my gun in their face.
Evil, ever hear of Buck Fever ? What we call it up North East.
Take your 14 year old son or daughter to weeks of gun safety courses, then to learn the regulations on the laws.
All kinds of practicing in the summer, then comes fall. Dear Season.
Not just kids but full grown adults on first hunt sometimes get this problem. They can get a perfect bead on a deer and as they have never hunted or killed anything they instead of taking the shot begin to shake, they either cannot shoot or if they do the bullet goes way off target.
Takes experience to hunt and get a clean kill. I have heard of police that served 20+ years that never even had to draw their weapon against anything much less a human.
For us who practice at the range or even hunt, the responsibility that comes with the ability to end the life even in self defence is a big leap of the mind.
Could I shoot a charging bear, you betcha in a heart beat, Could I shoot an 11 year old child regardless of what kind of weapon they had, unless the child had a flame thrower I doubt it.
One has to know when to hold and when to fold in life.
Problem may be that we are raising kids to be non violent to the point the bully's are taking over. Even some Court judges are getting weird, going back to the dark ages that if a woman who is raped just calmly submitted rather then fight back and take a chance and a good one at that that the rapist will become enraged and kill them, they the surviving rape victim had consented some how to the rape. Don't fight back against a bully because if you do you will get punished more then the Bully. Get raped is as bad, fight and be injured more or killed, do not fight---well perhaps you asked for it.
Not just females that are maturing early today boys as young as 10 can and do on occasion rape and murder.
Not easy for females today ---or perhaps all too easy with Abortion becoming the norm, to those females whose brains are conditioned and hard wired to have the first instinct to protect the young even at cost to our own life.
First thing I was taught was to confirm the target one shoots at, is it a deer or another hunter ? In case of threat, is this a real threat or one that can be handled with no violence.
When anyone has the ability to end life by a knee jerk decision, they should not be around weapons that they can use to do so. Sure a Victim can make the wrong decision and end up dead, but that is to my mind better of living another 60 years knowing you ended the life of someone that was of no threat to you.