My dad taught me responsibility as a child. He also picked up his gun and said "if you ever touch this without me there supervising you, I'll kick your ass into the next time zone." Verbatim. When I was five.
Oddly enough, it worked. I never felt any desire to even touch a firearm without my father's express permission and presence, even when another responsible adult gave me permission to look at one of theirs. Funny how it works out, ain't it?
My mother believes everyone has the right to own guns of any sort and to carry them with them in public. However, she also doesn't understand why anyone needs more than one gun. She's given me grief over my intentions to buy a new rifle for some time now. "You already have a rifle, why do you need another" and other crap. My reply: "Because my rifle is comparitively short-ranged, I have to do a lot of compensating for bullet drop just to hit something at the distance between my blind and my feeder, and if I need to get more than one shot off in a hurry, a lever-action just isn't going to cut it."
She also stated that she didn't want me getting a WASR-10. She has no problem with the gun itself, even though she can't see why I want to own since I already have "a perfectly good rifle", but she doesn't want me getting one because she's afraid of what people will think when they see me going around with a "bullet-hose look-alike". She isn't bothered by me owning the gun, but what stupid people will think about it. So I can't buy one until I have my own home.
I'm getting a Kel-Tec SU-16 this summer just to spite her and to get a rifle with better range.