When I was a kid my dad had a rifle (Browning .22 lever action) leaning against the wall in the back corner of his closet. He never told me not to touch it in fact my parents never said anything about it. I was always interested in guns and played soldier outside with my friends just about every day. We used to look at the ads for the cool Uzi's and shit that the local gun store ran in the Thrifty Nickel.
I did a lot of bad shit growing up: used just about every spray can in the house as a flamethrower, stole booze from the liquor cabinet, made my own napalm, smoked cigarettes, explored the storm drain tunnels. My parents divorced when I was 9 but he left the gun in the closet.
I never even so much as touched that gun until I was 21 years old and already had several guns of my own. I cleaned it, took it out and shot it once, cleaned it again, and the next time my dad was in town I handed it to him. Over the years I looked at that gun many times in the back of the closet but I never touched it because I knew better. I don't know what people are teaching their kids these days but clearly it isn't the right things.