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Show Game Department Official Advises Sania Claus" on Gifts oi Firearms for Christmas . j A "real gun" under the Christmas Christ-mas tree is a dream that many Utah youngsters hope will come true when Dec. 25, 1362 rolls around. Mindful of the tremendous number of "Christmas guns" annually an-nually bestowed on the state's young folks, Conservation Officer Offi-cer Larcn Roper this week offered of-fered a few helpful reminders for "Santa Claus" to keep In mind: "First," he pointed out "It Is illegal under Utah law for any Juvenile under the age of 14 years to own a firearm of any kind. It ls equally unlawful for any adult to offer, sell or give away a firearm to a Juvenile under un-der the age of 11." While age ls the first criterea for possession of a firearm, it is by no means the most important, thing to consider when giving a gun as a gift. Mental attitude and the responsibility a youngster young-ster is capable of assuming should come in for close examination. exam-ination. "Many youngsters," Officer Roper Ro-per said, "grow up quick, others, oth-ers, even when they reach physical phy-sical maturity are no more than children." "Providing your son or daughter daugh-ter Is ready for a gun, both legally leg-ally and emotionally," Laren said, "the best weapon for a first gun ls a single shot bolt action 22 calibre rifle. We recommend this weapon above all others because be-cause in our opinion it is the safest saf-est weapon for the beginning i looter." "The bolt action is generally far safer and more accurate than the pump, lever or semi-automatic weapons currently on the market, and the safety aspects of the single shot feature should largely speak for themselves." Also, "We should encourage that the first gun, or any gun for that matter, be manufactured of the traditional gun metals. While there are many plastic, nylon and other component substitute weapons of good quality on the market we should point out that state-wide reports from hunter safety instructors during the last month list more than a half dozen doz-en blowups of these 'substitute for metal' weapons." Several of these accidents in volving rynthetlc weapons resulted re-sulted in Injury to the shooter or his companion. Finally, Officer Roper reminded remind-ed parents that they assume a tremendous responsibility when giving a gun, a responsibility for training the youngster In proper use of the weapon and In sports manship and fair play In the hunting or sporting field. |