When I worked for the Burbank YMCA as a teen at a summer camp, at Camp Earl Anna, we had gun safety and marksmanship classes for the kids, with .22 rifles. We also had archery, with bows and arrows.
That is the way to go in my opinion, teach the children young to respect guns and to be careful with them, and at the same time they learn that shooting guns can be fun and target practice is great.
We also had a lake, and we taught the children how to fish, and we had horses so that the children could ride horses in the mountains. It was a great place for the city kids, they got to experience a lot of great things in the mountains by Tehachapi.
They sold the camp, and I guess now they use a camp in Catalina Island named Camp Fox.
Summer camps are important for the kids, and we used it as an opportunity to teach the children gun safety, etc.
Salute,
Tony V.