I'm a big fan of Little People, Big World. But in watching the episode where Matt takes the boys camping, I have to take exception to his views on guns.

The episode started with them packing up and getting ready to go camping. They clearly showed the boys father Matt packing a 12 gauge Mossberg shotgun and an ammo can. Later in the episode Matt gets into an argument with 15-year old Zachary about taking away the "bullets" for one of their friend's "gun". Matt says the boy didn't tell him he was bringing his own gun, was trying to hide it from him, so he took the "bullets" away.

What the 15-year old friend brought wasn't a gun, but an air rifle. The "bullets" that Matt took away were BBs. Having played with BB guns when I was 15, I didn't really know what the big deal was. What's more, the very next scene Matt breaks out the shotgun and starts teaching the boys to shoot.

I appreciate teaching boys how to use and respect guns, but from what they showed Matt didn't do that. He took out the shotgun, racked the slide, pointed it at a can they'd set up, and fired it. Not one of them was wearing ear or eye protection. He then handed the gun to one of his boys, told him to point it that way, and let 'er rip. He didn't appear to teach the four rules, or point out any of the guns features like the safety, magazine, or action release lever.

Now I realize that the safety lecture may have been edited out. But the boys were clearly not wearing ear or eye protection. They even showed them futilely trying to plug their ears with their fingers when the shots were being fired. What's more the boys had mixed success shooting. Zachary is also a dwarf and clearly couldn't handle a 12 gauge. He fell over twice and even his average sized son let the gun fly out of his hands after shooting it.

But the BB gun was too dangerous.