If you have both guns and kids, you need to teach your kids about guns from a young age. Such has been the custom in my family for generations.
Typical first-intro... when my son was 3, I had him watch while I blew a 2L jug of water apart with a 12 gauge. I then explained that the gun had no brain and didn't care, it would destroy anything in front of it when the trigger was pulled, so the operator had better be using HIS brain. Showed the jug and graphically explained what his head would look like from such a blast and told him he was to touch no guns in the house without my permission and under my supervision.
Even so, at that age I kept all guns not under my direct control locked in the gun cabinet. I always had a loaded firearm on hand for emergencies but it stayed on my person or in my sight. The gun cabinet had a speed dial and could be opened in less than 2 seconds, if I felt the need for something heavier than a pistol.
To remove the "allure of the taboo" he was told at age 4 he could handle and fire any gun I had that he could handle under my supervision any time, all he had to do was ask. First I made him memorize the Four Rules of Safe Gunhandling... this is like a mantra in my family, we look askance at any child that can't recite all 4 on command by age 10.
I treated power tools much the same.
Another important aspect is moral teaching. Children must be taught the value of human life and the enormity of taking it. They have to be made to understand that there is no save game, no restart, no take-back once you pull that trigger. As we are religious folk, I emphasized that sending a human soul into eternity is one of the most serious things that can be done, and should never be done except by terrible necessity.
Hunting is a good way to teach this, and once a child has seen a rabbit or deer field-dressed and skinned that dividing line between "alive" and 'dead' becomes crystal clear.
By the time my son was 12 he'd shot every gun I owned at some point, under careful supervision. He could recite the Four Rules in his sleep and adhered to them in practice, and well understood the life-and-death nature of the thing.
By age 13 I required and expected a high degree of maturity from him in all things: school and homework, chores and responsibilities, personal accountability and self-motivation. I allowed him to operate my truck on the farm (private property) so he'd learn young how to handle it, along with some heavier equipment like front-end loaders and backhoes. At 14 I trusted him enough to give him the combo to the gun safe. At 15 he was my armed backup when we had a trespasser problem, not an uncommon event, and I let him keep a loaded shotgun in his room.
I was also a very involved parent, day-to-day involved, and kept a close watch on his mental condition thru the teenage years for any signs of problems. We talked about any and all issues he was dealing with, even if they seemed trivial to me if it mattered to him, we talked about it.
Now he has a concealed carry permit and several guns of his own.
We've had zero injuries or deaths from accidental or negligent discharge, and zero murders, in our family line as far back as I know about, which is about 100 years and five generations.
