Kids, Rifles, and Their Greatest Fears

Moved by the news of a 5 year old boy accidentally shooting his 2 year old sister on the chest with a child-sized rifle in their Kentucky home, photographer An-Sofie Kesteleyn launched the project “My First Rifle.” She traveled across the nation from Ohio to Texas to capture images of children with their Crickett, a lightweight .22-caliber rifle especially designed for the small hands of children. More and more, parents are teaching their young children how to shoot guns to protect themselves, their family and their property from danger. The irony is that when asked to write down what they feared the most, the majority of the children wrote imaginary characters such as zombies and dinosaurs or animals such as bears and sharks instead of people.