As long as we remain on topic to the topic, this thread may go forever.
To contribute to the topic:
Giving an eight year old a gun is not very smart as I think about it. He is young and could easily hurt himself or someone around him. What if he goes to school and tells the teachers he shot his dads .45 in the backyard not knowing its a bad thing?
Imagine the cops at your front door asking you questions?
When I was five my brother drawed a picture of a bomb he saw on TV, and the school sent him and locked him in the office and interviewed me about it before contacting my parents. Then my brother. Long story short, its on his record, and the cop was fired.