first gun i ever shot was at a friends dads class 3 extravaganza on his WV property. full auto mp5 was my first ever. i was 15 or 16. as far as actual teaching, my best buddy was a fantastic shot and we got out early senior year everyday. at least 2x a week we were at Seitzland shooting high powered rifles while other kids were taking tests. thats the beauty of overloading your schedule in 11th grade! easy senior year. after said friend went into, and got out of army, (11 bravo in 1st Cav) he taught me all the stuff he learned. however thats no substitute for real military training! but still GREAT fun.
My dad, well at least he put the guns in my hands and said aim and shoot pointing at an old tree stump I was six and it was a FA UZI. Later then came .22 revolver, we shot rather often or a 10/22 or 77/22 or his GP-100 or 686. If I remember correctly the first center fire rifle I shot was his semi-auto "Tommygun".
I went to a school that had a rifle range in the basement of one of the buildings. They had a rifle club, I was interested, and joined. My Physics teacher was the coach/instructor, he taught us how to shoot military surplus bolt action .22lrs with Peep scopes.
My dad. First with a BB gun, then with .22's. He wasn't a big shooter, but since I was interested, he went out of his way to make sure I learned safety and got to shoot. Thanks, Dad.
I learned how to shoot pistols because a lot of my friends in HS were into EMS/Firefighting (as was I). A lot of them went on to become cops, so we spend some fun days shooting at the police ranges. I also volunteered on the TEMS team for the local police agency's so I got to handle some weapons there as well.
My brother and I both wanted to learn how to shoot, so we read up, researched and have been learning pistols on our own. six months and counting, still feel there is much to learn
I overheard a coworker was selling a Ruger 10/22 rifle about 8 years ago and decided (for no apparent reason) to speak up and take it off of his hands. Went to the range one time and got hooked. Bought a pistol the week after that.
No one ever taught me how to shoot. My coworker ran me through a quick break down of the 10/22 and Chuck Heston ran me through the ten commandments of shooting. Between those two things, it's kind of intuitive IMO. Since then, I've seen a few videos on how to improve but for the most part, I think it comes naturally to guys. *shrugs*
I guess I oughta reply by now -- I voted "Civilian Instructor" because my first firearms experience was out in Hagerstown with that Hal Noer fella. Bonus: The training rifles happened to include the very model of Savage .22 I was already interested in buying!