The owner of a store that sells hunting supplies says he has no problem with the provincial government's proposal to lower the hunting age to 12 from 14.

Darrin Didychuk, the owner Green Diamond Outfitters, says his children began hunting when they were teenagers and he says he would have been comfortable if they had started even younger.

Currently, minors aged 14 and older can get a minor possession permit for a firearm. The Department of Natural Resources is considering lowering the age to 12.

Darrin Didychuk says he would've been comfortable with his own children hunting at age 12. (CBC)

He says lowering the age gives parents the opportunity to teach children the value of the province's natural resources, such as enjoying the outdoors.

A minor’s licence differs from an adult’s because minors have to be with an adult while using a gun and the gun can’t be any bigger than a 23-calibre.

They also have to complete a firearm safety and hunter education course.

Didychuk said it was important to him that his children took safety courses and hunted.

“It’s a matter of education for me. I enjoy the outdoors and New Brunswick has a great training program with the hunter safety and long-gun program in teaching people about firearms," he said.

"So I think it’s important – education is good and start them as young an age as possible.”

He said the safety course is intensive. It teaches people everything from the history of firearms to the safety and operation of firearms, plus hunters learn to handle the firearms in front of a training officer.

He said he wouldn’t have been nervous if his children, who were 16 and 14 when they began hunting, started even younger.

“Not in my presence, no. As long as they’ve had the education and the training. Education is something in our household that we rely on and encourage,” he said.

“Kids today are exposed to so much, on TV, especially when it comes to firearms, giving them that training that age, it shows them what’s real and what isn’t.”

While he wouldn’t have worried about his own children, he acknowledged that other people may let their children hunt on their own, or children may have access to guns when parents aren’t watching.

“In New Brunswick, with the training programs, teaching respect for the firearms and what they have the capability of doing, is at the basis of all of it," he said.

He said without the parents having to have done the safety course as well, he wouldn’t be in support of it.