[bigfishrunning]

I could make that same argument about giving my 9 year old a chainsaw and telling her to cut some wood

In the best case, some wood gets cut. There are many many worse things that can happen

But hey, same tool. Good uses. Bad uses.

[defrost]

The trick is to give them a tree pruning chain saw, one intended for climbing tree loppers to use one handed - it's an ideal weight for nine years old to use two handed.

And to supervise.

As tested on my children and grand children.

Also, if you happen to have a furnace with a large pot of molten glass, five year olds are capable (given a stand) of making marbles from the furnance and will do that for hours if you can spare the time to let them.

[BeetleB]

Exactly. Would you go around telling normal people that chainsaws are bad, because of how harmful they are in the hands of 9 year olds?