How many of you taught your child or was taught by your parents to drive a 4000 pound car or handle a weapon. Were you or your parents certified driving or weapons instructors.
I just don't see a lot of difference between those things and diving. All can be quite deadly.
Diving and Firearms are two different things. I completely disagree with the comparison on that basis, and also with automobiles.
Guns are easy to teach. If you understand how they work, how they are to be cleaned and the proper means and places with which to fire them, training is not difficult, nor does it require certification in most places. (Just a background check and a stamp from your county's Sheriff, in GA at least.) In the states which have a CCW permit test, if you can't shoot well enough to pass, go practice and try again.
Firearms are not technical devices, you can't die from a Firearm because you made improper calculations, or fired too many rounds without taking a break of (x) number of minutes. You die from outright stupidity or intentional acts.
I'm not a firearms instructor, but I have been a shooter since I was 7 years old, and a Law Enforcement Officer for 3 years, during all of which I have been required to meet a standard level of Firearms qualification, whether from the department or my Dad. I have no problem whatsoever teaching my son (when hes old enough) to shoot. And I have no doubt in my mind that he will be just as proficient and responsible with the knowledge as I have been.
I will not - however - teach my son to dive.
As far as cars go - by the time most people are parents, they have enough time on the road to be able to sufficiently teach their children how to drive. Although I do believe the legal driving age should be 18, thats another story. Plus Driver's Ed in High School.
But you are comparing apples to oranges. Diving is a highly technical skill in which you have to be constantly aware of every facet of the activity. There are more things to think about in 20 minutes of diving than in 5 years of shooting or driving.
Guns are easy. Always point down range, unload before pointing anywhere else. Any civilian shooter that follows those two rules will never hurt anyone with a firearm. CCW permit holders have one further rule. Never pull loaded gun out of holster unless you have to defend yourself.
If you tried to simplify diving to that extent, your students would most certainly be injured or die.
Although I do believe any OW diver that payed sufficient attention could teach someone else to use the tables and dive properly, unlike Firearms and Cars, if your child dies diving with you, you will probably be charged criminally.
If my child (of legal age) buy a Firearm and shoots someone, I am not liable, even though I taught him the skills to use it.
If my child (of legal age) buys a car and kills someone with it, I am not liable. (Especially because, just like my own dad, I will refuse to let my child be on my insurance policy)
If they steal a Firearm that is improperly secured, or drive a car for which the keys are not taken care of, before they are of age to do so, we are in a different situation. Although the car thing is debateable, because at age 11-17 it's not hard to get a hold of car keys. We've had several cases here, and the parents are not usually charged, the child goes to juvenile court if it is determined they were intelligent enough to know what they were doing at the time.
we are not talking about diving the Doria for Pete's sake he swims around a little if he thinks its cool 
