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TIMES-DISPATCH (Richmond, Virginia) 07 July 04 7-year-old guns down egg-stealing snake - With father's help, Kayla aimed to do something about it (Bill Baskervill)
(AP) Seven-year-old Kayla Williamson was angry when she found a big black snake stealing eggs from the family's hen house.
So she shot and killed it.
It wasn't the first time Kayla showed skill with a gun. Last year, she killed a deer from 50 yards with one shot.
"She won't back up from anything," said her father, Frankie Williamson.
Kayla and her father spotted the nonvenomous snake when they went to gather eggs June 12 at their home in rural Nottoway County about 50 miles southwest of Richmond.
Kayla sells the eggs and her father said the snake "was full of eggs."
"I was mad," Kayla said in a phone interview.
Her father gave her a .22-caliber revolver loaded with rat shot, rounds that contain small pellets.
"She got it in the head with the first shot, but she shot it a couple of more times just for practice," said Williamson, who proudly took a photo of his 4-foot-tall daughter holding the snake.
"He was 6 feet long and 2 inches," Kayla said. "My dad dragged him out on a stick and then I shot it."
"I was kinda scared of the snake, but when my dad got him out I wasn't," she said. "After I shot him, I wasn't really scared."
Asked what she likes to do other than shooting and hunting, Kayla said, "Nothing."
Williamson said Kayla has been spent countless hours shooting, starting when she was about 4. He has emphasized gun safety, noting that his daughter handles guns only when he's with her. There is no minimum age for hunting in Virginia if under adult supervision.
Last year, Williamson took then-6-year-old Kayla to a deer stand in the woods.
"We were there a couple of hours when about five [deer] came out in the field to feed," he said.
Kayla took aim with a high-powered, bolt-action rifle. "She put a perfect shot on it probably at about 50 yards," said her father.
"It was fun," said Kayla, who enters second grade in September. "He gave me the gun and I shot it."
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7-year-old guns down egg-stealing snake

THEM THERE REDNECKS SURE LEARN EARLY!