Guns

A has been asking for an Airshot rifle for a little while. He used one in India on the beach to shoot balloons a few years ago. We've managed to deflect it until now. It surfaced again.
Now that he is in middle school, he friends have BB guns and they let him try it out. He tried to make a deal with us. He said if he were to to straight As this quarter, would we be willing to buy him a remington airshot rifle. I reacted badly to the remington, but D said he would chew on it to buy some time.
But the very next day, we found out that S was going to go BB gun target practice with his cub scout, now that he is a webelo (almost boy scout).
A comes up to me and asks what I got him for Xmas -I said "nothing", not wanting to get into a discussion. He then asks if I would give him money for xmas, $68 of which he would use towards purchasing the rifle -which he would share with his brother and he would be responsible and not take it anywhere without our permission. Plus the remainder of the cash he would share equally with his brother etc.. He even roped S's neck with his arm, a little roughly..
Well, if you know A, this is totally out of character. Him sharing anything, let alone his rifle, with his brother. He doesn't share a libray book after he has read it with his brother!
I'm afraid this is opening a can of worms, like D says "this is gun country"
confusion clears.. My initial gut reaction is right and I am going to stand by it.