What Christmas gift does Uncle Jack give the children in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The gift of the air-rifles ties in with the title of the
book and the major theme that killing mockingbirds is a sin. Had the children not
received the air-rifles, Atticus wouldn't have mentioned that it's "a sin to kill a
mockingbird," thereby introducing one of the major themes of the book. There's also one
other interesting fact that goes along with Uncle Jack giving the kids the
rifles—Atticus had asked Jack to buy them for his kids, but won't teach them how to
shoot. This gives the children the idea that their father either doesn't like guns or
doesn't know how to use one. For example, Atticus won't let the kids take their
air-rifles to Finches Landing to visit Aunt Alexandra's family; thus, he makes them open
those gifts before they leave.

Uncle Jack tells Atticus
that he will have to teach the kids to shoot and his response is "That's your job. . . I
merely bowed to the inevitable" (79). The question is, why won't Atticus teach his kids
to shoot? Again, is he afraid of guns? In a twist, the kids find out a couple of months
later that their father was once called "One-Shot Finch" (97). The reason is revealed as
Atticus takes down a mad dog in chapter 10 with one shot. Scout's proud reaction to her
father's newly-revealed talent is as follows:

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"When we went home I told Jem we'd really have
something to talk about at school on Monday. Jem turned on me. 'Don't say anything about
it, Scout. . . I reckon if he'd wanted us to know it, he'da told us. If he was proud of
it, he'da told us'"
(98).

Among all of the
wonderful things Atticus stands for in To Kill a Mockingbird, he is
a good shot with a gun, but he would rather use the law, the judicial process, and good,
sound reasoning skills to solve conflicts. In a way, by not telling his children about
his shooting talents, he shows them that there are better ways than using guns to solve
problems.