Fred if your boy wants some pre training, training on mechanics of M16 I will be happy to share and or teach him how to shoot it and take it a part and reassemble. I could likely find a suitable rifle for him to practice on.
Thanks SLO he has an AR-15 and don't know how much different an M-16 is. He kinda knows how to clean it and assemble it but I'm not the best teacher and the worse shot.
When the weather clears up we plan on going shooting just to let him get use to the gun and not shake when pulling the trigger. I think if he can get over the recoil and boom then he will need someone better than me to teach him so if you have time this summer we would come down or get your butt up here and fix you a nice steak dinner.