In college I was a member of the international students club and "I want to shoot a gun" was one of the first things international kids wanted to do in the semester. I'd say like 50% of them wanted me to take them to a shooting range within the first 6 weeks of coming to the US, it was really weird
I have seen a video of a shooting instructor who brought over a Japanese kid who did all his drills with airsoft and had never shot a real gun before. I'll go look for it and edit in the link if I find it.