Mar 21, 2015
Young Irish Republican activist demonstrating rifle handling technique. Queen's Jubilee demonstrstions/riots, August 1977. Photo by Peter Marlow.
Note that the kid's finger is not on the trigger, to prevent accidentally firing the rifle, and that the rifle is pointed in a safe direction, just in case it were accidentally discharged.
This particular stance is described as "low ready", because the rifle is lowered, but essentially ready to fire. (If you look just above the kid's knuckle, on the lower of the rifle, there is a small circle; and inside that circle is a lighter tick mark pointing at 12:00, which means that the safety is off) The rifle just needs to be raised to be aimed at a target, which takes part of a second.