Guns and School, A Good Mix by Schuyler Barnum

[Lisa]

I have been doing a lot of reading today.

Came across this short article:

I learned gun safety after an hour long class at BSA Camp Parsons in Washington State. Amazing as it may seem to those of us who spend a lot of time around guns, many people simply don't know how to handle them safely. A simple addition to the schools' PE course material would cover it.

FULL ARTICLE

Being in Canada this would never fly here, at least I doubt it would in my life time. What is everyone's take on teaching kids gun safety as part of the cirriculum in school. Taking the fear and wonder about firearms out of them could save lives and perhaps give kids a healthy respect for something that is now portrayed as "cool" in video games and on TV.

Thoughts?

 

[Kacey]

I think that teaching kids the reality of guns - including what happens when guns go off when you don't mean them to - instead of the mystique they see in games and movies, could have a benefit... then again... there are kids I would never want to teach how to remove the safety on a gun, never mind use one. I can see both sides of this one.

 

[Blindside]

Well, that sounds familiar, I too learned gun safety at Camp Parsons. To be honest I don't think teaching firearm safety should be part of the standard school curricullum. The comparison between sex ed and firearms safety is poor, a better comparison would be between firearms safety and drivers ed. Not every kid has access or interest in guns, every kid has the sex drive and the appropriate genitalia.

In my town in Wyoming the high school has a riflery club, but that is extra-curricullar, I can't even imagine that at my high school in Washington. I'd rather see it as an optional course, one that I suspect the local ranges would be happy to support. I'd really rather not make it mandatory and have to try to teach it to some uninterested 15 year old.

Lamont

 

[Lisa]

Well, that sounds familiar, I too learned gun safety at Camp Parsons. To be honest I don't think teaching firearm safety should be part of the standard school curricullum. The comparison between sex ed and firearms safety is poor, a better comparison would be between firearms safety and drivers ed. Not every kid has access or interest in guns, every kid has the sex drive and the appropriate genitalia.

In my town in Wyoming the high school has a riflery club, but that is extra-curricullar, I can't even imagine that at my high school in Washington. I'd rather see it as an optional course, one that I suspect the local ranges would be happy to support. I'd really rather not make it mandatory and have to try to teach it to some uninterested 15 year old.

Lamont

I would love to see that here. Right now there is a hunter safety course taught out of our range. It is an excellent program, unfortunately, space is limited and we are turning as many kids away as we are keeping. I would love to see that change.

 

[Blindside]

I would love to see that here. Right now there is a hunter safety course taught out of our range. It is an excellent program, unfortunately, space is limited and we are turning as many kids away as we are keeping. I would love to see that change.

Hunter safety is usually a much bigger subject than "just" firearms safety. In Wyoming the hunter safety courses run 12-18 hours depending on the instructor. A basic firearms safety course can be run in as little as four. Every private range that I have ever visited (and many public ones) have offered training in basic firearms, usually for a very reasonable price.

Lamont

 

[bydand]

The small town I went to elementary school in, had a segment on firearm safety built into their gym/health-ed program, and at the age level who could attend they sent home sign up sheets for hunter safety courses held through a local outdoor club. As far as I know, they still send home the hunter safety information, but don't know about the firearm safety segment anymore. We also had the Michigan DNR come out every winter and go throught the 5th and 6th grade classes to teach snowmobile safety as well. They brought out snow machines and we all got to go through a course set-up on the playground and baseball fields. Needless to say the school was in a rural area, and we all grew up around hunting/fishing and snowmobiling; and the school just wanted to make sure we knew the basic safety rules associated with each activity. It worked well for us, and I wouldn't mind at all if the local school here wanted to do the same thing.

 

[mrhnau]

I guess I'd prefer to keep that kind of training in the home. That's how I was taught, and how I'll teach my children one day.

The comparison between sex ed and firearms safety is poor, a better comparison would be between firearms safety and drivers ed. Not every kid has access or interest in guns, every kid has the sex drive and the appropriate genitalia.

I understand that... however, at least in the US, a drivers license is kind of a right of passage... I don't feel that having or using a gun is in any way a right of passage, nor will anyone look at you funny if you are 25 and don't know how to use a gun properly. I'd expect alot of people in the US would get funny looks if you can't drive a car later in life. Unless you live in a big city, its hard to operate w/out a car (or some form of transport at least), but you can live w/out a gun.

How about a better comparison being SCUBA diving or flying lessons? Totally optional. Or some sport?

there are kids I would never want to teach how to remove the safety on a gun, never mind use one.

That's one reason I'd want to keep it home. I think teachers have a hard enough time teaching kids to read and write, much less determine which kids should be taught how to handle guns.

 

[VogonFord]

Doing a google search for my own name, I came across this site. Of all the things I expected from writing that article, seeing it being discussed on a forum was not among them! It is a pleasant surprise, though.

I am no old guy being 16, but as far as I can tell I act like a NRA Rangemaster when it comes to gun safety (I've actually been a range assistant). I find it sickening how people treat guns almost as toys, but don't immediately think I'm just talking about children. Adults do it as well, and it's simply because they don't respect firearms.

I am not suggesting that this course would have everyone go outside and start marksmanship training, although I wouldn't complain about that :wink2:. I am suggesting that they have a safety course. Unlike driver's ed, it should be required since many people do come across firearms and yet do not have basic ideas on how to handle them safely, and there's no required license to use a firearm, nor should there ever be (There's no Constitutional right to drive a car).

If we'd just get over political differences on the matter, we could save hundreds of lives a year by just teaching people basic firearms safety. They don't need to know how to reload, or safely fire an RPG or many other things, but safe firearms handling is something that's not hard to learn yet can save lives.


If you have any questions about firearms safety, feel free to email me at vogonford@yahoo.com

 

[Lisa]

Welcome to MartialTalk Schuyler.

Hope you stick around. Please feel free to post some ideas for discussion. Its what this site is all about.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts.