Firearm safety in schools?

[Maddog]

Firearm safety is being added to the curriculum in the North Butler and Clarksville Community School Districts.

Starting in the spring, a mandatory hunter safety course taught by Butler County Conservation will be implemented into the 7th and 8th grade PE curriculum. A voluntary, closed class will be added for those in grades 9-12 who want to participate.

Superintendent Joel Foster says the course was developed to keep the safety of students and staff the top priority. “What we do best is educate our kids,” Foster says. “We feel if we educate our kids in how to use weapons responsibly, how to respect them, understand it’s not a video game and those sort of things, that maybe we’ll cut down on our chances of having a severe incident.”

Foster says he knows not every student will go hunting, nor does he expect them to as a result of the training. The hope is to expose all students to firearm safety, whether it’s for hunting or for life situations down the road.

“You never know what’s going to happen. If my 12-year-old girl is out babysitting a 3-year-old and the 3-year-old walks out of mom and dad’s bedroom with a handgun or a shotgun, she needs to know how to handle that,” Foster says. “That’s one of the scenarios we don’t really think about. It’s better to be proactive than reactive and this is the best way we could think of to be proactive with things.”

Parents who oppose having their child participate can sign a form opting them out of the class. No operable firearms or live ammunition will be present during the course. According to the Center for Injury and Research Prevention, the majority (89%) of unintentional shooting deaths occur in the home. Most of these deaths occur when children are playing with a loaded gun in their parent’s absence.

https://www.radioiowa.com/2018/12/13/st ... in-spring/

Statists are freaking out about this, but I don't see this as being much different than teaching kids about, sex, drugs or alcohol. Parents can opt out, but guns are in half of the homes in the US, and probably far more in Iowa. May as well teach kids to be as responsible as possible around them. Until recently, schools are where kids learned how to operate that other favorite weapon of Americans, the automobile.

[Cannydc]

Kids get taught how to 'use guns responsibly'.

Some will get it. Some may get it but still not want their own gun.

It's the ones who DON'T get it, but get their guns because parents believe they will handle them with the respect needed that bother me.

[Grafenwalder]

"If my 12-year-old girl is out babysitting a 3-year-old and the 3-year-old walks out of mom and dad’s bedroom with a handgun or a shotgun, she needs to know how to handle that.”

No she doesn't. If you must have guns in the house..lock the fucking things away!

[Cannydc]

"If my 12-year-old girl is out babysitting a 3-year-old and the 3-year-old walks out of mom and dad’s bedroom with a handgun or a shotgun, she needs to know how to handle that.”

No she doesn't. If you must have guns in the house..lock the fucking things away!

Insanity.... But the parents often seem to have the same level of intelligence as the 3-year-old.

[Maddog]

"If my 12-year-old girl is out babysitting a 3-year-old and the 3-year-old walks out of mom and dad’s bedroom with a handgun or a shotgun, she needs to know how to handle that.”

No she doesn't. If you must have guns in the house..lock the fucking things away!

I've never been to the UK, but I have a TV thingy and I think y'all have cars over there? Does everyone that operates a car, always do so in a safe manner?


I thinks this scenario is for a child in someone else's house. You can't always be sure what others do in their homes, or behind the wheel of a car.

[Cannydc]

"If my 12-year-old girl is out babysitting a 3-year-old and the 3-year-old walks out of mom and dad’s bedroom with a handgun or a shotgun, she needs to know how to handle that.”

No she doesn't. If you must have guns in the house..lock the fucking things away!

I've never been to the UK, but I have a TV thningy and I think y'all have cars over there? Does everyone that operates a car, always do so in a safe manner?


I thinks this scenario is for a child in someone else's house. You can't always be sure what others do in their homes, or behind the wheel of a car.

Americans often try to equate guns with cars in terms of body count. It is a false equivalence - there are very few people indeed who use their car as a weapon. Car accidents are usually caused by misjudgement be it speed, road conditions etc. Guns, however, have to be carried, loaded, safety catch removed, deliberately aimed and at that point the trigger pulled with the sole aim of killing the target. The whole act is either pre-planned, or follows a highly predictable sequence of events. Deaths in cars don't.

[Maddog]

"If my 12-year-old girl is out babysitting a 3-year-old and the 3-year-old walks out of mom and dad’s bedroom with a handgun or a shotgun, she needs to know how to handle that.”

No she doesn't. If you must have guns in the house..lock the fucking things away!

I've never been to the UK, but I have a TV thningy and I think y'all have cars over there? Does everyone that operates a car, always do so in a safe manner?


I thinks this scenario is for a child in someone else's house. You can't always be sure what others do in their homes, or behind the wheel of a car.

Americans often try to equate guns with cars in terms of body count. It is a false equivalence - there are very few people indeed who use their car as a weapon. Car accidents are usually caused by misjudgement be it speed, road conditions etc. Guns, however, have to be carried, loaded, safety catch removed, deliberately aimed and at that point the trigger pulled with the sole aim of killing the target. The whole act is either pre-planned, or follows a highly predictable sequence of events. Deaths in cars don't.

I don't disagree, but this is a safety program. It's goal is to cut down on accidental shootings for the most part. Hopefully, it will also impart some knowledge into kids that have not been taught that these things are not toys to be played with, and misuse can have life long implications.

There are 300 million guns in this country. They are everywhere. Teaching kids about something as common as a firearm seems like a pretty good idea to me.

The problem is, there is a fairly good chunk of the population that would prefer that they remain taboo and something to fear irrationally. They want gun owners to be treated like social outcasts. Classes like this may make a gun owner look sorta normal, and they can't have that.

[Cannydc]

Nor can I.

It isn't normal in any sense of the word - there are situations where guns are necessary e.g. in the army, and that's what children should be taught.

[Maddog]

Nor can I.

It isn't normal in any sense of the word - there are situations where guns are necessary e.g. in the army, and that's what children should be taught.

Of course not. They are scary.

[Cactus Jack]

Should we teach them to take drugs safely too.

[Maddog]

Should we teach them to take drugs safely too.

This class teaches the dangers of firearms, not how to operate or use them.

[Wilson]

Fucking weird.

[Maddog]

Fucking weird.

Safety is weird?

[Wilson]

Fucking weird.

Safety is weird?

Of this variety, yes. Americas gun culture is totally alien to the majority of the western world as I'm sure you know.

[Maddog]

Fucking weird.

Safety is weird?

Of this variety, yes. Americas gun culture is totally alien to the majority of the western world as I'm sure you know.

It's a hunters education course. People hunt all over the world. Guns exist all over the world. Having some knowledge is never a bad idea.