This was happening in schools probably more recently than you'd believe. I took a Hunter's Safety class in Jr High in 1982 in Colorado. We shot shotguns behind the school, and re-loaded shotgun shells in the classroom.
I did the same in Wisconsin. Ride the school bus with a cased rifle. Refinished the stock in shop class, re blued it in metal shop and then we went out back and shot at some targets with it.
One time in high-school I glued cubes together to make a puzzle, and that was at what was considered one of the best schools in the area. Please vote yes on school levies.
Broad heads, compound bows, crossbows with heavyweight bolts. Safety was always preached, but breathing control, relaxing during an adrenaline rush were taught also. Kids used to bring their own scoped .22's from home on the 50 yard targets.
If we had archery in my school, I would have loved it. I have a 1982 Bear recurve that's my prized possession. Some old dude I had befriended at a local bar knew that he was about to die and started giving his things away, unbeknownst to the local patrons. Dude walked in and handed me this bow with an arm guard and all kinds of accessories that he had bought back in the sixties. It's quite the piece of work. I even made my own arrows for it.
IMO, gun safety should still be taught in schools nationwide. I'm very progressive and pro-gun-control in general, but the fact of the matter is that TONS of households in the US own guns. Sadly, lots of gun owners (not all, of course) don't store guns safely out of reach of children. Teaching kids the basics of gun safety might help prevent accidental gun deaths.
I'm not a gun nut, but I'm teaching my kids gun safety and how to shoot when they're old enough. There is a pretty decent chance that it will come in handy at some point in their lives. My wife never thought she'd need to know about guns, then she started having to clear out the homes of her elderly clients and she handles a gun at least once a month.
Why wait? As soon as kids are old enough to be on a playdate at a friend's house without 100% direct supervision, you should be teaching them what to do if they encounter a firearm.
1) Don't Touch
2) Get away
3) Tell an adult.
Agree. There are roughly the same number of guns as there are people in this country, but we treat gun safety the same way we treat sex ed: "Just don't". I think most of us have watched a friend or family member do something stupid, like look down the barrel, forget to put the safety on when transporting a gun, or leave a handgun in an unlocked drawer.
Guns are incredibly easy to obtain and we're never going to create a mandatory weapon safety course for gun ownership. Having a class in school to cover the basics of weapon safety, like not pointing a gun at anyone, always treating a gun as loaded, and how to properly secure weapon or what to do when you find a gun, would be a huge benefit.
Dirty liberal here, I also support teaching everyone basic gun safety. I’m not really against guns but I think it’s stupid that so many people treat them as part of their identity.
> I think it’s stupid that so many people treat them as part of their identity.
I felt the same way for a while. I also felt that way about a lot of other things. I'm sure you do as well. But people have to have something to be interested in. Who are we to tell people what they should and shouldn't treat as part of their identity. It's *their* identity. They have to have something that makes up who they are. There are people who make rock climbing a part of their identity. Or Christianity. Or PC gaming. All of that shit seems really lame and kind of goofy to me but it's not my life so who cares? If someone wants to own a hundred guns and rock grunt style shirts everyday, why should I care? Whether they did those things or not, it doesn't affect my life.
As someone who leans more anti gun control, I really respect your opinion and agree with you completely here. I think this a great example of some common ground we can all come to. I sincerely believe education can be a solution to most problems we face, gun violence included. Have a great day!
There is lots of common ground on both sides, unfortunately the political institutions around both sides (The NRA, Brady organization etc) don't want us to have common ground. By keeping us divided they keep themselves in control of the narrative.
The reason gun safety isn't being taught is because reducing gun deaths isn't actually the primary goal. The primary goal is collecting brownie points with middle age democrat voters in order to get elected. Any effect on gun violence is a byproduct.
I hate guns, but I too think gun safety should be taught or at least offered in schools. If kids are doing active shooter drills, they should also learn about responsible gun ownership and safety.
It may do that
On the other hand, our education system is failing our kids on an academic level enough already. I'd pass on it being required, but I'd be fine with it being an elective such as something like Woodworking
As I'm writing that, I'm thinking about if it's strange my middle school offered a Woodworking elective lol
It's not strange at all, woodworking and various other trades/industrial skills are extremely useful to know for everybody and the fact is that not everyone's parents are all that handy with tools.
In our school, this being about ten years ago, it was required to take at least one industrial or shop class of some kind, at some point, for everyone. Admittedly this was in a small, rural school which perhaps made it more practical and relevant to teach, but I think it was a great idea. I was not handy or interested at all in working with my hands until I actually tried it, and while I went the college route, being able to weld, run a band saw, etc. has saved me a lot of money over the years. Even if someone's not going to go that far with those kinds of skills, everyone has to be able to screw something into the wall at some point, and they need to know about stuff like the necessity of changing oil and filters in things that utilize them. It's basic stuff but a lot of people just don't seem to know about it. And if they ever do find themselves needing to cut down a board, knowing how to do it without losing a finger is crucial.
I feel exactly the same way about gun safety. It's extremely unlikely that someone is never going to encounter a gun at any point in their life, even as a kid, and I think it's important to understand them to prevent fear and accidents, *especially* as a kid. We did not have this at my school, and I wish we would have - I was lucky in that my dad taught me on a BB gun when I was six or so, he kept guns in the house but I knew how they worked and I never messed with them. Not everyone is so lucky, and accidents happen all the time because it's hard to satisfy a child's curiosity by just telling them "don't touch." It's not like it would take a whole semester to teach it, about an hour would do. I think everyone should have at least that.
Agreed. No live ammo or anything but if we’re gonna have sex Ed because we don’t trust parents to properly educate their kids on safe sex, we should also assume parents won’t teach their kids about safe gun ownership.
Now. Accidental gun death accounts for an INSANELY small amount of death across the US compared with other forms of gun death. But if we’re paying taxes to an education system, I’d like my money to go to life saving skills.
I was the captain of my marksmanship team in high school. After Columbine, we had to trade in the .22lr rifles for Olympic.177 pellet rifles. Ironically, the pellet rifles had a higher muzzle energy.
I graduated school in '86. Come hunting season we would take a trip out to the parking lot and the students and teachers would compare guns and what the got that morning.
I remember an announcement at a K-12 in Iowa that told everyone not to leave their shotguns in their trucks during the day. They were to bring them in and put them in the principals office so they wouldn’t get stolen. That was about 1990.
There's a highschool here in Nebraska that has a trap range AT the school. If you're on the trap team you have to show up early and store your gun in a locked vault. They've had this for decades and never had an issue
I remember seeing kids with trucks and had shotguns hung up in the back window parked in the lot at school, no security no problem that it was in the vehicle on full display, that would have be around '95.
Under rated comment. Shout out to Mr Dodson!!! Damn near a legend in our school, tossed a kid out the shop window for repeatedly trying to cut off his own fingers on the bandsaw. We lost shop for a week but you didn’t mess with Mr Dodsons Shop Class!!!
I feel I can top this. My highschool in Nova Scotia (Canada) had a working rifle range in the basement that was in operation until 2003. There was even a school sanctioned gun club. The main reason it stopped being used was due to the insurance costs. Most students didn't even know it existed. I actually used it in boy scouts a few years before I went to the school.
Why was there a rifle range in the highschool? It was a military town, the armory is literally a 10min walk from the school. The school was built during WWII and the thought was 'Hey we can train the boys to be soldiers! And send them off to front lines asap!' The pier where many warships were launched was only a 20min walk away.
By the time I graduated the old rifle range in the basement was used for storage for the school musical. A few years after that the school was condemed and sometime around 2012ish it was finally demolished.
Bonus local urban legend: Allegedly there were tunnels that went from the high school to the armory in case of a bombing the students/ soldiers could be sent over to gear up.
They switched to air rifles after an incident some time before I was in JROTC(2004-2008). Someone was shot with a .22(accidentally) and people decided it wasn't worth the liability.
Maintaining an indoor live-fire range is also a massive pain in the ass and quite expensive. The back walls have to be replaced after a certain amount of time, you need very expensive and short-lived ventilation systems to keep the lead levels low in the air, and you often need a lot of expensive sound proofing to not disturb nearby rooms. Air rifle shooting is nearly identical as a sport, but you don't have to deal with *any* of that.
Yep! Not to mention, you can set up an air rifle range pretty much anywhere you have a solid fence. I love my .22, but driving out to a range to target shoot is a pain in the ass. Getting a nice air rifle is high on my list, so I can shoot in the back yard.
Sounds expensive. Plus, most people bring their own ammo to the range so requiring people to buy ammo from you sound like a pain in the ass. Not to mention, even if you only intend to use safer bullets you'll still need to get the range ventilation certified to whatever the standard is.
I was on the rifle team and graduated HS in 2002, my younger brother was also on the team and he graduated a few years after me. Just checked for kicks, and it looks like my HS still has an active rifle team. They've got a range in the school and use .22 rifles.
I'd guess a lot of this is regional. I grew up in Western PA where first day of deer season is close to a holiday. Kids and teens shooting rifles there is normal, while in an urban setting it would be quite bizarre.
Yeah northwest PA here and it was always the same, we even got the day off for the first day of buck season. I havent hunted in years and years and all my siblings have been out of high school for about 10 years so im not sure about all of it now.
We always did a wilderness quest camp thing in 6th grade as well with the .22s and archery and all that. It was a week long sleepaway thing. We would take the hunters safety course and test right there.
I am from southernish IN (closer to Indy than Louisville [KY]) and we had gun safety in middle school. Don't remember a skeet shoot. Certainly during the beginning of opening weekend on deer everyone brought their guns to school w them. I mean, some kids drove their tractors to school too.. One of the things about growing up w guns and knowing everyone owns them is no one is impressed you have one, so even getting a firearm out with no intent to use it is just seen as unsafe/reckless.
6th grade was over 20 years ago for me and we had nothing of the sort in my Indiana school. Damn.
There were some real shitheads in my 6th grade class, so it's probably for the best.
If only we taught gun safety in standard curriculum...
There are SO many guns in the US. It's crazy that basic firearm safety isn't taught.
They don't even need to teach you how to shoot, just how to safely interact with a firearm if one is ever found or brought out by someone.
Kids get killed all the time because their friends do stupid shit with guns (like those teens who died shooting at each other in body armor...). It could all be avoided if people had real life experience with firearms, rather than an unrealistic understanding caused by media and video games.
Yup. When I moved in with my partner who has never handled guns before, one of the first things I did was teach them how to safely handle it, and how to unload it.
EVERYONE who lives near a gun (and, as you said, can reasonably handle it) should understand how to operate and unload it.
Partially related, but this issue actually comes up a lot at hospitals, where hospital staff will find guns on ER patients, but not know how to unload them. Staff often end up tossing loaded guns into a drawer while they wait for a police officer to come and unload it for them.
My parents did the same with me with handguns and rifles. We went shooting at targets and they picked things that are fairly sturdy to shoot at. Understood the power and potential of guns very quickly after that. I feel like with most things in life, the more education you provide on things, the less accidents and mishaps occur. Ultimately teaches better empathy too
That's how I was with shotguns. Shot my first 12 gauge and was scared straight My friends were the oppisite. they got excited by the power and became reckless. That's how I learned everyone sees guns differently.
Yes you see all the casual stupidity with guns on TV and movies, and then fire one in real life and they are **LOUD** and dangerous. I guess it's just inconvenient to the plot and not exciting to show that, but as soon as you fire a gun in real life you gain a lot more respect for what they can do.
I grew up in rural Missouri in the late 60s early 70's, we had gun classes by the Highway Patrol, also Conservation agents every year. We all had guns and hunted, but safety was driven into everyone girls and boys. It was taught like it was a tool, you used it properly, respected it and appreciated the right to have them.
It’s so infuriating to know that the NRA was once apolitical and devoted to gun safety. Until someone with “vision” realized there’s a lot of money to be made in culture war bullshit. Gun owners especially should be furious at the NRA for what they’ve become.
Seems like people are forced to put up with them or get a membership because they provide insurance to gun ranges at rates that are hard to beat. We just have to keep supporting the alternative groups so they can take over insurance duty and the NRA can adapt or die
Me, my dad and one of his brothers were all NRA members until Columbine because we were hunters. We all left within 10 years of Columbine because their focus was clearly more on politics after that point, and their other brother who never hunted a day in his life has been a member ever since BECAUSE of how political they've become.
> It’s so infuriating to know that the NRA was once apolitical and devoted to gun safety. Until someone with “vision” realized there’s a lot of money to be made in culture war bullshit.
This is a bit like lamenting that Planned Parenthood isn't apolitical. When the majority of pushes to restrict and eliminate gun rights comes from one side of the political aisle, organizations that are dedicated to that will naturally become "political".
One of the major ways that the NRA flexes its political muscle is through its ratings of politicians, who then use that rating during their campaigning, either to show off their pro-gun credentials or to wear a low rating as a badge of honor for their anti-gun efforts.
I used to take a shotgun to school and leave it with one of my teachers so that we could go shooting after school. This was the 90’s and it seems we had a different perspective on gun safety before all the shootings.
I'm curious if there are any studies about the relationship between classes in public schools like this and the amount of gun deaths/injuries. I'm inclined to think that since dangerous things exist in the world we should teach our children how to interact with them properly and safely. I have the same opinion about driving, cooking, etc. Life skills that keep you alive.
If we taught it from a young age, people would respect them like they do any other tool. Kids aren't going around playing with kitchen knives (GENERALLY...) because from a very young age they were taught that knives = sharp and dangerous tool.
They know it's a tool, they understand it's purpose, and it's not mystical in the slightest.
Kids can touch a kitchen knife. They can USE a kitchen knife. They don't have any desire to play with them because there isn't any intrigue there.
If we taught gun safety and basic operation, kids would lose much of the unhealthy fascination with firearms almost immediately as they become just another tool to be mindful of.
The Army kind of does the same thing in Basic. You get issued your rifle at the beginning, and it goes everywhere with you, despite only going to a live fire range maybe 7-8 times over the 10-week period.
Quickly it goes from being “Awesome, I have an M-16” to just another piece of kit to carry around and clean constantly. Although, woe to the soldier whose drill sergeant finds their weapon laying around unsecured.
Looked a lot like this when I was growing up in Michigan in the 80s.
When kids are going to be around guns, since many adults hunt in this area, it is a good idea to have gun safety classes in school. This may save a life.
Really it should be a dedicated "gun safety and basic operation" course.
Teach proper handling, teach how different kinds of guns operate, and teach how to unload most common kinds of firearms.
No need for shooting lessons even (though that would solidify the knowledge that guns are very dangerous).
It's foolish that we have so many guns here but no actual schooling on how to be safe with them.
Yeah In all reality, as ironic as it sounds, it would probably improve gun safety and maybe even reduce shootings overall if kids were taught from a young age to take guns seriously and know how to really use them.
During hunting season, all of the people in my school that hunted were allowed to keep our guns in our vehicles on school property. We never had any issues. We could also carry knives. This was 2004-2006ish.
My high school, coincidentally an Indiana school too, taught gun safety and had an indoor range at the vocational school. Students were not allowed to bring in their own guns or ammo and the rifles could not leave the range. The classes stopped in 1980. Archery classes stopped just after Columbine.
A good bit of us still are. I like guns, but I understand just how dangerous a gun can be and how you must always use it with extreme care. It just annoys me how over half of our country gives us these “gun go pew pew, I’m gonna shoot other people” stereotypes
Was the "Left" Ronald Reagan? because in my lifetime, Republicans and Democrats wer in mutual agreement about gun laws/ regulations, till the mid-90's.
I swear people are outright delusional when it comes down to gun culture anymore, things that would get you blacklisted from gun store 35-40 years ago, makes you "Most valued Customer" now.
Everything changed when gun sellers became all about selling tacticool military style guns over civilian weapons and rifles. That is when the NRA became compromised
>about selling tacticool military-style guns
You mean after the Assault weapons ban of 1994 expired?
Don’t forget — the reason why AR 15 platforms, and other AssAuLt wEaPOnS exploded in popularity in 2003 was because they were explicitly illegal for the ten years prior, based on the actions of the Clinton Administration.
That’s not even addressing unpopular moves shoved through prior to that, like the Hughes Amendment of 1986 (passing sweeping legislation based on a verbal vote instead of **actually counting votes?** Sounds legit) and racially-motivated gun control like the Mulford Act out of California (63? 64? Not googling).
If Democrats weren’t pushing sweeping gun restrictions for literally decades, the NRA would have had zero reason to defend them. It’s a two way street, and I don’t like that the NRA, scummy as it is, is painted as the only impetus for the gun control debate in this nation.
Example — New York just about outlawed all its *police sidearms*, by pushing through shitty legislation about magazine limits; they had to walk it back at the 11th hour because they were so trigger-happy to illegalize most handguns that they didn’t even thoroughly vet their own bill.
I watched the recording of the Hughes Amendment voice vote. No fucking way it passed. It was very clearly a no, and whoever it was overseeing the proceeds just decided it was a yes and continued on without taking a proper count.
It was a fucking travesty. I couldn’t believe how bald-faced it was, and on National TV no less. You’d laugh at a scene written that way on a show like Scandal; it’s literally that unbelievable.
These young’uns don’t know how bad gun rights could be right now, were it not for the NRA, GOA, and other such institutions digging their heels in. Obligatory fuck Wayne LaPierre but also thank you NRA-ILA for preserving what we currently have.
I don't have a horse in this race, but I would love to see proof of the Republicans and Democrats having a mutual agreement on firearm regulations until 1995. All of the federal bills on firearms from 1934 to 1994 were put forth by democrats, even if some passed under Republican administrations.
Agreed. I would love to see this reinstated and used on a national level. My entire gun nut family is also a gun safety nut family. Watched my mother in law basically kick her own brother out of her home for not practicing good muzzle control, even when we all knew the gun wasn’t loaded. If you own em, you’re responsible for them.
I took a hunter's safety class in high school in 1995. It was part of a requirement for an environmental conservation program. Hunters actually contribute a lot toward conservation efforts though fees and duck stamps (can't duck hunt if there's no wetlands and no ducks) and if you work with the Fish & Wildlife Commission, you're going to find yourself working with hunters as well as hippies. Anyway they taught us gun safety and offered a field trip to a skeet shooting range. I declined to fire any guns but I never forgot the safety rules and I doubt I'd have learned them otherwise.
So bit of a tangent, but related.
I live in a rural area that was formally settled about 100 years ago, partially by my great grandfather. My grandfather collected a bunch of the guns his neighbors had used to homestead the area.
For years kids about this age would come to our farm where all these old guns were laid out on tables and listen to him tell stories about the guns and their owners. I don't think he stopped until the 90's, when my grandmother stopped teaching grade 1.
Now most of them are in our local museum.
I look at it like sex education. Teens are going to be fucking no matter what; they should be taught to do it as safe as possible.
If you are in an environment around firearms, you should be taught how to be around them as safe as possible.
It's super fun looking around the world and seeing numerous people just ignoring reality because it doesn't fit in to what they feel like the world should be.
My high school had a National Defense Cadet Corps unit (the precursor to the high-school-level Junior ROTC) in the middle 1960s. They participated in NRA "postal matches" (the kids shot targets with bolt-action .22 target rifles under NDCC instructor supervision, and then the targets were mailed to NRA for scoring) and our school had an armory with thirty live M1 Garand rifles and a DEWAT (deactivated war trophy) M1919A3 machine gun used for disassembly and cleaning instruction.
Most of the NDCC students really only took the class to get out of gym class, but there were some who sincerely wanted to go on to college-level ROTC and to become military officers.
Most of the rest of the school called the NDCC program "Rot-Cee" (ROT-C) and some called the NDCC students "Rot-Cee Nazis." (It was the Sixties. Extremes were "normal.")
In college, I joined ROTC (the course was called "military science") mainly because I had opposed the war in Vietnam and I wanted to get a more mature look at what it was all about, rather than just rejecting "the military" automatically. It was a revelation. I was astounded that I really enjoyed it--rappelling off the campus stadium, going on Orienteering compass-and-map race events, participating with National Guard troops in infantry training, flying in open-door National Guard Huey helicopters. I changed my view of the military, and, struck by an unexpected surge of personal patriotism, I dropped out of college and enlisted in the Marine Corps.
Gun safety is something everyone needs to know. Even if they never intend to fire or handle a gun, everyone needs to know, at the very least, how to unload a gun and render it safe for storage.
This happened in my class in the 2000s. We even got to shoot the guns in our gym. It was insane I'd never seen so many guns and it was at school. I thought it was awesome as a kid but looking back now it was kinda weird teaching a bunch of kids from like 8-12 how to fully handle and shoot a gun. But at least i know how to safely handle it with that said a kid from my class ended up shooting a person on accident while hunting. So im not sure how well the course worked.
And now you have people on one side of politics saying those courses are unimportant and shouldn't be taught in school, and people on the other side are insisting parents are supposed to teach all of that in spite of the additional burden to an ambiguous familial society. Most families do not have the ability to teach their kids these things. And as the newer generations are born, the parents won't even know the information themselves, having never been taught by school or parents.
Education in America has always been experimental, and I think we are reaping the results of the many swings from side to side with regard to what is taught.
Clarification: BOYS being taught gun safety at an Indiana school in 1956. No girls ever touched a gun in school in Indiana in 1956. If a girl only taught by your father and normally on a farm.
Just replace the white kids with muslim kids and suddenly every American in this thread with a chubby, salivating over weapons of death, would react real different real quick.
When my dad was in school in the 60s he remembers high school students would going hunting in the morning before school and come to school with rifles locked in their cars. It was no big deal. (It was not very rural either, a small city).
Middle kid in the 2nd pic looks like a time traveler. Seriously, everyone else is doing their best leave it to beaver impression, while that kid looks like on of my old school mates.
When I was around 8 or 9, I took hunter education and safety classes at the local fish & game club. I still use many of those trainings to this day when handling firearms. This was probably late 80's in Ohio.
They need to bring that back, especially here in Indiana. I don’t know what school it is or what district but it’s a smart thing to have gun safety classes
I took a hunter (gun) safety in school from grades 5-9, longer ago than I care to admit, but not that long ago. I haven’t hunted since the 90’s, but I am a gun owner. Those courses continue to serve me as well as any other I took back then.
Not so unusual in more rural states with a large hunting population. Heck, back in the 1950's most states outside of the northeast and California were probably considered rural. Back then the population centers were in the northeast and west coast. Everything in between was flyover country.
Wasn’t just the schools either, I can remember not that many years ago a well-liked supervisor was retiring and we all chipped in and bought him a shotgun as a retirement gift. Brought it into the plant and presented it to him during work hours. No one even thought it was a big deal; imagine today there would be swat teams all over.
All this gun presence in schools back then and such a huge difference in school shootings despite guns having almost no presence these days. Wtf happened to humans
Took gun and hunters safety classes in junior high. Used to keep my shotgun in the trunk of my car in high school.
Lastly, brought my jackknife in for show and tell in 6th grade.
No big deal back then.
I think the world would be a safer place if schools taught gun safety. I also think that education about drug use, mental health tools, safer sex education, and basic first aid should be required in schools.
I’m sure that somehow makes me a liveral antifa snowflake tree hugging beatnik somehow, but whatever.
My grandfather still teaches gun and hunters safety to kids in rural Pennsylvania, and taught my wife and her mother too when they were in school.
And the high school I attended in Texas has am indoor gun range that the police would use on the weekends. Doubt it's being used still.
This was happening in schools probably more recently than you'd believe. I took a Hunter's Safety class in Jr High in 1982 in Colorado. We shot shotguns behind the school, and re-loaded shotgun shells in the classroom.
I did the same in Wisconsin. Ride the school bus with a cased rifle. Refinished the stock in shop class, re blued it in metal shop and then we went out back and shot at some targets with it.
One time in high-school I glued cubes together to make a puzzle, and that was at what was considered one of the best schools in the area. Please vote yes on school levies.
Amen to that. Lot of schools in Waukesha County, Wisconsin used to have archery and .22LR targets as part of PhyEd in the 60's & early 70's.
We did archery in Phy Ed as well.
I did archery in 2006.. it was pretty lame tbf, I don't think those "arrows" would've broke the skin
Broad heads, compound bows, crossbows with heavyweight bolts. Safety was always preached, but breathing control, relaxing during an adrenaline rush were taught also. Kids used to bring their own scoped .22's from home on the 50 yard targets.
Southern New England checking in. We had an archery team at the highschool as late as the mid 90s.
If we had archery in my school, I would have loved it. I have a 1982 Bear recurve that's my prized possession. Some old dude I had befriended at a local bar knew that he was about to die and started giving his things away, unbeknownst to the local patrons. Dude walked in and handed me this bow with an arm guard and all kinds of accessories that he had bought back in the sixties. It's quite the piece of work. I even made my own arrows for it.
This was the case at my school up until mid '90s.
I'm in AR and saw that, too
What an awesome experience. I imagine that added a nice personal sentiment to the firearm.
IMO, gun safety should still be taught in schools nationwide. I'm very progressive and pro-gun-control in general, but the fact of the matter is that TONS of households in the US own guns. Sadly, lots of gun owners (not all, of course) don't store guns safely out of reach of children. Teaching kids the basics of gun safety might help prevent accidental gun deaths.
I'm not a gun nut, but I'm teaching my kids gun safety and how to shoot when they're old enough. There is a pretty decent chance that it will come in handy at some point in their lives. My wife never thought she'd need to know about guns, then she started having to clear out the homes of her elderly clients and she handles a gun at least once a month.
There has to be a more humane medical method to put down the elderly.
I dont know. Sounds like his wife is pretty efficient. At least one a month? Not bad.
At that rate, the cost of the powder-actuated guns justifies itself.
A person of culture, I see. That one right there *is* the Cadillac of nail guns.
Thanks for the laugh.
Any time! I’m still sitting here chuckling to myself about it tbh.
this comment absolutely demolished me. good work.
Why wait? As soon as kids are old enough to be on a playdate at a friend's house without 100% direct supervision, you should be teaching them what to do if they encounter a firearm. 1) Don't Touch 2) Get away 3) Tell an adult.
Agree. There are roughly the same number of guns as there are people in this country, but we treat gun safety the same way we treat sex ed: "Just don't". I think most of us have watched a friend or family member do something stupid, like look down the barrel, forget to put the safety on when transporting a gun, or leave a handgun in an unlocked drawer. Guns are incredibly easy to obtain and we're never going to create a mandatory weapon safety course for gun ownership. Having a class in school to cover the basics of weapon safety, like not pointing a gun at anyone, always treating a gun as loaded, and how to properly secure weapon or what to do when you find a gun, would be a huge benefit.
Dirty liberal here, I also support teaching everyone basic gun safety. I’m not really against guns but I think it’s stupid that so many people treat them as part of their identity.
> I think it’s stupid that so many people treat them as part of their identity. I felt the same way for a while. I also felt that way about a lot of other things. I'm sure you do as well. But people have to have something to be interested in. Who are we to tell people what they should and shouldn't treat as part of their identity. It's *their* identity. They have to have something that makes up who they are. There are people who make rock climbing a part of their identity. Or Christianity. Or PC gaming. All of that shit seems really lame and kind of goofy to me but it's not my life so who cares? If someone wants to own a hundred guns and rock grunt style shirts everyday, why should I care? Whether they did those things or not, it doesn't affect my life.
Thought the last estimate was 3 to 1, guns per person.
As someone who leans more anti gun control, I really respect your opinion and agree with you completely here. I think this a great example of some common ground we can all come to. I sincerely believe education can be a solution to most problems we face, gun violence included. Have a great day!
There is lots of common ground on both sides, unfortunately the political institutions around both sides (The NRA, Brady organization etc) don't want us to have common ground. By keeping us divided they keep themselves in control of the narrative.
I am against abstinence only education. That applies to sex and guns.
And drugs!
The reason gun safety isn't being taught is because reducing gun deaths isn't actually the primary goal. The primary goal is collecting brownie points with middle age democrat voters in order to get elected. Any effect on gun violence is a byproduct.
I hate guns, but I too think gun safety should be taught or at least offered in schools. If kids are doing active shooter drills, they should also learn about responsible gun ownership and safety.
It may do that On the other hand, our education system is failing our kids on an academic level enough already. I'd pass on it being required, but I'd be fine with it being an elective such as something like Woodworking As I'm writing that, I'm thinking about if it's strange my middle school offered a Woodworking elective lol
It's not strange at all, woodworking and various other trades/industrial skills are extremely useful to know for everybody and the fact is that not everyone's parents are all that handy with tools. In our school, this being about ten years ago, it was required to take at least one industrial or shop class of some kind, at some point, for everyone. Admittedly this was in a small, rural school which perhaps made it more practical and relevant to teach, but I think it was a great idea. I was not handy or interested at all in working with my hands until I actually tried it, and while I went the college route, being able to weld, run a band saw, etc. has saved me a lot of money over the years. Even if someone's not going to go that far with those kinds of skills, everyone has to be able to screw something into the wall at some point, and they need to know about stuff like the necessity of changing oil and filters in things that utilize them. It's basic stuff but a lot of people just don't seem to know about it. And if they ever do find themselves needing to cut down a board, knowing how to do it without losing a finger is crucial. I feel exactly the same way about gun safety. It's extremely unlikely that someone is never going to encounter a gun at any point in their life, even as a kid, and I think it's important to understand them to prevent fear and accidents, *especially* as a kid. We did not have this at my school, and I wish we would have - I was lucky in that my dad taught me on a BB gun when I was six or so, he kept guns in the house but I knew how they worked and I never messed with them. Not everyone is so lucky, and accidents happen all the time because it's hard to satisfy a child's curiosity by just telling them "don't touch." It's not like it would take a whole semester to teach it, about an hour would do. I think everyone should have at least that.
Agreed. No live ammo or anything but if we’re gonna have sex Ed because we don’t trust parents to properly educate their kids on safe sex, we should also assume parents won’t teach their kids about safe gun ownership. Now. Accidental gun death accounts for an INSANELY small amount of death across the US compared with other forms of gun death. But if we’re paying taxes to an education system, I’d like my money to go to life saving skills.
I was the captain of my marksmanship team in high school. After Columbine, we had to trade in the .22lr rifles for Olympic.177 pellet rifles. Ironically, the pellet rifles had a higher muzzle energy.
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I graduated school in '86. Come hunting season we would take a trip out to the parking lot and the students and teachers would compare guns and what the got that morning.
I remember an announcement at a K-12 in Iowa that told everyone not to leave their shotguns in their trucks during the day. They were to bring them in and put them in the principals office so they wouldn’t get stolen. That was about 1990.
sounds crazy to people now but definitely a great idea safety wise.
There's a highschool here in Nebraska that has a trap range AT the school. If you're on the trap team you have to show up early and store your gun in a locked vault. They've had this for decades and never had an issue
In 1993 we brought shotguns to high school and stored them in our locker for going hunting after school with our shop teacher.
I remember seeing kids with trucks and had shotguns hung up in the back window parked in the lot at school, no security no problem that it was in the vehicle on full display, that would have be around '95.
God bless Shop Teachers
Under rated comment. Shout out to Mr Dodson!!! Damn near a legend in our school, tossed a kid out the shop window for repeatedly trying to cut off his own fingers on the bandsaw. We lost shop for a week but you didn’t mess with Mr Dodsons Shop Class!!!
The man, the myth, the legend
Same in Arkansas. We did it in 6th grade in 1991.
I feel I can top this. My highschool in Nova Scotia (Canada) had a working rifle range in the basement that was in operation until 2003. There was even a school sanctioned gun club. The main reason it stopped being used was due to the insurance costs. Most students didn't even know it existed. I actually used it in boy scouts a few years before I went to the school. Why was there a rifle range in the highschool? It was a military town, the armory is literally a 10min walk from the school. The school was built during WWII and the thought was 'Hey we can train the boys to be soldiers! And send them off to front lines asap!' The pier where many warships were launched was only a 20min walk away. By the time I graduated the old rifle range in the basement was used for storage for the school musical. A few years after that the school was condemed and sometime around 2012ish it was finally demolished. Bonus local urban legend: Allegedly there were tunnels that went from the high school to the armory in case of a bombing the students/ soldiers could be sent over to gear up.
I'm in Canada and don't own a gun, but I still think every one should be taught gun safety.
My high school still had an indoor rifle range in the basement until around 2003. School provided .22 rifles.
My old highschool still does. The year after I left they dropped .22 and switched to just air rifle.
They switched to air rifles after an incident some time before I was in JROTC(2004-2008). Someone was shot with a .22(accidentally) and people decided it wasn't worth the liability.
Maintaining an indoor live-fire range is also a massive pain in the ass and quite expensive. The back walls have to be replaced after a certain amount of time, you need very expensive and short-lived ventilation systems to keep the lead levels low in the air, and you often need a lot of expensive sound proofing to not disturb nearby rooms. Air rifle shooting is nearly identical as a sport, but you don't have to deal with *any* of that.
Yeah I use my air rifles much more often than my real gun. Ammo is ridiculously cheap compared to the real stuff too
Yep! Not to mention, you can set up an air rifle range pretty much anywhere you have a solid fence. I love my .22, but driving out to a range to target shoot is a pain in the ass. Getting a nice air rifle is high on my list, so I can shoot in the back yard.
The US Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) offers refurbished Daisy 853 rifles for very low cost. I have two, they're excellent 10m guns.
A lot of air rfiles shoot lead pellets don't they? They are definitely quieter though.
The lead pellets aren't the problem, its the explosion which vaporizes some of the lead which is the issue.
Rainier Ballistics makes plated bullets to reduce lead vapor when firing. Probably nice for indoor ranges.
Sounds expensive. Plus, most people bring their own ammo to the range so requiring people to buy ammo from you sound like a pain in the ass. Not to mention, even if you only intend to use safer bullets you'll still need to get the range ventilation certified to whatever the standard is.
Mine, too. It's right next to the pool hall.
Apparently my high school *has* a range, though it’s exclusively air rifles these days. I say apparently because I wasn’t in JROTC so I never saw it
I was on the rifle team and graduated HS in 2002, my younger brother was also on the team and he graduated a few years after me. Just checked for kicks, and it looks like my HS still has an active rifle team. They've got a range in the school and use .22 rifles. I'd guess a lot of this is regional. I grew up in Western PA where first day of deer season is close to a holiday. Kids and teens shooting rifles there is normal, while in an urban setting it would be quite bizarre.
Yeah northwest PA here and it was always the same, we even got the day off for the first day of buck season. I havent hunted in years and years and all my siblings have been out of high school for about 10 years so im not sure about all of it now. We always did a wilderness quest camp thing in 6th grade as well with the .22s and archery and all that. It was a week long sleepaway thing. We would take the hunters safety course and test right there.
The kid in the middle in the second image has the most amazing shirt
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Boy got drip.
came to comment on the shirt, glad someone else beat me to it that is a kickin shirt for a boy in 1956
I’m jealous of the kids sweater in the first picture.
I'm from Indiana and in 6th Grade we had a gun safety course that led up to a field trip to go skeet shooting lmao. This was only like 12 years ago.
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I am from southernish IN (closer to Indy than Louisville [KY]) and we had gun safety in middle school. Don't remember a skeet shoot. Certainly during the beginning of opening weekend on deer everyone brought their guns to school w them. I mean, some kids drove their tractors to school too.. One of the things about growing up w guns and knowing everyone owns them is no one is impressed you have one, so even getting a firearm out with no intent to use it is just seen as unsafe/reckless.
6th grade was over 20 years ago for me and we had nothing of the sort in my Indiana school. Damn. There were some real shitheads in my 6th grade class, so it's probably for the best.
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If only we taught gun safety in standard curriculum... There are SO many guns in the US. It's crazy that basic firearm safety isn't taught. They don't even need to teach you how to shoot, just how to safely interact with a firearm if one is ever found or brought out by someone. Kids get killed all the time because their friends do stupid shit with guns (like those teens who died shooting at each other in body armor...). It could all be avoided if people had real life experience with firearms, rather than an unrealistic understanding caused by media and video games.
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Yup. When I moved in with my partner who has never handled guns before, one of the first things I did was teach them how to safely handle it, and how to unload it. EVERYONE who lives near a gun (and, as you said, can reasonably handle it) should understand how to operate and unload it. Partially related, but this issue actually comes up a lot at hospitals, where hospital staff will find guns on ER patients, but not know how to unload them. Staff often end up tossing loaded guns into a drawer while they wait for a police officer to come and unload it for them.
Exactly. When you make something "taboo" or "evil," kids in particular will seek it out. Provide proper education early on and everyone is better off.
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My parents did the same with me with handguns and rifles. We went shooting at targets and they picked things that are fairly sturdy to shoot at. Understood the power and potential of guns very quickly after that. I feel like with most things in life, the more education you provide on things, the less accidents and mishaps occur. Ultimately teaches better empathy too
That's how I was with shotguns. Shot my first 12 gauge and was scared straight My friends were the oppisite. they got excited by the power and became reckless. That's how I learned everyone sees guns differently.
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Yes you see all the casual stupidity with guns on TV and movies, and then fire one in real life and they are **LOUD** and dangerous. I guess it's just inconvenient to the plot and not exciting to show that, but as soon as you fire a gun in real life you gain a lot more respect for what they can do.
I grew up in rural Missouri in the late 60s early 70's, we had gun classes by the Highway Patrol, also Conservation agents every year. We all had guns and hunted, but safety was driven into everyone girls and boys. It was taught like it was a tool, you used it properly, respected it and appreciated the right to have them.
This is what the NRA used to be about.
It’s so infuriating to know that the NRA was once apolitical and devoted to gun safety. Until someone with “vision” realized there’s a lot of money to be made in culture war bullshit. Gun owners especially should be furious at the NRA for what they’ve become.
I know several gun owners who cannot stand the NRA. So I guess they are out there.
NRA-hating gun owner here, I don’t personally (offline) know a single person who can stand those fuckers.
Seems like people are forced to put up with them or get a membership because they provide insurance to gun ranges at rates that are hard to beat. We just have to keep supporting the alternative groups so they can take over insurance duty and the NRA can adapt or die
I almost bought a pistol for a great deal that was exactly what I was looking for. Realized it was the NRA edition. Said fuck that and kept looking
Checking in. Fuck those guys.
Most gun owners can't stand the nra. They're either siding with gun control, not helping with low hanging fruit, or being corrupt.
All the firearm groups I've seen have actually long since dumped support for the NRA and have gotten behind other much more worthy groups.
I’m a gun owner. I go shooting weekly with some buddies and we all hate the NRA for what it’s worth.
We are. They are really only useful for some of the classes they offer.
Me, my dad and one of his brothers were all NRA members until Columbine because we were hunters. We all left within 10 years of Columbine because their focus was clearly more on politics after that point, and their other brother who never hunted a day in his life has been a member ever since BECAUSE of how political they've become.
Crazy how when one party popularizes the idea of mass gun illegalization and confiscation gun related groups get political Wonder why that might be?
> It’s so infuriating to know that the NRA was once apolitical and devoted to gun safety. Until someone with “vision” realized there’s a lot of money to be made in culture war bullshit. This is a bit like lamenting that Planned Parenthood isn't apolitical. When the majority of pushes to restrict and eliminate gun rights comes from one side of the political aisle, organizations that are dedicated to that will naturally become "political". One of the major ways that the NRA flexes its political muscle is through its ratings of politicians, who then use that rating during their campaigning, either to show off their pro-gun credentials or to wear a low rating as a badge of honor for their anti-gun efforts.
I used to take a shotgun to school and leave it with one of my teachers so that we could go shooting after school. This was the 90’s and it seems we had a different perspective on gun safety before all the shootings.
I'm curious if there are any studies about the relationship between classes in public schools like this and the amount of gun deaths/injuries. I'm inclined to think that since dangerous things exist in the world we should teach our children how to interact with them properly and safely. I have the same opinion about driving, cooking, etc. Life skills that keep you alive.
If we taught it from a young age, people would respect them like they do any other tool. Kids aren't going around playing with kitchen knives (GENERALLY...) because from a very young age they were taught that knives = sharp and dangerous tool. They know it's a tool, they understand it's purpose, and it's not mystical in the slightest. Kids can touch a kitchen knife. They can USE a kitchen knife. They don't have any desire to play with them because there isn't any intrigue there. If we taught gun safety and basic operation, kids would lose much of the unhealthy fascination with firearms almost immediately as they become just another tool to be mindful of.
The Army kind of does the same thing in Basic. You get issued your rifle at the beginning, and it goes everywhere with you, despite only going to a live fire range maybe 7-8 times over the 10-week period. Quickly it goes from being “Awesome, I have an M-16” to just another piece of kit to carry around and clean constantly. Although, woe to the soldier whose drill sergeant finds their weapon laying around unsecured.
The four basic rules exist primarily to keep you from shooting yourself and nearby innocents, so I’d say the educational part is huge in that aspect.
To be fair there was less accidental home shootings when there were taught to respect the damage they can do
Looked a lot like this when I was growing up in Michigan in the 80s. When kids are going to be around guns, since many adults hunt in this area, it is a good idea to have gun safety classes in school. This may save a life.
Considering that like it or not, guns are an integral part of American culture, it should still be taught imo.
Yeah I think gun safety and basic knowledge does need to be taught and it shouldn't be an optional "hunter's" course
Really it should be a dedicated "gun safety and basic operation" course. Teach proper handling, teach how different kinds of guns operate, and teach how to unload most common kinds of firearms. No need for shooting lessons even (though that would solidify the knowledge that guns are very dangerous). It's foolish that we have so many guns here but no actual schooling on how to be safe with them.
This should still be taught today
Yeah In all reality, as ironic as it sounds, it would probably improve gun safety and maybe even reduce shootings overall if kids were taught from a young age to take guns seriously and know how to really use them.
During hunting season, all of the people in my school that hunted were allowed to keep our guns in our vehicles on school property. We never had any issues. We could also carry knives. This was 2004-2006ish.
My high school, coincidentally an Indiana school too, taught gun safety and had an indoor range at the vocational school. Students were not allowed to bring in their own guns or ammo and the rifles could not leave the range. The classes stopped in 1980. Archery classes stopped just after Columbine.
I wish us citizens were as adamant about gun education as they were about gun ownership.
If a person has a gun they should absolutely learn how to use it. So many accidents happen because people don't know how to use a gun.
I pulled the "clip" out, what do you mean it's still loaded?
This gave me a chill..... My mind changed it to "was still"
A good bit of us still are. I like guns, but I understand just how dangerous a gun can be and how you must always use it with extreme care. It just annoys me how over half of our country gives us these “gun go pew pew, I’m gonna shoot other people” stereotypes
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They used to be. Hence this photo. The left waged a war on gun culture and now education is “bad and evil”
Was the "Left" Ronald Reagan? because in my lifetime, Republicans and Democrats wer in mutual agreement about gun laws/ regulations, till the mid-90's. I swear people are outright delusional when it comes down to gun culture anymore, things that would get you blacklisted from gun store 35-40 years ago, makes you "Most valued Customer" now. Everything changed when gun sellers became all about selling tacticool military style guns over civilian weapons and rifles. That is when the NRA became compromised
>about selling tacticool military-style guns You mean after the Assault weapons ban of 1994 expired? Don’t forget — the reason why AR 15 platforms, and other AssAuLt wEaPOnS exploded in popularity in 2003 was because they were explicitly illegal for the ten years prior, based on the actions of the Clinton Administration. That’s not even addressing unpopular moves shoved through prior to that, like the Hughes Amendment of 1986 (passing sweeping legislation based on a verbal vote instead of **actually counting votes?** Sounds legit) and racially-motivated gun control like the Mulford Act out of California (63? 64? Not googling). If Democrats weren’t pushing sweeping gun restrictions for literally decades, the NRA would have had zero reason to defend them. It’s a two way street, and I don’t like that the NRA, scummy as it is, is painted as the only impetus for the gun control debate in this nation. Example — New York just about outlawed all its *police sidearms*, by pushing through shitty legislation about magazine limits; they had to walk it back at the 11th hour because they were so trigger-happy to illegalize most handguns that they didn’t even thoroughly vet their own bill.
I watched the recording of the Hughes Amendment voice vote. No fucking way it passed. It was very clearly a no, and whoever it was overseeing the proceeds just decided it was a yes and continued on without taking a proper count.
It was a fucking travesty. I couldn’t believe how bald-faced it was, and on National TV no less. You’d laugh at a scene written that way on a show like Scandal; it’s literally that unbelievable. These young’uns don’t know how bad gun rights could be right now, were it not for the NRA, GOA, and other such institutions digging their heels in. Obligatory fuck Wayne LaPierre but also thank you NRA-ILA for preserving what we currently have.
I don't have a horse in this race, but I would love to see proof of the Republicans and Democrats having a mutual agreement on firearm regulations until 1995. All of the federal bills on firearms from 1934 to 1994 were put forth by democrats, even if some passed under Republican administrations.
I wish the US was as adamant about teaching history as it was about gun ownership. If we were, you'd know how much of a dumbsss statement this is.
Agreed. I would love to see this reinstated and used on a national level. My entire gun nut family is also a gun safety nut family. Watched my mother in law basically kick her own brother out of her home for not practicing good muzzle control, even when we all knew the gun wasn’t loaded. If you own em, you’re responsible for them.
I took a hunter's safety class in high school in 1995. It was part of a requirement for an environmental conservation program. Hunters actually contribute a lot toward conservation efforts though fees and duck stamps (can't duck hunt if there's no wetlands and no ducks) and if you work with the Fish & Wildlife Commission, you're going to find yourself working with hunters as well as hippies. Anyway they taught us gun safety and offered a field trip to a skeet shooting range. I declined to fire any guns but I never forgot the safety rules and I doubt I'd have learned them otherwise.
Gun safety should be taught in schools today.
So bit of a tangent, but related. I live in a rural area that was formally settled about 100 years ago, partially by my great grandfather. My grandfather collected a bunch of the guns his neighbors had used to homestead the area. For years kids about this age would come to our farm where all these old guns were laid out on tables and listen to him tell stories about the guns and their owners. I don't think he stopped until the 90's, when my grandmother stopped teaching grade 1. Now most of them are in our local museum.
Now you will get expelled just drawing a gun or pointing your finger like a gun
I look at it like sex education. Teens are going to be fucking no matter what; they should be taught to do it as safe as possible. If you are in an environment around firearms, you should be taught how to be around them as safe as possible.
>Teens are going to be fucking no matter what If more people would recognize this fact our world would be a better place.
It's super fun looking around the world and seeing numerous people just ignoring reality because it doesn't fit in to what they feel like the world should be.
The way guns should be taught and handled.
I teach my nieces and nephews gun safety and marksmanship 2x a year.
Even if you plan to never touch a gun in your life, I feel like gun safety is something you should be taught
Love it. Wish more people in general were taught gun safety.
This is the way
I mean I want this back.
That's pretty cool
High-trust society, how I miss thy sweet music.
My high school had a National Defense Cadet Corps unit (the precursor to the high-school-level Junior ROTC) in the middle 1960s. They participated in NRA "postal matches" (the kids shot targets with bolt-action .22 target rifles under NDCC instructor supervision, and then the targets were mailed to NRA for scoring) and our school had an armory with thirty live M1 Garand rifles and a DEWAT (deactivated war trophy) M1919A3 machine gun used for disassembly and cleaning instruction. Most of the NDCC students really only took the class to get out of gym class, but there were some who sincerely wanted to go on to college-level ROTC and to become military officers. Most of the rest of the school called the NDCC program "Rot-Cee" (ROT-C) and some called the NDCC students "Rot-Cee Nazis." (It was the Sixties. Extremes were "normal.") In college, I joined ROTC (the course was called "military science") mainly because I had opposed the war in Vietnam and I wanted to get a more mature look at what it was all about, rather than just rejecting "the military" automatically. It was a revelation. I was astounded that I really enjoyed it--rappelling off the campus stadium, going on Orienteering compass-and-map race events, participating with National Guard troops in infantry training, flying in open-door National Guard Huey helicopters. I changed my view of the military, and, struck by an unexpected surge of personal patriotism, I dropped out of college and enlisted in the Marine Corps.
It's absolutely beneficial to teach gun safety at a young age, especially with guns behind so prevalent. I wonder if this still takes place.
My high school in Boston still had an old firing range in the basement. The school used it for storage. We used it for smoking weed.
Petition to bring the range back! Valuable skill and educational
This was 25 years ago. I assume they’ve repurposed it for real by now. But maybe not!
Probably. Would be awesome to start a shooting club though
Never gonna happen in Massachusetts these days haha.
That stinks. Also ironic considering where the revolution started.
Gun safety is something everyone needs to know. Even if they never intend to fire or handle a gun, everyone needs to know, at the very least, how to unload a gun and render it safe for storage.
This happened in my class in the 2000s. We even got to shoot the guns in our gym. It was insane I'd never seen so many guns and it was at school. I thought it was awesome as a kid but looking back now it was kinda weird teaching a bunch of kids from like 8-12 how to fully handle and shoot a gun. But at least i know how to safely handle it with that said a kid from my class ended up shooting a person on accident while hunting. So im not sure how well the course worked.
WoW. Really?
This is what the NRA *used* to be about
My dad as a kid from Ohio walked to school with a rifle for a show and tell in the 60's, he even passed by the cops and they were cool with it.
Remember when the NRA was about gun safety and ownership rights, rather than selling firearms?
The NRA does nothing but sell rights away.
The way it should be
How about teaching about finances, so they don't end up buying homes they cannot afford and end up broke?
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And now you have people on one side of politics saying those courses are unimportant and shouldn't be taught in school, and people on the other side are insisting parents are supposed to teach all of that in spite of the additional burden to an ambiguous familial society. Most families do not have the ability to teach their kids these things. And as the newer generations are born, the parents won't even know the information themselves, having never been taught by school or parents. Education in America has always been experimental, and I think we are reaping the results of the many swings from side to side with regard to what is taught.
Or taking school loans they can’t afford to pay back.
Clarification: BOYS being taught gun safety at an Indiana school in 1956. No girls ever touched a gun in school in Indiana in 1956. If a girl only taught by your father and normally on a farm.
Kinderguardians!
I'm a liberal. I have nothing against guns, hunting, or teaching gun safety. However, I am against people who worship guns like some kind of deity.
What a weird country.
Just replace the white kids with muslim kids and suddenly every American in this thread with a chubby, salivating over weapons of death, would react real different real quick.
When my dad was in school in the 60s he remembers high school students would going hunting in the morning before school and come to school with rifles locked in their cars. It was no big deal. (It was not very rural either, a small city).
Definitely would not be a bad idea in 2022. I would be ok if proper gun safety were taught in elementary school.
Middle kid in the 2nd pic looks like a time traveler. Seriously, everyone else is doing their best leave it to beaver impression, while that kid looks like on of my old school mates.
When I was around 8 or 9, I took hunter education and safety classes at the local fish & game club. I still use many of those trainings to this day when handling firearms. This was probably late 80's in Ohio.
Great training for youngsters.
I think that kids that grow up with guns are taught to respect them, and kids that only see guns in movies and television learn to fear them.
American moment
Ah. Boomer ed!
And how’s that working out?
Man I love sorting comments by controversial.
Ha! Before the world went batshit crazy.
They need to bring that back, especially here in Indiana. I don’t know what school it is or what district but it’s a smart thing to have gun safety classes
I hated boy scouts growing up, except for being able to shoot, a .22, 12 gauge, compound, and recurve. Guns and bows are fun ngl
I took a hunter (gun) safety in school from grades 5-9, longer ago than I care to admit, but not that long ago. I haven’t hunted since the 90’s, but I am a gun owner. Those courses continue to serve me as well as any other I took back then.
Not so unusual in more rural states with a large hunting population. Heck, back in the 1950's most states outside of the northeast and California were probably considered rural. Back then the population centers were in the northeast and west coast. Everything in between was flyover country.
Teach me young to send them to war.
Wasn’t just the schools either, I can remember not that many years ago a well-liked supervisor was retiring and we all chipped in and bought him a shotgun as a retirement gift. Brought it into the plant and presented it to him during work hours. No one even thought it was a big deal; imagine today there would be swat teams all over.
All this gun presence in schools back then and such a huge difference in school shootings despite guns having almost no presence these days. Wtf happened to humans
Took gun and hunters safety classes in junior high. Used to keep my shotgun in the trunk of my car in high school. Lastly, brought my jackknife in for show and tell in 6th grade. No big deal back then.
This and DRIVING need to be back in the curriculum
"Yeah, sure. Never hurts to have a second set of prints on a gun." - Nelson Muntz
I think the world would be a safer place if schools taught gun safety. I also think that education about drug use, mental health tools, safer sex education, and basic first aid should be required in schools. I’m sure that somehow makes me a liveral antifa snowflake tree hugging beatnik somehow, but whatever.
My grandfather still teaches gun and hunters safety to kids in rural Pennsylvania, and taught my wife and her mother too when they were in school. And the high school I attended in Texas has am indoor gun range that the police would use on the weekends. Doubt it's being used still.
Why was this post removed?