imported post
While that's certainly one method for teaching kids gun safety, I believe a more useful and effective approach would be to take the kid to a range and demonstrate proper firearm safety precautions, as well as demonstrating what a bullet will do to a target (such as a jug of water or a piece of fruit). Teach a healthy respect for guns rather than a fear of guns.
Then again, for my approach to work, it would be required that children in public schools be taught proper firearm discipline as part of the cirriculum, which would cause the antis many a heart attack.
I also have a minor issue with the simplified "stop, don't touch, leave, tell" instruction, as it seems to criminalize gun ownership. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but teaching young children to report all guns to an authority is an effective way to plant a subliminal anti-gun, pro-registration mentality in children.
Going to the site
http://www.mcgruff.org/Advice/guns.php and looking at the comic strips at the bottom, it seems like the scenarios presented are reasonable, but then they degrade into anti-gun BS:
#1- On the outside, it tells kids to report if they hear other kids talking about bringing guns to school. But it doesn't stop there, saying and implying that kids who talk about firing guns in general should be reported, regardless of context.
#2- Describes how toy guns shouldn't be used to threaten others. However, it is premised on the philosophy that having a gun will cause others to shoot people with guns. While it delivers somewhat of a useful message, it also subliminally undermines the idea of self defense.
#3- "Use a gun and you could be dead" is a nice line in this one. Talks about finding a gun in a park...
#4- Where to start with this one. Once again, the basic story is not to play with guns, and to treat guns like they're loaded. But it has to go further, first teaching kids that guns start firing randomly, as the one in the strip ADs when it's dropped. Then, in the last frame, it's giving the message that guns should be kept locked up.
I'm thinking the NRA probably has some sort of childrens' gun safety program, but it's probably something along the lines of "Call the police if your parents own anything other than a shotgun or rifle painted in camo. Black guns are evil."
