educating the kids

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Here is something to run by people. The anti American liberals want " gun safety ".so here is my proposal. We demand our public schools teach firearms safety,since it is a right. and NOT a hunting right, They can start at 1st grade level,then teach actual shooting in high school. Some Republican thats not afraid needs to put this on the offence. If we dont stand up to these anti Americans, who will?

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while I appreciate your concern, I'm not sure that I'd want some mouth breathing leftist teacher with an ingrained hatred of guns trying to "teach gun safety" to impressionable little minds. Its not hard to imagine what sort of instuructions they'd get.

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Our gym teacher in elementary school showed us gun safety films back in the 70s. That's unheard of today, alas.

-ljp

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I'm very much in favor of shooting classes in High School. It should be a semester long class. If it was done by a means approved of by the NRA, it could even be worth doing. Too bad it's not about to happen.

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This was last October here in Alaska...

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/102308/loc_347532024.shtml

Students take aim at gun safety
[font="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"]Floyd Dryden Middle School offers outdoor education program

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[font="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"]Thursday, October 23, 2008 [/font]
[font="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"]By Alan Suderman | [/font][font="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"]JUNEAU EMPIRE[/font]

Sixth-grader Adrienne Sypeck fired a gun for the first time Wednesday.
"It felt great," she said. "You get full of adrenaline ... and you're so happy once you see your results. If you hit the target, it's awesome."
Sypeck and her classmates at Floyd Dryden Middle School are taking part in an outdoor education program that involves classes in firearm and water safety, hunting ethics and orienteering. The students also get to spend some time at an indoor shooting range taking target practice on either an air rifle or .22-caliber rifles.
Now in its eighth year, Principal Tom Milliron said the main purpose of the program is to make sure all kids know the basics of gun safety, which he said is crucial in a state such as Alaska where many families own firearms.
"It's part of the Alaska culture," Milliron said. "As such it's important that we teach our students how to behave appropriately and safely if a firearm is introduced to a room that they are in."
Milliron said about 1,600 sixth-grade students have gone through the program, which is largely run by community volunteers who teach the various classes and pay for supplies.
Last year, Juneau's other middle school, Dzantik'i Heeni, began a similar outdoor education program, Milliron said.
Volunteer Ken Coate said it was important to teach younger kids firearm safety to counter the bad examples they see in on TV and in the movies and to prevent needless accidents.
"The four basic rules of firearms safety: Muzzle control, keep your finger off the trigger, always have a firearm unloaded until you're ready to fire it, know your target and what's beyond it," he said.
Milliron said students come away from the program with a genuine understanding of how to be safe around guns.
Similar gun safety efforts exist statewide in more rural villages, but none like what's available at Floyd Dryden, according to Anchorage-based Alaska Fish and Game Hunter education coordinator Lee Rogers.
Rogers said a few middle schools in Anchorage have started offering similar outdoor education classes electives for students, but there's been resistance from parents with a "big city philosophy" that "guns are bad."
Milliron said only a handful of parents have ever complained about having guns in school around 11-year-old students, but his name has shown up on an anti-gun blog after media accounts of the program.
He added that the state has been supportive his efforts. Milliron said former Gov. Frank Murkowski volunteered to help teach while governor and Gov. Sarah Palin also indicated she wanted to help.
Not far from Floyd Dryden at the state Fish and Game's indoor firing range Wednesday, students were effusive in their praise for the program, especially since it meant not having to attend regular classes.
"This is way more fun," said Christian Reyes, "This is an experience of a lifetime ... to be able to get out of school and shoot."
"It's awesome," echoed Griffin Young, shortly after hitting a couple bull's-eyes at the target range. "It's probably the greatest thing that's happened to me in my life."

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Legba wrote:

Our gym teacher in elementary school showed us gun safety films back in the 70s. That's unheard of today, alas.

-ljp

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My hunter safety was late 80's and they had the guns without firing pins to show us. It was my 9th grade PE teacher that taught it. I have not idea if they still do it, but I doubt it. I'm teaching mine starting pre-K. They see the guns regularly. My oldest daughter has been hunting with me already.

A buddy of mine is an asst coach of a high school shooting team in Davie county NC. That would have been a sport I could have really gotten into!

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If ever there was a justification of throwing it back in the anti's face, "This is for the safety of the kids.", how can you be against safety? This would be one of those times. Although I have already taken care of it for my kids, if it became a high school course in my daughter's school, she would be taking it evan as a senior.

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Legba wrote:

Our gym teacher in elementary school showed us gun safety films back in the 70s. That's unheard of today, alas.

-ljp

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I can't say its unheard of...

http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/



This is the program a couple teachers at the school I used to work at and that my mother still does work at are trying to get started as a subset of PE program.


IMHO this is more important then sex ed in schools

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Tiny85 wrote:

Legba wrote:

Our gym teacher in elementary school showed us gun safety films back in the 70s. That's unheard of today, alas.

-ljp

Click to expand...

I can't say its unheard of...

http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/

This is the program a couple teachers at the school I used to work at and that my mother still does work at are trying to get started as a subset of PE program.


IMHO this is more important then sex ed in schools

Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far.

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impulse418 wrote:

Tiny85 wrote:

Legba wrote:

Our gym teacher in elementary school showed us gun safety films back in the 70s. That's unheard of today, alas.

-ljp

Click to expand...

I can't say its unheard of...

http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/

This is the program a couple teachers at the school I used to work at and that my mother still does work at are trying to get started as a subset of PE program.


IMHO this is more important then sex ed in schools

Click to expand...

I wouldn't go that far.

Click to expand...

Keep that gun in the holster....... :lol:

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All kidding aside, I see this as very beneficial. I have been training my son since he had plastic dart guns pre-school age. He always knew I have pistols and rifles, and with the dart guns, I taught muzzle and trigger finger discipline. He is now 11, and is safer than some adults at the shooting range.

Safety training at grade-school age works. A national program, NOT taught by indoctrinated teachers :quirky, but by some organization in the shooting realm; such as the NRA. It would make a logical extension of the Eddie Eagle program. It would also be a nice kick-start for some of the programs such as ROTC, Sea Cadets, and so on.

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Children are eager learners with proper instruction, and most would do well. I would love to see this attitude return to the educational system, but maybe with a start in ROTC, Criminal justice classes, (elementary level) just to insure the frame of mind is intact knowing right from wrong, or some sort of wildlife mgmt. course.. Then there would definitely have to be a grading system in place to justify advancement through the course levels.. Start out with Airsoft, advance to Air power, then to ignition propellants.. Some would make the grade, and some wouldn't due to mentality, and attitude. then would come the disgruntled student, the one that failed the course and wasn't allowed to advance through the course. Some would accept that rejection, and be just fine shooting and hunting with Dad or Uncle so and so, but then you would have the one in the course of every couple of years that couldn't handle the rejection, because all his/her life they always got a trophy at the end of a losing Baseball,Soccer, Football season , or never had to experience the feeling of being cut from a sports team, because of sub standard performance of what was needed to make a team of players successful.. in some states, cities,communities, that would present a serious environment that wouldcreate the necessity to be ever vigilant over young minds that didn't have the parent power to continue the guidance after the school bell rings at the end of the day.. I'm not making a blanket statement concerning allyouth in this day and time, but the potential for 1 wrong to color the whole idea Black is there.

I would be more in favor of an after hours registered course with a parent or guardian responsibleto be in attendance for each and every class w/ said student, to be educated andinstructed by a certified instructor. Then if something goes afoul, the parent is there to help with any reasoning issues.

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My daughter brought home some "Eddie Eagle" stuff from public school when she was in first grade. I'm glad they were teaching it, but she found it rather boring because she already knew it.

Now she's home schooled and learning to shoot and hunt.

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My dad, having spent his part of WWII behind twin .50 cal machine guns in the dorsal turret of a B24 Liberator, did not want live weapons around the house, but he wasn't a brainwashed anti. He had just done too much killing and was tired of it. Two of my uncles had quite extensive gun collecctions and my brothers and I would drool over them every time we cme over, and envied our cousins. One day my uncle gave us a real simple safety lesson. He took a canteloupe and had us all note that it was the size of our puddin' heads. Then he set it about 50 yards downrange on my other uncle's meadow and loaded an M1 Garand. He then proceeded to blow that melon to smithereens with one round. Then he said:

"Boys, that could be the head of your brother or your cousin or your freind if you ever play with a gun. They ain't toys. Now just pretend that mushmelon was the head of your best friend, and you didn't mean to do it, and go out there and put it back together the way it was. If you can do that I'll let you have the key to the gun cabinet. Otherwise, you dont touch my guns or anybody elses guns unless me or your dady is with you. Understand?? you bet we did.

As to public schools teaching "gun safety", remember that lots of schools have counsellors asking kids to inform the school if the parents have guns in the house. I fear any "public school gun safety program" would have an element advising kids not to play at the homes of friends where guns were kept or some such quasi-Gestapo freakery. These damn schools can't even teach the kids proper English. Can you imagine what their success at teaching firearms safety would be?? This is far to serious a matter to be left to the schools (and by the way, I would not tar individual teachers with this brush. They labor under idiots and I admire their efforts)

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I had firearms in the house all through my childhood. Of course up here in Canada, we've been limited to rifles and shotguns since... 1935 or something, but I learned firearm safety right around the time I was taught "Don't touch the stove" and "Look both ways before crossing the street".

And I'll tell you one thing: I certainly didn't learn it in school. Afterall, ignorance is clearly the best kind of safety training!

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What we got decades ago was rather different from this "Eddie Eagle" course. We were already slightly older than this target group, and it was less "don't ever touch a gun and go find an adult" and more like a regular adult hunter education course - treat all guns as loaded, how to unload a gun when crossing bodies of water or climbing fences, etc. This new course is probably better than ingoring the subject altogether, but still not quite what I remember, and less than I would advise.

-ljp