National OPINION: There is a way to teach proper gun safety, and it works

[Joe Link]

"The unique Eddie Eagle Gun safety program can be taught at a very early age and does not involve any handling of firearms."

A recent letter to the Dear Abby advice column from a mother of young children asks how she would go about making sure her children were in safe surroundings when going to a neighbor's home to play has generated a few replies that are sure to alienate some of these neighbors if the recommendations were followed.

Some of the replies from so-called professionals advocated coming right out and asking if a family had firearms in the home and then if so, how were they stored.

Outside of being overly nosy about whether some people exercise their constitutional rights to arms, right off the bat you are insulting their judgment and intelligence. One reply was from a registered nurse who claimed her education was from a prestigious eastern university intimating that fact alone qualified her to offer an expert opinion.

Such educational institutions are not known to have any form of firearms safety education or training in any of their curriculum and are most likely adverse to any form of support of the second amendment of the constitution. Financial support for such establishments is derived from billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and generous liberal-based foundations such as the Ford Foundation that are defiantly anti-gun and alumni that are decidedly liberal and opposed to firearms ownership by U.S. citizens.

There is a way to teach proper gun safety, and it works

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[Andy54Hawken]

A great way to teach firearm safety is to keep politics and the 2nd Amendment out of the discussion / lesson.

Teach:
If you find a gun , leave it alone , find / tell a trustworthy adult.
If you are handling a gun , always check to see if it is loaded , every time you handle it.
Always keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
Always keep the gun's muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

Firearm safety should be simple and easy to teach ... unfortunately it isn't so.
Andy

 

[Stomper]

It's worth mentioning that you shouldn't play with fragmentation grenades, either.




But seriously, it's always a good tactic to converse in such a way as to mitigate the "emotional" aspect of the subject, which ties in with what Andy said about avoiding the "politics" because it's merely a "wedge" designed to keep everyone at each other's throats and distracted from the "power grabbers" end game.

 

[etrain16]

When I teach folks about gun safety, I try to make it simple, straightforward and non-political. At that point, it's simply learning how to use a new tool safely. If they want to later discuss politics, we can do that. But at the range, it's about being safe and having fun. Easy!

 

[titsonritz]

I tried to get the elementary school my children attended to do an Eddie Eagle program, I would have achieved more pissing in the wind.

 

[etrain16]

It really makes sense to have a good gun safety curriculum in the public schools. Too few parents care to teach their children gun safety, so they never learn it - and that is certainly a contributing factor to accidents/ND's among children.

Unfortunately, the politics of anti-gunners is such that they don't even want guns mentioned, much less taught. This is a foolish and remarkably short-sighted point of view and is actually likely to create more dangerous situations with guns than you would have if folks had a secure knowledge of the basics.

 

[Stomper]

I tried to get the elementary school my children attended to do an Eddie Eagle program, I would have achieved more pissing in the wind.

You should write a country song about that!

 

[Andy54Hawken]

If I could convince the school board to allow teaching of gun safety , I'd be happy to teach the class.
Just teach those four "rules" I mentioned in my first post and anytime some political comment came up ... reply:
"We are not here to discuss politics , just firearm safety.
I am not interested in who you vote for...
Nor how you "feel" about guns...
I am , however interested in keeping you safe around guns. Here is how to do just that..."
Just be firm , polite and to the point about teaching safety only.
Andy

It really makes sense to have a good gun safety curriculum in the public schools. Too few parents care to teach their children gun safety, so they never learn it - and that is certainly a contributing factor to accidents/ND's among children.

 

[etrain16]

If I could convince the school board to allow teaching of gun safety , I'd be happy to teach the class.
Just teach those four "rules" I mentioned in my first post and anytime some political comment came up ... reply:
"We are not here to discuss politics , just firearm safety.
I am not interested in who you vote for...
Nor how you "feel" about guns...
I am , however interested in keeping you safe around guns. Here is how to do just that..."
Just be firm , polite and to the point about teaching safety only.
Andy

Too bad most school boards wouldn't listen. In fact, I'm willing to bet that around the country you could get an army of volunteers willing to come into schools at no cost, just to teach firearms safety. Heck, I'd be willing to do it.

 

[HB of CJ]

Such a good firearm program could also be easily presented by the Boy and Girl Scouts. Wait ... do we still have such?

 

[nwslopoke]

There is a side of society, myself included that says, teaching kids sex education won't lead to them having sex, it leads to them making informed decisions. What is the right age? It depends. Same with guns. Though I would teach gun safety at a very early age and include my bias against Glocks.

 

[cigars]

I tried to get the elementary school my children attended to do an Eddie Eagle program, I would have achieved more pissing in the wind.

Yet they will bend over backwards to teach the kids at that age about abortions and Trans xyz etc.

 

[HB of CJ]

Gun Control SHOULD be just another aspect of proper parenting. Sadly, todays parents may not be doing their jobs. May not be. Might also be doing just great. Right now we as grandparents are kinda gun shy about teaching the grand kids proper gun control.

This should be coming from our kids. But ... no matter how well one tries raising offspring, sometimes the ending result is lack luster. But ... were we any different as young parents? No. What we do now is spend the treasure and have gun professionals teach.

Kinda like driver training. Best not taught at home by family. Also it is a matter of preference and depth of skill. Our grandkids cans drive a 10 ton dump truck just great. Thirteen, (13) speed Roadranger. Jake. Also can handle a M2 Carbine quite well. Wow and cool!

All Oregon State, US Code Laws And NFA Rules Apply.

Still having much fun trying to equalize the paragraph lengths. Impossible!

 

[Quartermaster]

From the program: "stop," "don't touch," "run away," "tell a grown-up"

That's useless. It teaches fear, and does not satiate curiosity. It creates an unhealthy fetish to satisfy the desire to break the rules.

Teach children (and adult children) to RESPECT firearms in whatever manner you want to teach the 3-8 rules of firearm handling.

Eddie Eagle is as misguided as the prestigious nurses who have no knowledge of firearms.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

You can teach someone to avoid something without causing fear.... It all depends on how you deliver the message.
Andy

 

[awshoot]

From the program: "stop," "don't touch," "run away," "tell a grown-up"

That's useless. It teaches fear, ...

What do you tell your kids around a hot stove? "Touch it, go ahead, knock yourself out!"

Seriously, if a 1st grader finds a gun, exercising curiosity should be discouraged. Kind of like when I was a kid around that age, finding a box of 7mm Mauser shells poorly secured in my dad's van, then pounding them on a cement block with a hammer till they exploded as if they were roll caps. I suffered nothing but some probable hearing loss but I think a little bit of fear of what the heck I was playing with would have been warranted. Maybe I wouldn't have done such an ignorant thing -- and that is what it was, ignorance of potential consequences coupled with never having had any fear of fooling around with ammo instilled in me (even if it was just fear of a paddling - I probably couldn't really comprehend the danger at that age but fear of a spanking might have stopped me from doing something really stupid and potentially life altering).

 

[Andy54Hawken]

In my own home and how I was raised ... the "forbidden fruit" of guns , just wasn't around.
I could look and handle my Dad's and my guns at any time...When young it was under Dad's supervision... when I earned the trust , I earned the responsibility to look at and handle firearms safely by myself.
I taught my daughter the same way.

That said...
If I am teaching someone else's daughter or son ... they will be taught , that if they find a gun or if "Johnny" is "showing off " Dad's firearm ... then they are to leave and find and tell a trustworthy adult.
Not out of fear , but because it is the safe , smart and right thing to do.
They will be taught that if you mishandle a gun , someone , maybe you , could be hurt or killed.
This is taught in a simple matter of fact way... not to make 'em scared ... but to understand what could happen.
If you understand ... then you do not fear.
Andy

 

[EmyJacob]

There is a way to teach proper gun safety, and it works

The debate will just rage, but what I feel is the children should be taught gunsafety in School. Teachers are of mixed views. The Newton incident(Letter: Teach firearm safety in schools) indicates the need for teaching children about gun safety else they are in danger of shooting themselves or others. A proper commercial video surveillance systems also helps in fortifying gun safety.
How good are our children in tackling an unexpected situation like this? A question which every parent should ponder about.

 

[Quartermaster]

What do you tell your kids around a hot stove? "Touch it, go ahead, knock yourself out!"

That's a straw man argument, and a false equivalency. Making a mockery out of my position doesn't get you a debate. It gets you ignored.