School Teaches Shooting to Sixth-Graders

[kpete]

November 20, 2006
School Teaches Shooting to Sixth-Graders

Here’s a scary thought: while teenagers shoot Secret Service agents and get gunned down in the street, one Alaska school is doing the almost unthinkable: putting firearms in students’ hands.

Tom Milliron figures Juneau school children are going to encounter guns one way or another, whether venturing armed into nearby wilderness or visiting the home of a friend.

Better they learn how to handle a firearm safely than to hurt themselves through ignorance, he says.

Milliron is principal of one of Juneau’s two middle schools. Sixth-graders under his care last month completed an outdoor education course that included instruction in safe handling of guns and firing rounds from .22-caliber rifles. For some children, it was the first time they’d touched a gun.

In gun-happy Alaska, teaching children how to safely handle firearms is just common sense, Milliron said.

“Kids ought to be approached from a solid educational perspective and not discover guns on their own,” Milliron said.

It’s a good sentiment, and it sure sounds like it would work, right? But the truth is that there is no such thing as “gun safety.” Guns are never safe, no matter how much training you have, and they’re definitely not safe around children.

more at:
http://www.gunguys.com/?p=1673

[Stephanie]

1. I think this makes a lot of sense.

I grew up in Montana and this makes sense to me. In places like that shooting is a sport and a gun is dangerous sporting equipment. Gun education for kids in a place like that makes just as much sense as sex education does for most kids. It's better that they know what they're doing - they're going to run across it one way or another.

[Ready4Change]

7. I agree. I question any promotion of ignorance.

Ignorance kills. Whether the subject is guns, drugs, sex, abortion. Educate or get out of the way.

[951-Riverside]

2. Guns (unless defective) as safe but I can't say the same about defective humans n/t

[Mythsaje]

3. Better they have training

than not.

[Pugee]

4. Living in a rural area, one of the local schools has a program on guns during summer school

Most homes have guns, and even young children go hunting. The conservation department sends a woman who teaches the kids about hunting guns and also BB guns. If they are going to have them around, they need to know the dangers and how to handle them safely.

BTW- I don't have guns myself and don't like them. However, in rural schools, they are a common part of life. Many families live off the land and that includes shooting game.

[MadHound]

5. This piece is just a bit on the hysterical side

Most kids in rural and hunting cultures do get their first gun training around that age, 10-12. The overwhelming majority of this group of children aren't on either the giving or receiving side of an accident, handle guns safely and resposibly, and grow up to be safe, resposible gun owners. I was introduced to guns and gun safety when I was eleven, a single shot .22. Like the vast majority of my generation, I was never involved in a firearms accident. In fact I inheirited that .22, along with a few other long guns from my father. Family heirlooms to be passed on. I don't hunt, though I learned how to do that an the same age, but do enjoy skeet shooting once in awhile.

I see no problem with this, and frankly the author of this piece is going over the top saying that sooner or later these kids will be involved in a firearms accident. Yes, children do suffer these sorts of accidents, unfortunately, but it seems to me that most of the kids involved in such catastrophes know nothing about guns, how to handle them, or that they aren't toys, you have to respect them. Taking firearms safety isn't a bad thing in such a culture, to me it seems like common sense.

[133724]

6. I grew up in eastern Washington.

Most of the kids in high school had access to guns. As I recall if you wanted to get a hunting license you had to take the course. excellent Idea. there is a lot to this. like how do you cross a barbwire fence safely.

Cheney could have benefited from the class. At least it would have improved his friends chances of not getting shot in the face.....

[Redneck Socialist]

8. Cool

Wish we had a shoot class when I was a kid.

[PirateJoe]

9. wow, this post reeks of ignorance

It’s a good sentiment, and it sure sounds like it would work, right? But the truth is that there is no such thing as “gun safety.” Guns are never safe, no matter how much training you have, and they’re definitely not safe around children.


yes, there is such a thing as gun safety. there are definite steps you can take to reduce firearm incidents to virtually zero.

Jeff Cooper's Four rules

1) always treat a gun as if it is loaded (no pointing a gun at your/ your friends head and going "LOL, I AM TEH HARDC0RE"
2) always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. (if the muzzle isn't aimed at anyone, even if it does go off, no one is hurt)
3) be sure of your target and what is beyond. (make sure that there's isn't anyone/anything behind your target)
4) keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. (reduces the risk of your finger slipping and discharging the firearms)

i, and thousands of gunowners everywhere, have been practicing these 4 rules, and have never had a firearm accident. the only firearm injuries that occur is the result of breaking one of these rules.

[Billy Ruffian]

11. The wikipedia entries

have rules 3 & 4 in opposite order, but you're still quite right.
:evilgrin:

[Billy Ruffian]

10. No gun safety?

Firearms certainly are dangerous when improperly used, but to say that guns are never safe is pretty extreme.

If guns were never safe, there would be an awful lot more accidents considering the billions of rounds fired in the US every year.

I've had firearms since my early teens, and never had a problem. My first firearm (a single shot .22 rifle) was given to me by my dad who bought it (used, I think) when he was 11.

I started teaching my son how to shoot, and safely handle a firearm, when he was six.

[longship]

12. Sourdoughs live a different life.

Alaska isn't just another state, it's a way of life. It's like you go to Arizona and you see people packing iron in plain sight--no need for concealed weapon permit that way. This is probably just another affectation of Alaskan life. I see nothing sinister about it. It's probably good that kids understand gun safety. It would probably be better if everybody had a gun safety course.

However, I don't outright support this.

[benEzra]

13. Ah, a hysterical crosspost from the ban-more-guns lobby...

for those who don't know, "gunguys.com" is a ban-more-guns advocacy site. Take what you find there with the same grain of salt you'd use for crossposted NRA press releases.

My reaction to their article is, "So what?" I learned to shoot before I was in sixth grade. So did a majority of people who own guns as adults, I suspect. Which, of course, is probably the "gunguys" true objection--demystification and familiarization with guns (1) dispels the notion that guns are Evil Power Objects, hence some of these people might be more likely to own guns as adults, and (2) if you have a passing familiarity with firearms technology and firearms law, you are a lot less likely to fall for their bait-and-switches and general fearmongering about lawfully owned guns and responsible gun owners.

[smirkymonkey]

14. I must be from a different planet than everybody else because

the idea of children with guns is abhorrent to me.

I can't believe so many people here are not only supporting this idea, they see nothing wrong with a culture where everyone, children included, "need" to carry a gun.

Is Alaska really that violent? :banghead:

[benEzra]

16. A child using a target rifle under adult supervision...

with the gun locked out of the child's access when not in use, is absolutely no problem whatsoever.

Many of us on this thread were shooting firearms under adult supervision by this age. We're not talking about sending 12-year-olds to school with revolvers stuck in their waistbands, here; were're talking about a supervised gun safety and marksmanship class, which in most of this country is considered a Good Thing.

[slackmaster]

18. I respect your feelings, but your post contains a straw man

...they see nothing wrong with a culture where everyone, children included, "need" to carry a gun....

Isn't that just a bit over the top?

Is Alaska really that violent?

Violence has nothing to do with it. People use firearms there mostly for hunting and self-defense against wild animals.

[derby378]

15. Someone should tell the Brady Campaign mouthpiece to heave off...

"Look out, kids! It's a .22 squirrel rifle! It's powerful enough to kill you and your whole family!"

Please, GunGuys, spare me. It's about time someone in this nation took a more rational approach to kids and firearms.

We've tried your way, and it failed. Now we're trying something different. No more "social engineering."

[slackmaster]

17. Duplicate GD topic

See OP donsu getting his ass handed to him on a platter repeatedly at:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2774878