Should gun safety be taught as an elective course at state high schools?

I don’t think it should count as an academic elective class, but it might be ok as what my school called an “activity”.

We went to camp when I was in the 5th and 6th grade. There they taught us gun safety and how to shoot a rifle. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to teach kids gun safety.

I learned from my dad a very long time ago. It doesn’t feel like it should be an academic class to my way of thinking, but I fully understand the importance for young Americans to learn it.

I fully support gun safety classes, I just don’t think school is a good place to hold them. I think an indoor or outdoor gun range is the only appropriate location for a gun safety class. The idea of a bunch of teenagers packing heat in school does not sit well with me.

And it seems like the noise from gunfire would disrupt students’ education. I can’t imagine a gun safety class that doesn’t have you firing a gun at least once.

Well, archery is a common extracurricular class in Japan so I don’t see any difference if a school apply gun shooting class for their student. But.. I have a feeling that teenagers are really emotional, rebellious, and mischeavous so a very supervised and secure environment should be provided specially for this class. Only a select few students should be allowed to participate in this class after a very thorough screening as applicants.

@Unofficial_Member guns are a lot noisier than arrows, though. And bullets have a greater range than arrows.

My middle school had a shooting team, kids checked their guns in upon arrival and picked them up when it was time for practice. We also had a hunter safety course which included a little gun safety. There is nothing wrong with teaching gun safety, the more you know about being safe the better.

@ARE_you_kidding_me did you go to middle school in a rural area? I just don’t see gun safety classes as being practical where I live. Madison is a densely populated city and the nearest gun range is in Deerfield, about 20 miles east of here.

Yeah, it was backwoods and pretty much everyone hunted. Hell the town practically shut down during hunting season.

No. Guns should be heavily restricted and the 2nd Amendment repealed. Why should I pay taxes to teach your kids about guns?

@zenvelo you really think the second amendment should be repealed? Why?

Not that I disagree, I just don’t think I’ve ever heard even the most far-left person I know say that.

All the more reasons they need to put extra precaution to open this class. Lets also not forget that each State has a different regulation regarding firearm usage/possession so it’s not that every school can apply that even if the environment is suitable for such thing. The safest solution is for school to not teach this to prevent possible casualities and other risks. Schools aren’t obligated to teach their students how to protect themselves through firearms.

I support gun safety at any level, and it’s a great idea to teach people about it.
As an academic maybe not unless of course the student wants to continue on and be a gun smith.
And for people that snark guns should be restricted no one needs them.
Sure the same as some one needs a sports car that will do triple the speed limit.
And a lot more people are killed in auto accidents every year than by guns.

In a rural area I think it’s OK. Maybe based on percentage of the populace with hunting licenses.

My school was mixed suburban/rural and about a third of the boys would be gone for the opening day of deer season.

I’m so glad I don’t live in a country where I need to consider teaching my kids gun safety.

No it shouldn’t as it is just promoting gun culture. Guns are inherently unsafe and the less you have to do with them the safer you will be.

Truly spoken by several who have no experience with guns. In a country flooded with them not teaching gun safety is simply irresponsible.

Sure, why not? As long as it’s an elective. There are many practical things that schools could stand to teach. Though maybe they should teach some basic finance and domestic skills before they teach guns. That’s just me, though.

I think teaching basic finance and domestic skills in high school is a great idea and far more useful than gun safety.

Only addition to martial arts, knife fighting, sword fighting, and poison brewing.

You could call it “Assassination Classroom”.

I think an entire course is actually a little much, I mean the idea is not to teach kids how to shoot but how to handle, disarm, store them and what the consequences of not doing this properly could be. It would probably be best as part of a general safety course that would include such things as not mixing ammonia and bleach based cleaners together, how to properly load your electrical outlets, store gasoline, etc, etc. It would certainly prevent some darwin awards.

It seems excessive to me too. A single class session or two should be enough to cover everything.

Short answer is yes.

I think they should allot that time for extra driver’s ed.

And practical sex education.

I grew up in another time (in the 60s) and place. Pretty much every kid was given a gun by the age of 14. Most kids had a .22 by the age of 12 – usually your dad’s old single shot bolt action or, if you were a good kid, a Sears and Roebuck bolt action.
My high school offered riflery and gun safety as a course. It was one of the activities in gym class. The school had a rifle team that competed with other schools.
There was a range in the basement with enough rifles to equip the class of about 25 kids. We were allowed to bring our own guns to school if we wanted. We stored them in our lockers! Of course we were not allowed to carry bullets. The teacher gave us each a box of 50 when class began!
There was never a problem. Never a shooting or threat of property damage. Everyone behaved.
The practice ended in the mid 70s due to political pressure.

We didn’t kill each other as much back then.

A fine tradtion, surely

Only the “good” kids were allowed to bring guns to school. If you were bad the privilege
was taken away permanently.
Other differences between then and now.
Most kids had a nuclear family. A mom who stayed at home, a dad who worked and maybe a couple of grandparents staying with them. The neighbors knew you and you knew them. If you misbehaved any one of the neighbors would yell at you and tell your parents who would back them up.
Teacher discipline was supported by the parents.
If you didn’t do your homework, you got in trouble. If you talked in class or didn’t stay in your seat, you got in trouble.
“Bad boys” were not heroes They were considered losers and were avoided.
For the most part, everyone behaved. And people were nice to each other. That was the norm.