There was a time in the middle of the Twentieth Century that it was common for public schools to offer rifle training and high schools and colleges across the nation fielded rifle teams in competition. It was not unusual to see a young man carrying a rifle and no one felt threatened by the mere presence of a gun.
The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy brought about the liberal idea that inanimate objects should be to blame. The notions that guns cause violent behavior, that law abiding people buy guns in the heat of a dispute to commit murder, that firearms that look 'scary' should be banned were presented to the public by liberal groups. In short, a tool, a machine, an object incapable of thought was demonized.
Legislation enacted during the Clinton administration barred guns from school grounds, required background checks and waiting periods on firearms purchases, and brought us an ineptly name Assault Weapons Ban. The gun was further ostracized.
Our schools now teach driver education in hope of saving lives and sex education to prevent disease and teenage pregnancy. Children are taught to stop, drop, and roll in the unlikely event that their clothes catch fire. They know how to react in the event of a tornado warning. Is there no value in teaching about firearm safety? Would knowledge of gun safety not be helpful in the event that these children encounter a gun?
To deny that schools should teach gun safety is to affirm that it is proper to not provide a complete education. It pronounces it good that our students be ignorant of the realities outside of their supposedly safe school zone. It indoctrinates in them that an object can be evil and that the Nanny State will protect them from such things!
Whenever there is a vacuum or void in knowledge, there is an effort to fill that void. We call it curiosity or a thirst for knowledge. In young people today, the gun knowledge void is often filled with misinformation from movies and television or by experimentation. Both are dangerous, not only to the curious, but also to those around him.
Those who make movies are concerned only with dramatics in relation to firearms. It is good business for them to glorify killing and violence with guns. Experimenting with guns in an effort to learn is tantamount to teaching someone to drive by putting them on a freeway and telling them to drive until the gas runs out. One may know by observation that the steering wheel controls the direction of the car or that pulling the trigger fires the gun, but the fundamentals are missing.
It is only through training that we can expect someone to safely operate a car or a firearm. We would do well to offer firearm training at every opportunity.
The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy brought about the liberal idea that inanimate objects should be to blame. The notions that guns cause violent behavior, that law abiding people buy guns in the heat of a dispute to commit murder, that firearms that look 'scary' should be banned were presented to the public by liberal groups. In short, a tool, a machine, an object incapable of thought was demonized.
Legislation enacted during the Clinton administration barred guns from school grounds, required background checks and waiting periods on firearms purchases, and brought us an ineptly name Assault Weapons Ban. The gun was further ostracized.
Our schools now teach driver education in hope of saving lives and sex education to prevent disease and teenage pregnancy. Children are taught to stop, drop, and roll in the unlikely event that their clothes catch fire. They know how to react in the event of a tornado warning. Is there no value in teaching about firearm safety? Would knowledge of gun safety not be helpful in the event that these children encounter a gun?
To deny that schools should teach gun safety is to affirm that it is proper to not provide a complete education. It pronounces it good that our students be ignorant of the realities outside of their supposedly safe school zone. It indoctrinates in them that an object can be evil and that the Nanny State will protect them from such things!
Whenever there is a vacuum or void in knowledge, there is an effort to fill that void. We call it curiosity or a thirst for knowledge. In young people today, the gun knowledge void is often filled with misinformation from movies and television or by experimentation. Both are dangerous, not only to the curious, but also to those around him.
Those who make movies are concerned only with dramatics in relation to firearms. It is good business for them to glorify killing and violence with guns. Experimenting with guns in an effort to learn is tantamount to teaching someone to drive by putting them on a freeway and telling them to drive until the gas runs out. One may know by observation that the steering wheel controls the direction of the car or that pulling the trigger fires the gun, but the fundamentals are missing.
It is only through training that we can expect someone to safely operate a car or a firearm. We would do well to offer firearm training at every opportunity.
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