“Hunting and fishing could soon enter physical education curriculum in high schools throughout the state if a bill is passed in the Assembly,” watertowndailytimes.com reports. That’s a big “if.” The New York state legislature has torpedoed this idea for the last ten years. Though this year’s version made it to the Senate floor, Bill S1625 — “an act to amend the environmental conservation law and the education law, in relation to hunting, fishing and outdoor education in high school physical education courses “– the odds of passage are slim. Because guns.
In years past, according to District Superintendent of St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Thomas R. Burns, more schools in the area offered outdoor educational courses. Clifton-Fine Central School was one of those schools, but their program ended when the teacher of the course retired.
“Our thinking at the time, many years ago, was that many of the homes that our children lived in had guns in them,” Mr. Burns said. “We thought it was really important to provide the opportunity to our kids to teach them hunter and gun safety. It was a positive thing.”
And now, many years hence, gun safety is Voldemort in New York schools. Tempus fugit.
If the bill is passed and signed into law, classes would include teaching students the history of hunting and fishing, how to obtain a hunting or fishing license and what species may be taken with a sporting license. Nowhere in the bill does it state students will participate in any hands-on activities associated with hunting or fishing, such as learning how to use a hunting rifle.
Yes, but nowhere does S1265 state that students won’t participate in any hands-on activities associated with hunting or fishing, such as learning how to use a hunting rifle. In fact, it “authorizes instructions to be given in the safe and proper use of firearms allowed by law to be used in the taking of wild game.” Which is why it’s doomed.
I won’t count on our hopelessly liberal state assembly. My daughter turns 12 in December, and she will have her first lesson with a .22 rifle the weekend after.
My intro and safety rules were started wen I turned ten. The .22 was the rifle I learned on, a Winchester single shot., bolt action. Fired a .30-30 at age 14, a 28 ga , .410 and 12 ga shotguns were introduced to me. By 16 I had settled down to the 12 ga double and as big game shooting with other than a shotgun or bow is and was not legal here,, I continued with the .22 and target shooting with it. The training helped quite a lot when I entered the Army.
I think I started on a single-shot .22 when I was seven or eight, but current NY state law is 12 for a long gun.
I went to Garden City High School, Garden City NY in the 70’s. Just outside the Brooklyn line. There is a rifle range in the basement which doubles as a fallout shelter. We had a 12 man rifle team. We brought our rifles to school on the bus twice a week during winter. We put them in our regular locker during the day. No problems. No shootings. No fear mongering. It’s a shame the liberals have taken over. Me, I ended up in Virginia where the light of our Constitution still shines.
And your belt line didn’t start somewhere south of your sphincter either.
Related? 😉
Related? Do you think that rifle range is still used?
Not in a culture of slank-dog, big-pants-down-past-the-butt progressives.
I went to high school in the Bronx in the early 60’s. The school had a rifle range in the basement, but it was sacrificed to enlarge the pool area. After that, the rifle team became a rifle club.
The school itself was highly integrated. Guns and gangs were never a problem and almost everyone who graduated — black, white or Puerto Rican — went on to higher education of one kind or another.
Today, the school is a hideous armpit.
I dunno. Might be easier to add it to the curriculum if they first pass an amendment that says hunting and fishing is a protected right.
Am I the only one that’s looking at the headline graphic and wondering how on earth they got the ducks within 5 feet of the muzzle? Dude, what call?
Not ducks, rails. They nest in the vegetation and were probably flushed out of hiding.
Are said rails as tasty as ducks? (Mergansers and Coots don’t count)
I can’t say I’ve ever tried it. I’ve heard conflicting reports, to the point I would only venture to call its flavor “distinctive”.
They whine about kids being killed from gun accidents, but they don’t want the same kids educated in safety.
By that reasoning, the way to make kids safer behind the wheel would by to forbid them learning how to drive.
“By that reasoning, the way to make kids safer behind the wheel would by to forbid them learning how to drive.”
I am quite confident that a lot of people are advocating for exactly that.
The left wants dead kids, gays, and white people.
With all that can be improved, this is the best elected representatives can muster we’re doomed to legislative stupidity. People get what they vote for.
How about shotguns? Ye Olde 12-gauge makes a damned versatile hunting weapon, and should probably be included in any well-rounded hunter education program.
I spy with my little eye — white privilege!
Inner city youths don’t hunt. Okay, that’s not entirely true. Bloods hunt Crips, Crips hunt MS-13, MS-13 hunts Latin Kings and so forth. But among city people, by and large only white people hunt and fish animals.
Country folks are a whole different species. Black and white are all potential hunters and fishermen.
Watertown and the St. Lawrence are closer to Canada than they are to NYC. The people who live there have nothing in common with the vulgar riffraff that populate the nation’s largest city. Upstaters have a different lifestyle, a different world view and a whole lot more common sense.
+1
When I went to school in that region, Northern NY had more in common with rural Pennsylvania than NYC/Long Island/etc.
Still does. The only thing that’s changed is the level of vitriol coming from the downstate liberals.
I took hunters safety in high school. WA has drifted a long way since then.
In a related topic, Michael Bloomberg *might* start funneling money to the NRA. Stay tuned…
Not a chance it will pass.
It is disparaging to the poor (cant afford the license.. or gun)
Its disparaging to fat kids ( cant walk far without getting winded )
Its sexist because of patriarchy (only men are encouraged to hunt.)
Its Zoosadistic ( Because killing animals )
It promotes a culture of violence and bigotry, (not seen since the rise of the third reich.)
That would be cool. My brother in law and I aee trying to teach ourselves to hunt (no family background of hunting), and it’s really difficult.
In your situation the best teacher will be experience. Just keep plugging away, don’t get discouraged and one fine day you’ll realize you know what you’re doing.
Just tack hunting on to the archery curriculum, and then expand it into gun hunting from there.
Apparently, someone with what we used to call “common sense” came to the realization that properly trained people have fewer accidents with guns. It should be handled like some Euro and Scandinavian nations
Of course, it still comes down to the fact that the vast majority of teachers are left leaning liberal anti-gun proponents. I wonder what would happen if some gun control zealot taught firearms safety and hunting.
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