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We never went to school in a place like Colorado City, Colorado but we wish we had. “Students at Craver Middle School in Colorado City spent the past two days learning everything about safely handling guns — where they’ve come from, why we have them, and how to shoot them.” The kids have Appleseed coordinator Jim Heath to thank for their ballistic education. “‘I think that it’s better for them to have a respect for it [and] know how to handle it,’ Heath said. ‘Not that they should, but that they are aware about the firearm. It’s not, ‘Oh, what’s this? What can we do with this?'” Uncredited in the story . . .

is Craver principal Alexandra Strunk for allowing a pro-gun org to deliver some common sense gun safety edumacation to her charges. While that would seem to be a common sense policy everyone can get behind (who wouldn’t want kids to be safe around firearms?) the People of the Gun know all too well that the mere presence of any boomstick — let alone those used to teach children how to safely handle a firearm — is anathema to those who lead the push for civilian disarmament.

Come to think of it, this post could just as easily have been one of our Gun Hero of the Day efforts, with the honors shared by Heath and Strunk. Still, we have to wonder how long before — even in a more rural area like Colorado City — anti-gun activists will make their presence known.

 

 

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53 COMMENTS

  1. I took hunters safety at my high school. It was treated like any other extra curricular. Football, basketball, knowledge bowl, chess club, hunters safety. Nothing strange about this at all.

    • I went to YMCA summer camp in 1976 as a 10 year old (which I earned the money to pay for, selling boxes of candy on weekends). We all went to the range, and learned the basics.

      • Cool, 76 good years, 72 I got drafted. Not so coool. Lol. Wishin I was that young again. Dont give a sht what yahall say the 70’s was the last of the good years

      • I graduated high school in 76 but in 71 or so, that also is where I learned about rifles, was the YMCA camp Reed on Fan Lake, in Eastern Washington, near Deer Park.
        They had a range and we learned about the basic old .22 rifle.

    • My experience was similar. I was in Boy Scouts in the late 60s. The troop met at the local elementary school. One of the scoutmasters taught hunter safety, so all of us 11 and 12 year olds who were interested got to take the course in the evenings at the school. Part of it was familiarization with the various types of firearms, so the instructor had examples of a rifles, shotguns, and handguns for us to look at and to teach us how to clear and handle properly.

      That would cause conniptions at most schools these days.

      • Well backn them days the boy scouts prepared us for what was going to come.now its just B.Sht, . Thanx to boy scouts when I went into the service I knew how to read a compass, how to clean a mess kit, n how to shoot,( their way). Back then the boy scouts meant sumthin. Prepared me to earn badges(medals) of honor. The boyscouts now is a bunch ah sht. Lordy lordy, man o man, America is turn into a bunch ah pussys

    • Took hunters safety in grade school. Just completed it again with my sixth grade son…at the local high school. Was interesting to see the total lack of excitement when other evening extracurricular students walked through a hallway of safe hunters.

      Only a big deal when you make it one.

  2. Clearly a made up fluff piece from Big Bangstick. As we all know allowing weapons on school property would have resulted in a massacre, the streets running red with the blood of the innocents, birds falling silent, goats weeping. All while the NRA, GOA, CCW holders and anyone not on Bloombergs payroll look on with laughter in their eyes and joy in their bellies.

  3. That is good, its good to get firearms out in the public eye, in a positive manner. And its nice that it was at school. Anti gun activist there probably get about as far as a snake on a greased pole.

  4. Guns on school property and no one got killed. Cue liberal heads exploding in…3…2…1.

    • Colorado City is a very very small town. It wouldn’t shock me if the principle is also the mayor (or the mayor’s spouse).

      • You are, and then. Dont diss small towns. Least theyre shootn, what r u doing writting letters to ur I dont give a sht congressman

      • Nope, no mayor in this town. Still being run by generations of ranchers who carry on their hips just in case!
        LE is a rarity in these parts, just like those fabled “jack-a-lopes”.
        Thugs have been eyeing this part of the state due in part to the legalization of herb and greenhouses springing up like weeds-pun intended. Meth and heroin has become an epidemic!
        I have been here for 16 years and was never afraid going for a drive in the wild alone, but I am now!
        Consider this, Pueblo, Colorado now has the highest murder rate in the state. There are seven known gangs in Pueblo with a population of around 150,000! Property crimes are 2.5 x the national average! And might I add, English is the second language!!!!
        Thugs, drugs, the dregs of society and illegals are taking over! Sad and dangerous days for Colorado City! I say being armed is seriously smart and teaching middle schoolers how to handle firearms is even smarter. Kudos to Craver’s teachers and principal.

  6. As a native of Colorado believe me when I tell you that unless your talking Denver, Boulder, Ft Collins or Aspen (and other rich boy resort towns) the rest of the state has a healthy gun culture which loves and lives freedom. Unfortunately way to many people live in those areas, especially Denver.

    • Joe Q is correct. Once you get away from the contaminated areas things are pretty normal.

      As noted above, Colorado City is basically a wide spot in the road.

    • Don’t knock Aspen. Most of the major defense contractors and gun company CEOs have condos and homes here. And don’t forget that Hunter S. Thompson lived …and died…and was shot out of a canon just down outside Aspen.

      • Aspen is in Pitkin county and voted for Obama in the 2nd election (after they should have known better) by an outrageously high 70% to 30%.

        It’s apparently a sheethole leftist commune that needs to be nuked from outer space.

    • My oldest son, park ranger around Estes, “dad this is the only state that you can get pulled over in with a bag of weed, an a gun, and its leagel”. He got fired there for arrestng a cop. He now works in oregon.

    • Unfortunately way to many people live in those areas

      That’s true in a lot of states, and getting worse all the time.

      Give Texas twenty more years of people going to Austin because it’s “vibrant”…..

  7. Well in the antis defense, you can’t wave the bloody shirt without dead bodies, preferably children’s bodies so they can really manipulate those emotions. More gun safety classes = less negligence and less bloody shirts to wave. You can see where this goes (tongue in check).

  8. My high school was a bit different. At NMMI my roomate and i both kept the required issued M1 and bayonet in our room. Since my roomate was also on the drill team he also had a 18 inch chromed bayonet. When i checked in at the first of the year with my S&W K 22 to compete on the schools pistol team they told me to just take it across campus and check it in at the Armory, which i did.

    My how times have changed

    Coyyote

    • When i went there, it was vastly different. Drill team rifles, which aren’t functional, always stayed in a locked place with the teacher in charge of the program. No shooting programs for high-schoolers, but there might have been some for the junior college as they were going to be reserves after graduation.

    • Hope u read this, nuthin rocks like the Army Drill Team. I still get chills, them bad azz muthrfckers put the hurt to USMC, well in the 70s anyway. They probably all playn with pillow cases n candy canes now.

    • Yes it is, n WE should make it like that everywhere. Lets not give up Tyranny. I cant jump stumps like I used to, but we aint done yet. Im sayin a 5 million man march to the whitehouse, Im going to champion this untill we show the powers that be which way the pressure lyes. Im so tired of elected officials taking an oath to uphold the Constitution, then turn around and destroy it. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, the words I spoke meant somthing. I will die before I let panty waste, buracrats change that…. flame on…..I cant spell good enuff for uall, that aint what its about. Its about these politicions fóckn everything up.America land of the free, I didnt fight to have this sht. 40years latr fall apart

  12. Learned the same stuff in Boy Scouts. Then went to camp (NO AC, NO WI-FI – gasp!) and shot one shot at a time x1000’s…for the life of me I can’t remember who made the rifles, They were stamped Boy Scouts of Amercia. Bolt action, single shot.

  13. I’ve lived in Colorado for a few years now, moved to the Springs from Denver (after 4 years of college there, don’t get me started on “safe spaces” smh), and I’m wondering if any of the district schools here in town might have programs similar to this, maybe close by in Calhan or down in Pueblo. I’m in my mid-20s, wife and I looking to put down roots somewhere nice, and we love non-Denver Colorado, we’ve got a gun culture here that would make some Texans blush.

    • Peace out to you, mid tweenties, finished collage, me n my wife, your doing good. God bless you. Not familiar with Pueblo, i live in Ks.Good luck to you and yours. 3 nds 8s your way

    • I hated the Springs, and Ft. Carson was little better. Too many tweakers, Denver/California/New England transplants, and CSPD is little better than DPD (El Paso sheriffs aren’t too bad, though).
      But I suggest checking out Alamosa. I loved it there.

      • I actually like the Springs, and Carson is, by FAR, the nicest place Uncle Sam ever told me to go. Had to call the police once and the officer was exceptionally professional. Denver was an okay place to go to college, but I can’t help but feel like there are better places to raise a kid. Don’t want someone calling my toddler a bigot and teller her to check her white privilege because she has a bike. For the record, those accusations were leveled at me, loudly and publically, on the Denver Light Rail (H-line, ugh), real talk, I’m a hate-monger because I ride a bike.
        Screw Denver.

  14. Oooooh, that looks like a KIDD billet receiver on that 10/22 he’s handling, nice!

  15. When Martha Dean was running for AG in CT a few years ago, she floated the idea of offering Eddie the Eagle instruction to CT school kids.

    The local press headlined it as “Dean Wants Firearms Training in School”

  16. My wife was against teaching gun education in school, but she was for teaching sex education.

    I asked her why she supported sex ed and she replied bc children are curious and, like it or not, since sex is everywhere in our society, kids may be exposed to it so in a not-so-healthy way so it makes sense to teach them about potentially risky situations they might eventually find themselves in so they can take precautions to protect themselves and others and not do something stupid. She pointed out that ignorance about something that can have potentially life-altering consequences doesn’t make sense.

    She feels the same way about alcohol education. She recognized that sex and alcohol both have a place in our society but both can be destructive if misused.

    She eventually got onboard with gun education.

  17. Back in the late 60’s we took our .22 rifles to High School in the trunk of the car (those of that could drive) and went rabbit hunting after school.

  19. We are the Colorado state coordinators for Project Appleseed, which put on this event. We are a nationwide non-profit group that teaches traditional rifle marksmanship skills, but mainly we teach about our shared American heritage through stories of April 19, 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord, the shot heard ‘round the world, and brave individuals that sacrificed to secure our liberties.

    This was our third year at Craver Middle School; the community and parents support this curriculum. The school runs an “intensives” week. The students this year had about 7 choices for their intensive. This class, the most popular, turns away students each year. The parents must opt their child into the class.

    We teach American history and include hands-on activities to engage the students. They heard about the foods of the time and got to make and eat hardtack. They heard about medical care of that time and got to do an “amputation.” They learned of the flags and their symbolism and were able to create their own flags representing what’s important in their lives. They learned that kids were often tasked with the job of making cartridges and were able to make cartridges with wax bullets and coffee grounds (for powder). Some of us wore historic costumes.

    Yes, we did bring guns into the classroom, both historic and modern, which is permitted for educational purposes. No ammo was brought into the room. Gun safety was discussed repeatedly. For a short period of time they were allowed to handle the guns, which were then cased and put away. The student had to ask to see one. The instructors handed the firearm to the student, showing them it was clear and the student had to check it. They had to take it from us and demonstrate that their finger was off the trigger. They were allowed to dry fire after asking permission to do so, all while we stood right over them and the muzzles were in a safe direction. They then handed the firearm back to us and we opened the action and confirmed together that it was clear before laying it back on the table. They were taught that they should never handle a firearm unless an adult demonstrates it is clear before handing it to them and that the muzzle always stays in a safe direction, even if unloaded.

    At the range, the safety rules were discussed over and over. You would have been proud to see how these kids took to those rules. We had a large number of instructors and volunteers on top of the kids, almost a 2:1 ratio, and had donations of ammo from the community.

    Please check out Project Appleseed and get your family to an event. It is appropriate for the new shooter and for those that have been shooting 40 years. All will learn new skills. http://appleseedinfo.org/

  20. This is an interesting practice that requires the attention of the US President.

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