I’m constantly amazed at the number of Austin parents who haven’t taught their children The Four Rules of Guns Safety. “I keep my gun locked away,” one told me, by way of explanation. “What if one of your son’s friends beings out a gun?” I asked. Even if that possibility gives them pause for thought . . .

some of them still don’t grasp the nettle. They don’t want to expose their children to guns.

I’m a libertarian; I don’t think the government should be running schools. I believe the burden for child welfare lies squarely on parents’ shoulders — not the state. Parents should teach their children gun safety, pool safety and every other kind of safety you

But, as Edna Mode pronounced to Mr. Incredible, here we are. So I reckon public schools should teach kids firearms safety — especially in parts of the country without a gun culture (e.g., Glen Cove, NY).

And not just Eddie the Eagle’s “run Forrest run” admonition for young ‘uns. Teens should get hands-on instruction in the aforementioned Four Rules.

Just like sex ed — only more so — gun safety is a matter of life and death. Your thoughts?

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39 COMMENTS

  1. Ban schools. Mind-control hellholes, all of ’em.

    But if we are stuck with em, then why not at least use them to teach something’s ng useful? Half an hour is all you’d need to get the basics across.

    • “Ban schools. Mind-control hellholes, all of ’em.”

      The parents that depend on them for the free babysitting are gonna be *pissed*…

  2. Hurting someone with a gun is perhaps the most deliberate, intentional thing you can do — from generations of “gun safety” progress, made by users and makers of guns, without any govt, or other busy-bodies telling them to go do that.

    If they taught “gun safety” folks in general might realize you have to do 4 things right, in the right order, and point it at a person, for a gun to hurt somebody. It’s actually less involved to hurt someone with a gun by beaning them with it, than shooting it.

    And then what would they rant about…

  3. The schools like to teach sex safety. “Kids, here’s how to put on a condom. Go see the school nurse for free samples.” So why would they oppose gun safety?

  5. My (Catholic, NOT public school) high school had an indoor rifle range, and I was on the rifle team. We were shooting Winchester Model 52D target rifles (.22LR) – hooked butt plates, palm rests, the whole gig. Don’t remember anyone on the team or anyone in the school shooting anyone else. Guess we didn’t watch enough video games. I was also on the rifle team in college. In 1967, I bought a Ruger 10/22 through the mail and had it delivered to my college dorm room. (Pre- ’68 GCA) Used to walk across campus with it to go plinking in the woods. No panicked calls to 911, no dead bodies in the dorm, no drunken massacres at parties. Go figure …..

    • I had most of those experiences, too, and a guy in my college dorm in 1965 had an M2 carbine (machine gun) hanging on his dorm wall, also saw a Browning water cooled .30 in the back of some guy’s pickup in town. Went back a few years ago, city has not been destroyed, dorm still stands, guess the world hasn’t come to an end, either.

  6. If they taught “gun safety” in school, more people would realize how safe in practice, these things are. Sounds like a win.

  7. It might have been Col. Jeff Cooper (I’m not sure) who said that everyone should learn how to swim, fly a plane and how to safely use most common firearms. There may have been a few other basic skills mentioned.

    • Yes. And it was Heinlein:

      A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

      -Robert A. Heinlein

  9. The fact that suggesting gun safety be taught in schools is a controversial opinion is completely absurd.

  10. The point about parents explaining they keep their guns locked up or don’t own any guns has always puzzled me. Just because they are not part of your household or lifestyle, you think your children will never encounter a gun their entire life? Just because you and your spouse don’t smoke, you still teach your children the risks of doing so. At minimum, I would want my child to know the 4 Rules as well as how to unload your basic types of firearms.

  11. This may not be the best place to bring this up, but I need to run this past the armed intelligentsia. My lady friend, living in a larger city, said that yesterday “federal agents” raided a house 3 doors down from her. She said they were knocking on the door by banging their pistol butts on it. Does that sound like a good idea? My lady friend, unlike some the neighbors, cleared out and took cover when she saw what was going on.

  13. There is one place where Education IS mentioned in the Constitution. The Union Congress creating among other systems, those of the States to Teach the Militia.
    Militia, not “organized Militia”, not “Unorganized Militia” the Militia.
    Education on Firearms, other weapons, and SOP for armed folk to work together are one of the Few things the Union does have an interest in.

    But as the Second insists, in spite of this interest it doesn’t allow infingment of either personal carry or personal ownership of weapons.

  14. Really? My wife hates guns. Not as vehemently as your average gun-grabber, but it’s in her blood and nurture nonetheless.

    It was an easy sell to teach the kids gun safety, even if she doesn’t want to expose the kids to guns. Because it’s very conceivable they’d run into a gun someday. Sending them out into that unprepared is no kindness.

  15. my daughter has learned more in a year at three years old than any school is willing to teach. yes there should at least be an elective class for firearms, at minimum.

  16. Yes. And an elective course on gunsmithing.
    How about HVAC, arcraft maintenance , auto mechanics, plumbing, computer and smart phone repair, carpentry, etc.
    They’re there for 12 years fir God’s sake. They should come out of high school with at least 3 degrees.
    Reading, writing and arithmetic are so fucking boring the way they teach it.
    Applied learning happens to late in life to get kids interested.

  17. Absolutely. The four rules. What to do if they find one in public (it’s happened twice near me recently that I know of). Possibly even how to clear certain types.

  18. School vouchers are more important for everything.

    Any “gun safety” course should require including the M4’s basic manual of arms to prevent liberals from hijacking it.

  19. Edna Mode. You see movies so many more times than any person ever should when you have kids.

  21. You could fill the pages of many books with a list of useful and necessary skills that should be taught to our kids in school.

    But those skills don’t standardize test well and therefore don’t garner funding.

    Back on topic, yes it should be taught at a young age

  22. Many parents can not teach, either formally or by example. We pay taxes for public schools and they teach safety(so they say). Gun safety should be taught in every grade, expanding until instruction about shooting safety is taught.

    My father could play piano and was a nuclear scientist. He sucked at life and could not teach kids what he knew – he did not have the patience. At least he made sure that we knew not to point a gun at someone, and to stay away from any kids that were playing with guns. although he had been a sharpshooter in high school, he did not believe in having guns in the home, which was his right.

    Schools should teach gun safety because many parents can not, will not, or are just too busy or broke to take the kids to the range.

    • Nailed it. Some parents are just lousy teachers. It’s sad, but true.
      Moreover, too many folks submit to the “it won’t happen to me” way of thinking. My kid is a good kid. My kid doesn’t have friends like that. My kid doesn’t know where I keep my gun. Etc.ad nauseum.
      The truth may actually be, they avoid the subject because it scares them; hoping the problem can be ignored until the kid survives childhood and grows up to make their own decisions about what they want to learn.

  23. Be very careful what you wish/ask/advocate for.
    Sample gun safety class syllabus
    Guns are bad
    They will go off all by themselves and shoot someone dead
    Guns are bad
    Only bad people have guns
    Guns are bad
    Never touch a gun
    Guns are bad
    Should I go on?
    Be careful what you ask for. You may get it.
    Think it won’t happen?
    Sex ed without moral restraint
    One sided sexual assault kangaroo courts
    Islamophobia
    Safe spaces
    Hate speech
    Professors wearing body armor to class
    Elizabeth Warren as the teacher or worse, head of Education
    Be careful what you turn over to the government schools
    Not convinced, what if Hillary won. Someone like her will eventually, maybe soon if the Repubs don’t get their act together.
    Be careful, Karma is a bitch or what goes around comes around.
    Never, ever turn over to the government any authority you wouldn’t give to your worst enemy.
    Be careful!!

    • “Never, ever turn over to the government any authority you wouldn’t give to your worst enemy.”

      Absolutely!! How about stop complaining about the system and get out of the system. Done deal! take responsibility for your kids teaching and training instead of complaining about all the junk others are brain washing your kids with.

    • Point taken. However, we don’t have to surrender from the outset. The US Constitution empowers the Congress to “prescribe the discipline for the militia”. Furthermore, it charges the States to train the militia “according to the discipline prescribed by Congress”.

      What we need to do is get a bill introduced into Congress to “prescribe the discipline for the militia”. E.g., Eddie Eagle and 4 rules. A good way to do this is to enlist the NRA into drafting the curriculum. (They probably got good at this after 100 years or so.)

      That having been prescribed, there isn’t a whole lot that the education establishment can actually do with it. State legislatures would order that it be taught. The kids would learn this; a curriculum they are not being taught now. Would that stop these same teachers from chanting “guns-BAD; Government-Goooooooood”? No; but, they will chant anyway.

      Kids will be influenced by video games and taught to handle guns. The education establishment couldn’t realistically overcome that.

      Would Congress pass the bill? Nope; but, we would have the gun-controllers on video-tape testifying that gun safety should NOT be taught to children; it’s for the children’s own good. That would show their hypocrisy.

  25. The analogy to Sex Ed is an apt one. Just as there is such a thing as “age- appropriate sex ed” from an early age (i.e. starting with “things you’re not allowed to do in public”), there is such a thing as age- appropriate firearms education. Kindergartners should stick to the Eddie Eagle model. High school seniors should know how not only to safely handle a firearm, but hit a target with it, clear stoppages, disassemble, and clean it.

    • I’m not real happy with that. I think you meant to have the qualifier “in public school” in there somewhere, a parent should certainly be free to teach his kids a lot more, a lot earlier than that.

  26. I’m not sure how much need there is for mandatory gun safety lessons in schools. I mean, RKBA is a right, not a duty, so a combination of “don’t touch it and tell an adult” for the little kids and the four rules for the older ones would make everyone safe without forcing anyone to learn more than a bare minimum about what they might despise/abhor/fear/hate/whatever. Freedom also means being free to refuse gun safety lessons without having to worry about any sort of punishment.

    Would it be nice if more schools provided opportunities to learn about guns for all the students who choose so? Sure! This could be most helpful to those children who live in anti-gun homes but it could also help improve both safety and skills for everyone involved.

    Am I going to hold my breath? Nope. But a man can dream, right?

  27. I… huh? What? There are gun owners out there who refuse to teach their kids how to safely handle firearms? Not wait until they are old enough/mature enough to be taught, but just won’t teach them at all? Wow, that’s… Jesus, that’s just so wrong on so many levels

  28. I didn’t get any hands on sex ed from my teachers…

    I agree that parents should teach their kids gun safety. I agree that schools should teach gun safety. I don’t believe that the abstinence only policy works for anything.

    I could take or leave hands on training from a school. Kids are difficult to control, especially in groups on field trips. The experience would be good for the students, but I could forgive a school not wanting to take on the liability risks of a range

    • Really? How about the liability risks of a football team? A school bus? A cafeteria? A staircase? Let’s not get silly.

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