There’s a reason that we have museums. At least for me, history is much easier to understand and much more interesting if I can see (and even better, touch) some of the objects of the time period. That’s what got me into historical reenacting — that and the freely-flowing vodka. Hey, it was college.

Anyway, one school in Atlanta decided to take some of their kids on a field trip (with full parental approval and supervision) to see some historical artifacts, and now gun control activists are in full freak-out mode.

From WSB-TV:

Images of a first-grader and a second-grader handling firearms showed up on Facebook after the trip, which involved student from Holdheide Academy in Woodstock.

Willis contacted the school’s owner, Tammy Dorsten, who on Friday night defended the trip.

“This was a wonderful learning experience with a safety class before and after the guns were handled,” Dorsten said.

Dorsten told Willis the children have been learning about sharpshooter Annie Oakley and folk hero Davy Crockett.

That seems like a perfectly reasonable concept for a field trip. Kids are learning about Annie Oakley. What better way to foster an appreciation for how truly talented that woman was than to show them some of the firearms she used and guide them through what it takes to make those same shots?

Apparently that was more than some pearl-clutching anti-gunners could handle. WSB-TV was more than happy to oblige, calling the children “preschool” students when the article body clearly states that they were first and second grade students. A small distinction possibly, but it does show that the media was more than happy to bend the truth to make the story seem even more shocking.

To the school’s credit they later issued a statement on Facebook defending the field trip as the valuable education experience for their students that it is.

The problem is gun control activists see guns and kids and immediately assume and interaction between the two is dangerous and irresponsible. They take an “abstinence only” approach with guns. That doesn’t appear to be working very well, though. Teaching kids about guns — demystifying them as the tools they are and how to handle them responsibly — will mean more kids will be safe if and when they encounter them outside of a classroom setting.

The horror.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

20 COMMENTS

  1. Amen. If you would prefer your children not to drown in your pool, you could remove the pool or you could teach them to swim. Just sayin’…

    • I wish they would build a public pool on every block in Baltimore, Chicago, St Louis, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.

      Just sayin’

  2. “School Field Trip to Gun Range Sparks Outrage Among Gun Control Activists”

    And for a high school ‘health’ class, a field trip to the local street corner in the local red-light district could prove *highly* ‘educational’…

  4. In HS we had a teacher that would bring in firearms with authorization from the Secretary of state from WW-II and the Civil War as appropriate for the time of class as well as a ton of other artifacts from the respective eras. It was a great way to connect with history, and you don’t realize how screwed up a nuke is till you’ve seen a gun that was held at attention at Nagasaki and the guy’s hand prints burned in to it.

    Hell, the only pic that I had in the year book one year was of me shooting a caplock (no ball of course.)

    That said, this goes to show the detachment from reality and non-urban worlds that people like this have.

  5. The necessary level to trigger “outrage” sufficient for click-bait stories in the lamestream media is shockingly low.

    Or actually… no, it’s exactly what one would expect. Ignore. Move along.

  6. TTAG article makes a good point, but doesn’t elaborate to its logical conclusion: the same people who are AGAINST “abstinence only” education about drugs and sex, are suddenly “abstinence only” about guns.

    In one case it’s “far too simplistic”. In this case though– it makes perfect sense. To someone, somewhere, without a logical bone in their body.

    • the inverse is also true, however.

      moralists who prefer abstinence only sex-ed (because teaching kids to about condoms and birth control pills will encourage them to have irresponsible sex) are often the same people who reject the notion that teaching kids about guns will encourage them to use them irresponsibly.

      either your kids can handle education, or they can’t. the topic is irrelevant.

      • Not exactly true. I taught my son about abstinence only control, and sex, and guns. The key is “I” taught him. Not the gov’t mandated classes in school.

  7. The complainers are just pissed off that somebody got to the kids before the were able to permanently condition them.

  9. Went to a military boarding school in the 1960’s. Each cadet in the 1st thru 8th grade was assigned a deactivated 1903 Springfield. Each squad of 10 cadets had a rifle rack in the drill area locker room. 4 squads to a locker room. Wen to those racks hundreds if not thousands of times to draw my rifle. Thank God my elementary school days were in a day and age before the raise of the anti gun movement.
    Senior Gun Owner 1950 .

      • My college, Columbia, had a rifle team in the early 70’s. The range was in the basement of the student union at 115th and Broadway, right next to the bowling alley.

  10. A few schools in NC are having gun safety classes with live fire, just like it was a long time ago.

Comments are closed.