McThag made a great comment here.
Go click over and read it, then come back.
He calls it “Extreme” but it really isn’t. Guns are a reality in America…really a reality EVERYWHERE, but since they are not contraband here its a reality with less taboo. Well except in the public school system where they are insane.
Still I don’t think I could list all the basic safety stuff taught to me in elementary school. Stranger danger, don’t let anybody but your doctor or your parents touch your bathing suit area, looking both ways before crossing the street, holding the hand rail when on the stairs, hand washing, sneezing and coughing into your hand (not into the elbow, which has been a VERY effective campaign), safety with scissors.
I mean the list is HUGE!
I don’t see why Eddie Eagle couldn’t be tossed in. Its really not controversial, or extreme at all. In America we have guns, it is a liability not to teach children to respect them.
Further McThag’s mandatory muster idea isn’t too far off. If you’re able bodied, you’re in the Militia and in old times were EXPECTED to demonstrate competency on a regular basis.
My idea is that rather than having musters we simply extend it as the public students age. Basic understanding of firearms should be taught in middle school, such as the four rules, and the various types of firearms and how they work. Nothing to gun blog standards, just enough that students wouldn’t be fooled by the bullshit propaganda spread by the anti-freedom goons. Simple stuff like knowing the difference between semi-auto and full auto, ect.
In High School, all students should be required basic marksmanship and all the safe gun handling required for that. Also schools should all have rifle and pistol teams for all interested in competition.
These simple changes would not only greatly improve safety and knowledge of what is a common item in America, but foster solid marksmanship.
I mean I won’t be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow, but I know how to throw a football because of PE. Why can’t the other people know how to keep their rounds in the black at 100 yards?
My more serious feeling on the matter is that if training has to mandatory to own a gun, but the only time someone would seek that training is when they’re buying a gun; you’ve created gun-owner registration.
I am in favor of anyone who owns a gun learning all they can about how it works, where it came from and how to use it. So in favor that I think everyone who owns a gun SHOULD learn all they can. But never in a million years would I demand the government require it… um any more. Like you I was once a liberal. Being in the Army dissuaded me of those notions.
That whole learning thing makes me angry. Like when people cite the privilege of driving. Part of the debate about enumerating specific rights in the Bill of Rights was a fear that unenumerated rights would be treated as if they did not exist. Show me where the power to regulate and license operating a motor vehicle is granted in the Federal or any State’s constitution. Don’t fall for the trap of penumbras.
I learned about that because I became a gun owner.
I seem to be in the minority about the Miller Case. The Supreme Court ruled that sawed-off shotguns weren’t military weapons, therefore not protected by the 2nd amendment; lower court try again. That’s precedence. That’s jurisprudence. Why in God’s Green Earth® aren’t we attacking on all sides over that then extending it to non-issue firearms by showing a tangential military application?
This is the places where education has failed us. It is not “gun training” I seek in school, but civics. Our children should learn how our government was constructed and how it is supposed to work so that they can identify when it is not running as designed.
Sorry for veering off topic a bit, but these things are intertwined in my mind.
As much as I absolutely support shooting sports, especially school teams, I truly doubt teams would be feasible.
Watching competitive rifle (even high power) and regular pistol competitions is like watching freekin’ paint dry. It is WAY more exciting to watch football. And I detest football. Stuff like the steel speed shoot, or other running gun, or even the concealed carry type matches are awesome. But they wouldn’t DO that for competitive pistol in schools. Technically I am unsure if high school kids can do competitive pistol. I know they do air and smallbore up here.
They are also one of the very most time intensive sports if you are serious about them. Plus parents NEED to be involved to help out. And I also don’t believe many down in the states actually understand scoring, coaching rifle, or even competitive shooting in general who have the time, effort, and money to pour into this. Honestly, there’s a reason I refuse to learn to score targets. I don’t want to loose that much spare time sitting my happy butt in the range and waiting to be let free.
That said, it is hard enough for the schools in Fairbanks to find people who will run these programs lately, mostly since they are such gigantically massive timesinks. Thanks to volunteers like Chris and his family, who I wish to add no longer have ANY relatives in the local junior and high schools, these programs are able to go on. They have given up weekends and evenings on a regular basis (and are starting to taper off now as his folks are getting on to retirement), as well as a lot of money and efforts to repair and customize the guns (they have some sweet adjustable stocks they created). They also personally own a bunch of the air and small bore rifles some of the kids are using.
I like guns, support ownership and EDUCATION; however, for the gigantic cost involved with pushing these programs- I would rather see that money put towards music departments in schools. Yes, I’m even sick of shooting sports getting more money than music.
One word: Golf.
And I personally can’t watch any sport, even Julie Golob running steel challenge or and IPSC match I get bored after thye 3rd or 4th stage.