The Scribe said:
Great, now they want to teach children about guns.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Children who know how to use guns safely rarely accidentally shoot themselves or others, nor do they buy into the Hollywood stereotypes that guns are cool and you can shoot all day long without hurting anyone.
I grew up in a region where most people hunted and children received their first firearms (often a .410 shotgun or a .22 bolt-action rifle) when they were between 6-8 years of age. I didn't have any friends who accidentally shot themselves or others, I didn't have any friends who invited me to sneak into their father's gun cabinet and play with guns or anything of the sort. And as far as suicides go, the only people I knew who committed suicide by firearm were two women in their mid-30s and a man in his late 50s. The teenagers I knew who committed suicide jumped off tall bridges or took intentional overdoses of drugs.
Children who take a gun safety course learn very quickly how dangerous guns can be if they are misused. Furthermore, I've noticed that children gain self-esteem from learning about guns and taking responsibility for using them safely.
It's foolish to necessarily link a criminal lifestyle to a gun safety course. The two have nothing to do with each other... except the person who has taken the gun safety course is in a better position to protect themselves and other innocent people from criminals.
At least the next school shooting will have better accuracy.
And those who take down the shooter(s) will be able to do it before more people get killed.
FYI, I live in Fort Worth, Texas and know a number of people who were at Wedgwood Baptist Church on September 15, 1999 when a gunman entered the building and started gunning down teenagers and staff members and adult sponsors. I reported on the event as part of the local media and interviewed people who were directly involved (and one of the widows). I attended the funeral of the staff member who was murdered. The gunman walked around for several minutes shooting people before another armed person arrived (an off-duty police officer who lived across the street), at which point the gunman killed himself. According to the police chief, if one person in that building had legally carried a concealed weapon, they could have ended it shortly after it began and saved a number of lives and lessened the heartache of the friends and families of the 14 victims.