Mandatory Firearm Safety Education

[Kamikaze_Badger]

In the ammo reloading thread, I mentioned my wish that firearms safety was a mandatory education for school students, teaching them the basic knowledge to understand enough about weapons to know how to stay safe with them. What do you think?

[suchuwato]

Y'all shouldn't have 'em in the first place

 

But, as you do, then yes - I agree that firearm safety should be a requirement... not to be taught in schools, but like a driving test. You need to be certified to own a gun, and the test is repeated at 5 year intervals or so.

[Crazy_Nate]

I don't think it should be mandatory (some people won't touch a firearm, let alone use one) - but it should be easily accessible. It probably should be mandatory for those new to purchasing firearms / ownership.

 

I got it in our marksmanship portion of high school ROTC, however, if I was going to start up marksmanship again, I'd definitely take a course or two.

 

Then again, you can't teach common sense, can you?

[WhenKittensATK]

If you buy a gun, then you take the course. It would be a waste of money to take a course when you don't own a gun.

[fire_storm]

I think

 

It should be easily available but not mandatory

 

is probably the only way your going to get it into schools.

 

I don't think with today's political environment that you'd ever be able to make it mandatory like a health class.

 

It's like you said in that other topic that most of the fears about guns are caused by people who have little to no education about them or because they don't understand them well so I could see education in schools about guns as a good thing.

 

However I'd imaging that some people could argue that the best way to avoid gun problems is not to open Pandora's box (meaning not buying a gun or using one) in the first place is the answer to the problem.

 

Solving gun problems are tough because there's really no good perfect answer to solve the problem.

[tkrow21]

I don't think it should be mandatory (some people won't touch a firearm, let alone use one) - but it should be easily accessible. It probably should be mandatory for those new to purchasing firearms / ownership.

 

I got it in our marksmanship portion of high school ROTC, however, if I was going to start up marksmanship again, I'd definitely take a course or two.

 

Then again, you can't teach common sense, can you?

 

[Krieg1337]

Well, it would be nice if it would work. But people can get anything illegal now a days, every murder here is done with some kind of illegal weapon.

 

Easily accesible, and needed if you want to buy a gun gets my vote!

[cjloki]

In the ammo reloading thread, I mentioned my wish that firearms safety was a mandatory education for school students, teaching them the basic knowledge to understand enough about weapons to know how to stay safe with them. What do you think?

the nra hunter safety program has been around since before me. i took the course when i was 12 or 13 and im 52 now, so the education has been there for decades. but what are we really talking about here:

teaching youngsters how to feild strip an m16A1 or what ? if youngsters want to learn about or have an interest in firearms/hunting/sport shooting etc, then there are services available to them already, but making firearms training "mandatory" carries some very militaristic overtones with it...i would rather see the resources directed toward helping parents teach their youngsters citizenship, problem solving and coping skills, anger management skills and even self defense....

our schools and teachers have plenty on their plate already and i feel that a better solution to youth violence lies in initiating change at the grass roots level, in the home, neighborhoods and local communities...

[ClayMeow]

Y'all shouldn't have 'em in the first place

 

But, as you do, then yes - I agree that firearm safety should be a requirement... not to be taught in schools, but like a driving test. You need to be certified to own a gun, and the test is repeated at 5 year intervals or so.

[Hyper Threaded]

In my ideal world, you would have to become certified to buy a gun. Specific tests would be need to be taken, depending on the type of gun, pistol, rifle, assault rifle, etc.

[LoArmistead]

Y'all shouldn't have 'em in the first place

 

Hey, I thought we settled this a couple hundred years ago?

 

I'm not in favor of "mandatory training" out of the simple principle that it isn't within the federal government's authority to mandate jack . on an individual citizen. I don't have anything against firearms safety courses being offered in schools, though. It is also left up to the state to determine qualifications for gun ownership. If they want to sacrifice individual liberty and the ability of their people to defend themselves in the name of political correctness, and the people choose to keep voting them into office, so be it. But the federal government's stance on gun ownership is pretty blatantly laid out in the supreme law of the land... not that a plain-as-day bunch of words in our founding legal document has stopped them from attempting to change it in the past.

[Kash]

I think we need mandatory firearms training every time you get a gun license for a new type of gun. I was thinking that perhaps teaching it in schools wouldn't be a bad idea, but schools are pretty strapped for time and firearms training isn't exactly a top priority. If anything should be taught to kids, it's civics. We need to put civics courses back into school.