Missouri to Teach Gun Safety to First Graders

Local CBS

Missouri schools will be encouraged to teach first-graders a gun safety course sponsored by the National Rifle Association as a result of legislation signed Friday by Gov. Jay Nixon. 

The Missouri measure stops short of mandating the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program. But by putting it in state law, Missouri is providing one of the stronger state-sanctioned endorsements of a firearms safety course which the NRA says is taught to about 1 million children annually. 

The gun safety legislation signed by Nixon also transfers the duties of issuing identification cards for concealed gun permits to local sheriffs instead of driver’s license clerks. That change was prompted by concerns that the licensing agency’s procedures had infringed on people’s privacy rights. 

Nixon noted the change in concealed-carry permits not the elementary school gun-safety program while announcing he was signing the legislation.

Teaching Kids About Guns

from Uncommon Childhood where Jennifer Miller opines about the joys of raising kids with guns.

Guns As Toys

Whether or not you think toy guns are a good idea, they are here to stay and they are a very big part of the marketed entertainment industry, from cap guns with cowboy hats to first person shooter video games. Guns are sold to our kids as fun and not deadly in the virtual world, this can make it harder for kids to understand the mortal gravity of real guns in the real world.

Let’s face it, guns are attractive to lots of children.

Watch a group of children playing and it’s likely that some of them will be playing a hunting or war game before it’s over. Toy guns have long been favourites with my boys and instead of banning them completely, we’ve taken the toy versions as an opportunity to discuss the moral implications of the real thing and to teach basic gun safety.

I would much rather control the environment in which my children encounter and practice with toy guns than ban them altogether and have them unprepared when they are faced with the real thing.

Toy guns can provide many teachable moments.

The pro-gun mom goes on to explain how we can easily move from "guns as toys" to "guns as tools," and from there it's a cinch to teach kids the Eddie Eagle rules.

Here's what I had to say:

You must be out of your mind if you think guns are OK as toys and provide teachable moments AND that you can teach kids the Eddie Eagle rules.

Haven’t you seen it in your own kids that the natural curiosity and resistance to obedience is too much for all that “teaching” nonsense.

There’s only one thing that keeps kids safe and that’s parental supervision. You don’t seem to have the appropriate emphasis on that.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Eddie Eagle Program - Selling Guns to Kids

Thanks to Kevin for the link. The Violence Prevention Center published an article which brings up some interesting points.

In its efforts to hook kids on guns, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is following a trail blazed by the tobacco industry according to a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) study conducted with the Global Survival Network. The 144-page study, Joe Camel with Feathers: How the NRA with Gun and Tobacco Industry Dollars Uses its Eddie Eagle Program to Market Guns to Kids, was released on Wednesday, November 19th at a 10:00 AM press conference in the Lisagor Room at the National Press Club located at 14th and F Streets, NW in Washington, DC.

The study takes a hard look at the NRA's Eddie Eagle "gun safety" program which the organization has aggressively promoted as an alternative to gun safety measures such as child access prevention (CAP) laws (which require that adults store their firearms safely and inaccessible to children) and legislation mandating the use of trigger locks.

The study finds that the primary goal of the Eddie Eagle program is not to safeguard children, but to protect the financial and political interests of the NRA and the firearms industry. The program makes firearms more palatable to children and youth, helping to recruit them into America's gun culture. The Eddie Eagle program employs strategies similar to those used by the tobacco industry from youth "educational" programs that are in fact marketing tools to appealing cartoon characters that put a friendly face on a hazardous product. While the tobacco industry denies that it is marketing to children, the NRA and the gun industry openly admit that they are.

Does that sound reasonable to you? Do you think the NRA and the gun manufacturers of America would actually do something like this? If the answer is yes, is it any worse than the other brain-washing types of advertising we live with every day?

Another way to question it is if guns are so good for us, why would gun rights folks react so strongly to criticism like this? Why don't they just admit this is what it's all about and it's for our own good?

Other key findings of the study include:

• NRA staff describe the Eddie Eagle program as the "clean-up committee" to help burnish the NRA's public image after gun control battles.

• The NRA uses Eddie Eagle as a lobbying tool in its efforts to derail the passage of child access prevention (CAP) and mandatory trigger lock laws.

• In its attempts to use the credibility of other organizations to promote the Eddie Eagle program, the NRA has misrepresented awards granted to the program by the National Safety Council, which has issued a series of sharp rebukes to the NRA. The NRA has also erroneously claimed endorsement by D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and the Black United Fund, Inc.

• Rather than recognizing the inherent danger firearms in the home pose to children, and the often irresponsible firearms storage behavior of adults, the Eddie Eagle program places the onus of safety and responsibility on the children themselves.

• Public health researchers have found that "gun safety" programs like Eddie Eagle are ineffective in preventing unintentional death and injury from firearms. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that "[b]ecause even the most well-behaved children are curious by nature and will eagerly explore their environment, the safest thing is to not keep a gun at home."

Study co-author VPC Health Policy Analyst Sue Glick adds, "The real purpose of Eddie Eagle is not to keep children safe from guns, but safe with guns. Eddie Eagle flies in the face of everything public health experts teach to prevent injury from dangerous consumer products. The NRA expects kids to be responsible for their own safety essentially guns don't kill, kids do."

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.