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Newest NRA campaign idea, make learning to shoot mandatory in school

The NRA mandatory school shooting plan? Good idea or not a good idea?

  • yes, no passing shooting grade and the child may not advance to the next grade

    Votes: 2 5.0%

  • no, shooting lessons I totally support but it should not determine passing to the next grade

    Votes: 18 45.0%

  • the NRA has completely/partly lost the plot

    Votes: 4 10.0%

  • the NRA should get the Nobel peace prize for this idea

    Votes: 2 5.0%

  • No, I am going to teach my kid myself how to shoot

    Votes: 4 10.0%

  • No, shooting lessons have no place at schools

    Votes: 16 40.0%

  • teaching potential young gangbangers better schooting skills is not a good idea

    Votes: 4 10.0%

  • I have no kids

    Votes: 2 5.0%

  • I do not care one way or another

    Votes: 1 2.5%

  • other ........... (please explain

    Votes: 5 12.5%
  • Total voters
    40
ttwtt78640 said:
I agree and would add that shooting classes should also not be required to attain (retain?) full 2A rights. If these classes are required to get/keep the right to keep and bear arms then they should be offered at no cost to any that wish to take them.
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There is line of thinking that holds that it is “reasonable” to require a person to complete some class on gun safety before one is allowed to exercise one's Second Amendment rights. Of course, this then ties into the idea of limiting the availability of these classes, or making them unreasonably expensive, as a means of limiting how many people are allowed to exercise these rights.

While I completely reject the idea that anyone's ability to exercise any of his basic Constitutional rights should be subject to any such arbitrary condition as having taken any class, I do recognize the value in one being trained in the proper and safe use of arms; to the degree that I think it should be made part of every standard school curriculum. And by making it part of a standard school curriculum, the presumption would then be built that all adults who had at least graduated high school can be presumed to have received such training, and there would then be no excuse for anti-Constitutional scum to seek to impose a training requirement on the Second Amendment, which they could then abuse by making that training expensive or difficult to obtain.
 
WCH said:
The schools would likely use some sort of air or soft air weapons so, it wouldn't be like a student could go berserk and start killing people.

We teach our children gun responsibility but, having the school reinforce is a bonus.
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There's only so much you can learn using toy guns. At some point, the training would have to involve real guns (as in firearms, that use exploding gunpowder to propel the bullet) in order to be entirely valid.
 
Peter King said:
Make shooting lessons mandatory at schools, this is what Bill Johnson has said in a video from NRA News.

He said that kids are learning how to read and write and that these are deemed necessary skills, but if it were up to him (and I would assume the NRA or they would not have made this clip/released it) shooting would also be a skill that was learned at school from now on.

But he goes one step further to thumb the NRA nose at parents who will not allow guns in the house or who are anti-guns, learning to shoot guns at school would become mandatory if a child wishes to advance to the next grade. In other words, if your kid (even though you are vehemently against guns) wants to go to the next grade at school he will have to complete a gun shooting course or he will be held back.

I was aware that the second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, but now the NRA wants to force guns and shooting even upon children and parents who do not want to bear arms or to shoot arms.

So the question is, how desirable is it to have mandatory gun lessons at school in order to advance to the next grade?

I read this story on the website of a Dutch newspaper but an English version of this story can be found here NRA
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I think it should be mandatory in a sense of a firearm handling and safety class. In this country we tell kids to not talk to look both ways before crossing the street they do not get ran over.We tell kids don't talk to strangers so that chester the child molester doesn't abduct them. We tell kids to not do drugs so that they do not get addicted to drugs. We have sex ed classes tell preach the dangers of STDs and unwanted pregnancy. I have even seen commercials telling kids to not send naked pics of themselves to their boyfriends or else they could end up being called the town slut. We have at least 70-80 million firearm owners and at least 310 million firearms in this country in this country as of 2009. That means a lot of households with guns and a huge chance that children may encounter a firearm. So one would think it would be common sense teaching kids about firearm safety and proper handling.
 
This is worse than a bad idea. This is an insult to civilization. We shouldn't be teaching children to kill.
 
Bob Blaylock said:
“To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them” — Richard Henry Lee​

I think that it is an excellent idea to include marksmanship and gun safety training as part of every standard school curriculum. I think that such training should include not only the physical skills of accurately and safely shooting and handling a gun, but the social, legal, and ethical issues surrounding the use of a gun.

I do think the proposal, as described here, goes a bit too far. If parents have a strong enough objection, I think they should be able to withhold their children from such training (though, if that child goes on to be involved in a gun-related tragedy that might have been prevented had the child received this training perhaps the parents should bear some liability). I also do not think one's progression from one grade to the next should be so wholly dependent on mastering any one subject; unless this lack of mastery is likely to seriously hinder that student's ability to learn what he needs to in the next grade. At worst, a student who fails to achieve the desired level of mastery of gun-related skills in one grade, can repeat that class while he is in the next grade. One year should be plenty of time to teach a student all the gun-related skills and knowledge he needs, and the public school system gets thirteen years with each student. I do not see any good reason at all why, if the public school system is intent on providing a decent level of gun training, that they cannot, in thirteen years, educate 99.999999999% of all their students to an acceptable level in this field.
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But it is the right to bear arms, the right to own arms, not a duty or a rule that people ought to/have to have a gun. Richard Henry Lee lived in the revolutionary part of US history, where the lack of an army meant that it was down to the population with guns to protect the fledgling USA. To protect the liberty of the United States from it's enemies there is now an army of the people for the people. Not the entire population needs to be armed to protect the US from enemies.

I think that should be purely done by the parents. Teach children about gun safety at school, even at just above kindergarten, that is fine by me. But shooting guns at schools does not seem an appropriate thing to do. A minority of Americans in an opinion poll say that they or anyone in their household owns a gun. The percentage goes from about 37% to about 47% based on which opinion poll and which time of year (I would guess, in light of the mass shootings it could have sometimes changed the answers of people), but as a whole let us say that 45% of Americans own guns.

That means that more people have no guns than people that have guns. It almost looks to me that the NRA is wanting to produce more potential gun owners seeing that the number of gun owners (not the number of guns) has declined the past few decades. Knowing to shoot a gun is not a basic skill for people to have to learn at school. At school they should learn reading, writing, math, etc. etc. but not shooting guns. Schools should teach children how to ride in traffic safely because every child in all reality will need to travel in traffic on an almost daily basis in their life. Gun shooting is not a basic skill IMHO.

Using the schools as a promotional gimmick to enlarge the possible public for gun ownership does not seem an appropriate use of school time.

Now if they want to teach at schools after lessons then I would not have an issue but it should never be part of the school curriculum.
 
American said:
Some parents aren't equipped to do, and may choose to allow the school to teach it.
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Then they can have an NRA course do that. Schools should promote learning and wisdom, not shooting.
 
jamesrage said:
I think it should be mandatory in a sense of a firearm handling and safety class. In this country we tell kids to not talk to look both ways before crossing the street they do not get ran over.We tell kids don't talk to strangers so that chester the child molester doesn't abduct them. We tell kids to not do drugs so that they do not get addicted to drugs. We have sex ed classes tell preach the dangers of STDs and unwanted pregnancy. I have even seen commercials telling kids to not send naked pics of themselves to their boyfriends or else they could end up being called the town slut. We have at least 70-80 million firearm owners and at least 310 million firearms in this country in this country as of 2009. That means a lot of households with guns and a huge chance that children may encounter a firearm. So one would think it would be common sense teaching kids about firearm safety and proper handling.
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Then teach them to not ever touch a gun. Just like people just want to teach abstinence only sex education. I think teaching kids to not touch guns is smarter and more realistic than teaching kids nothing else but abstinence.

You can teach children about gun safety but shooting guns is not needed to learn gun safety IMHO. Teaching gun safety is fine but it should be down to the individual parents to make the choice of whether they want to teach their child proper handling of guns. It is not like everyone in the USA will at some time own guns or use guns.
 
I have no problem with it being an elective.... but not compulsory.


I took the NRA course in 6th grade myself... firearm education is a good thing.
 
Peter King said:
Then they can have an NRA course do that. Schools should promote learning and wisdom, not shooting.
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there's no reason for schools to ignore a subject that is integral to the American way.

an elective course in gun safety/basic marksmanship be nothing but a good thing.
 
haymarket said:
Classes in shooting guns should NOT be mandatory. This is purely a political move by a group which has seen firearm ownership drop as a share of the American population and is desperate to get it up again. The NRA became a increasingly political organization after the 1977 Cincinnati revolt with a sharp turn to the right. They are concerned about their political power and see this as a step to protect it.

When I taught government for three decades, I always made it a part of the lesson on the Second Amendment to urge any student interested in owning a gun to take advantage of the NRA classes in firearms ownership and use. And many did. But this should be voluntary and outside of the normal school system.
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I partially agree. it shouldn't be forced on people
 
anonymous polls sucketh
 
Peter King said:
But it is the right to bear arms, the right to own arms, not a duty or a rule that people ought to/have to have a gun. Richard Henry Lee lived in the revolutionary part of US history, where the lack of an army meant that it was down to the population with guns to protect the fledgling USA. To protect the liberty of the United States from it's enemies there is now an army of the people for the people. Not the entire population needs to be armed to protect the US from enemies.
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To say that because we have government to protect us from our enemies, and therefore do not need to be prepared to protect yourself misses a vital point, which is that our government itself may very well be the enemy against whom we need to be protected. I think it is undeniable at this time, the way our government is spiraling out of control, that we are rapidly approaching the time when it may indeed routinely become necessary for us to be prepared to use the force of arms to defend ourselves against it.

It is certainly obvious why the current administration is so desperate to undermine the Second Amendment. Surely Obama and his stooges know very well how close they are getting to the line where Americans will have every right and reason to meet the abuses of government with armed force.
 
Bob Blaylock said:
To say that because we have government to protect us from our enemies, and therefore do not need to be prepared to protect yourself misses a vital point, which is that our government itself may very well be the enemy against whom we need to be protected. I think it is undeniable at this time, the way our government is spiraling out of control, that we are rapidly approaching the time when it may indeed routinely become necessary for us to be prepared to use the force of arms to defend ourselves against it.

It is certainly obvious why the current administration is so desperate to undermine the Second Amendment. Surely Obama and his stooges know very well how close they are getting to the line where Americans will have every right and reason to meet the abuses of government with armed force.
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But still, it is the right to bear arms and not the duty to bear arms or the moral obligation to own guns.

And it may be my Dutch weirdness, but I have never understood the animosity, mistrust and to some extent even hatred/anxiety/paranoia/fear of persecution of/to ones own government.

And it is very deniable IMHO to state that they government is heading to a state in which armed revolt against the government is needed. You live in a democracy, if you do not like your government, change it. A group becoming so paranoid that they take up arms against their own government is not "defending yourself" but an illegal insurgency IMHO. You are no longer living in a state without legal, electoral and lawful ways to oppose and challenge the government, guns are no longer a justifiable way to "defend" your rights unless you are being violently attacked without any reason whatsoever.

And it is not Obama and his stooges, but a majority of American people who at least want some laws to regulate gun sales and a large group of people even want more strict gun laws. A government is not only there to support or vent the opinions of the gun owners but also those of the people against gun ownership without any rules.
 
Thrilla said:
there's no reason for schools to ignore a subject that is integral to the American way.

an elective course in gun safety/basic marksmanship be nothing but a good thing.
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I disagree, it is not integral to the American because a majority of Americans do not own guns. There might be hundreds of millions of guns, but that does not mean that the schools have to be the official promotional tool of the NRA.

If parents want their children to learn gun safety/basic marksmanship they can do this outside of schools. The NRA has options for that outside of schools.

Also, having guns and ammunition at schools is not a good thing. They can be stolen, used for violence at schools. Having loads of guns in the vicinity of bullied children, children with mental issues, hormonal issues and criminal issues is not a good thing IMHO.
 
Peter King said:
I disagree, it is not integral to the American because a majority of Americans do not own guns. There might be hundreds of millions of guns, but that does not mean that the schools have to be the official promotional tool of the NRA.

If parents want their children to learn gun safety/basic marksmanship they can do this outside of schools. The NRA has options for that outside of schools.

Also, having guns and ammunition at schools is not a good thing. They can be stolen, used for violence at schools. Having loads of guns in the vicinity of bullied children, children with mental issues, hormonal issues and criminal issues is not a good thing IMHO.
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we get it, are you are afraid of guns. Do you think that having more children afraid of guns will make it easier on those who terrified of weapons?
 
Vary biggest concern is cost and security of the weapons. I don't know if I like the idea of firearms being left on school grounds when say school is not in session. Seems like it would be a target for theft.
 
voyager1 said:
Vary biggest concern is cost and security of the weapons. I don't know if I like the idea of firearms being left on school grounds when say school is not in session. Seems like it would be a target for theft.
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sort of like police stations
 
Don't agree with mandatory, don't agree with making a grade dependent on it... but I do agree with teaching Basic Gun Safety to all kids, and Basic Gun Handling 101 in HS to those who are interested.
 
Peter King said:
I disagree, it is not integral to the American because a majority of Americans do not own guns. There might be hundreds of millions of guns, but that does not mean that the schools have to be the official promotional tool of the NRA.

If parents want their children to learn gun safety/basic marksmanship they can do this outside of schools. The NRA has options for that outside of schools.

Also, having guns and ammunition at schools is not a good thing. They can be stolen, used for violence at schools. Having loads of guns in the vicinity of bullied children, children with mental issues, hormonal issues and criminal issues is not a good thing IMHO.
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There are about 115 million households in America, and about 60 million of those households have guns... roughly half, or a bit more than half.


Basic gun safety would benefit everyone, even those opposed to gun ownership. If their kid ever came across a gun elsewhere... the Eddie Eagle gun safety program for elementary school children has shown positive results in those districts that have tried it.
 
Peter King said:
Make shooting lessons mandatory at schools, this is what Bill Johnson has said in a video from NRA News.

He said that kids are learning how to read and write and that these are deemed necessary skills, but if it were up to him (and I would assume the NRA or they would not have made this clip/released it) shooting would also be a skill that was learned at school from now on.

But he goes one step further to thumb the NRA nose at parents who will not allow guns in the house or who are anti-guns, learning to shoot guns at school would become mandatory if a child wishes to advance to the next grade. In other words, if your kid (even though you are vehemently against guns) wants to go to the next grade at school he will have to complete a gun shooting course or he will be held back.

I was aware that the second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, but now the NRA wants to force guns and shooting even upon children and parents who do not want to bear arms or to shoot arms.

So the question is, how desirable is it to have mandatory gun lessons at school in order to advance to the next grade?

I read this story on the website of a Dutch newspaper but an English version of this story can be found here NRA
Click to expand...
And even if you're vehemently against evolution, your kid still needs to pass a test on it.

Becoming 1st-Aid/CPR certified should also be a requirement. A comprehencive sex-ed course also.

Guns are a part of Ameeican reality, safe handeling should be a no-brainer.
 
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