Missouri Law Lets Schools Teach Gun Safety To First Graders
A Missouri law will let schools teach gun safety first graders alongside math, science, and social studies. The measure is sponsored by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and was signed into law by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon.
Despite the support the gun safety law has received, some parents have also expressed worry about how effective a gun safety program would be in a classroom setting.
CNN reports that one woman, Aimee Patton, mother to a six-year-old girl, stated:
“I don’t have a gun. My family doesn’t have a gun. There is no reason for them to be teaching about gun safety when there are children with parents like me.”
While Patton’s children attend school in Kansas, she has been openly critical about the new Missouri law on her blog, “Pleasantly Eccentric,” since the day before the Sandy Hook shooting last December, when the law was first introduced.
The measure to allow schools to teach gun safety in the classroom is part of a larger public safety bill HCS/SB 75. The legislation encourages schools to use the National Rifle Association’s “Eddie Eagle” Gunsafe Program and other gun safety courses to the school’s first-graders.
The bill was sponsored by lifetime NRA member Senator Dan Brown. He explained, “The purpose of the program will be to promote gun safety and protection of children and emphasize how students should respond if they encounter a firearm.”
MSNBC adds that the new law doesn’t require schools to teach gun safety programs in their classrooms. Rather, it lets schools decide whether or not they will implement the program. If they do, they will be able to apply for financial grants.
School personnel will also be required to participate in an “active shooter and intruder” response training program that is conducted by law enforcement officials. The Eddie Eagle program teaches children to “stop, don’t touch, leave the area, tell an adult” if they encounter a firearm.
The law does not allow school personnel and instructors to make judgments about guns while teaching the class. It also doesn’t allow the use of firearms to teach the program. Brown added that Sandy Hook didn’t cause any parts of the law to change. However, he added, “It became more relevant after Sandy Hook.”
Missouri is not the first state to sponsor a gun safety program in schools. The state is also joined by Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio — the first state to fund the Eddie Eagle program.
How would you feel if your child was taught gun safety in school?
[Image via ShutterStock]
