To Teach or Not Teach Gun Safety in School

Aug. 20 -- It may be the only issue people on both sides of the gun control debate can agree on.

Proponents and foes of gun control say they want gun education and avoidance programs taught in public schools from kindergarten through middle school or even high school.

And activists aren’t the only ones supporting gun education. Spurred by the series of school shootings in recent years, school districts and state legislatures across the country are pushing for gun education in the classroom.

Three weeks after a first grade boy brought to school a gun he found at home and shot his 6-year-old classmate in Mount Morris Township, Mich., the state Legislature passed a gun safety education provision with strong bipartisan support.

But the political compromise tends to end there. It’s much harder to agree on just what kids should be taught about gun safety or whether gun education programs have any affect at all, said Heidi Cifelli, manager of the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle Gun Safe Program, which is now taught in Michigan elementary schools.

While fewer kids are bringing guns to school, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of firearms death among children younger than 13 remains 25 times that of the other top 25 industrialized nations combined.

“Gun education is not mandatory in any state as far as we know, but of course we think all schools should have it,” said Cifelli. “Gun education is the best way to save young lives.”

The NRA Approach

Cifelli says the NRA would like more schools to use its program, called “Eddie Eagle,” which teaches kids in grades K-6 to “Stop. Don’t Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult,” when they see a gun. The program uses the character of an American Bald Eagle, sometimes in the form of a live mascot, throughout its lessons for children.

In the past two years Wisconsin, Oregon, and New York state Legislatures have tried to pass bills that would have made Eddie Eagle a mandatory part of the school curriculum. None of the bills were successful.