At least 100 children died by unintentional shootings in 2013. In approximately 73% of those cases, a child under the age of 14 pulled the trigger. There have been suggested methods for preventing these tragedies, but these proposed measures have provoked heated debate by gun control and gun rights activists. However, there is a prevention technique that supporters on both sides of the gun debate have managed to agree on: gun safety courses for children.
Families handle gun safety in different ways depending on their tradition and their beliefs, but families considering gun safety generally fall into three groups.
- Some families with children take a no-gun approach. There are no guns in the household. Media that shows gun use is either forbidden or strictly monitored. There are no toy guns in the toy chest.
- Others take a don’t-touch approach. Guns are kept in gun safes away from children. Guns on TV may be seen, and a warning might be issued about how the TV is fake and life is real. They may have toy guns but the real guns are off-limits.
- The final group practices early gun learning. A child as young as 3 or 4 will be taught how to hold and shoot a gun under adult supervision. Supporters state this teaches a child to respect guns at a young age.
All of these methods are defended by their practitioners. However, we talked with Calibersnm.com about this subject, and they said there are notable problems with each. For example, “A no-gun approach doesn’t account for guns being at someone else’s house or guns being taken to school. Don’t-touch approaches fail under the curiosity of children and human error that can leave guns unsecured. The final approach can suffer under the same problems as the don’t-touch approach.” It’s also seen by some as too extreme a method for young children.
Firearms Safety Without Firearms
School-friendly gun safety courses are the middle-ground for families. They offer a means of teaching children firearm safety while not exposing them to firearms. Many accidental shootings result from unsafe handling due to a lack of firearm education. Polls show that over half of parents that don’t own a gun fail to discuss gun safety with their children. Firearm safety programs for children work to combat the unreal view of guns perpetuated with harmless toy guns and violent media images.
Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program
The NRA developed a program in 1988 to teach gun safety to Pre-K to 3rd grade. The Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program emphasizes four steps a child must take if they see a gun.
- STOP!
- Don’t Touch.
- Leave the Area.
- Tell an Adult.
STAR
Straight Talk About Risks (STAR), created by The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in 1992, is for students K-12. It addresses anger management and conflict resolution issues that involve firearms. The videos and role plays involved address the consequences related to using guns in response to anger or conflict.
Supervised Gun Handling
For parents who would like the child to learn gun safety with real guns in a controlled environment, there are other out-of-school programs.
4-H Shooting Sports
Available for children 8-18, 4-H shooting sports is a weekend program that focuses on youth development with programs teaching marksmanship and safe gun handling.
The Boy Scouts of America
This program offers a shooting sports program supervised by either BSA-certified shoot sports director or an NRA instructor.
Whatever the program choice, gun safety should be addressed as soon as a child starts to show an interest in guns. This could be in real life, in the media, or even in toy stores. Gun safety courses are not guaranteed to prevent accidents but education, parental involvement and secured weaponry is essential to address the tragic reality of unintentional shootings.
