Should Gun Safety Be Taught In Oklahoma Schools?

The idea of guns in Oklahoma schools has been somewhat of a taboo in this century. Mainly due to some of the most horrifying acts of violence in the nation, but is it time to try something new besides firearms abstinence?

I'd imagine that apart from the political ideologies at the base of this taboo, this topic probably hits the generation with kids in schools these days the hardest, Millennials and the youngest of Gen-X.

We grew up in the Columbine era. I think everyone alive at that time can probably remember getting home and being glued to the TV as it unfolded on the every-channel coverage, and since then any amount of gun culture has been forbidden and ruthlessly punished with sometimes overbearing and outlandish enforcement.

Remember the kindergartner who was expelled for finger-guns?

Arkansas Governor Sanders recently signed Act 229 into law requiring gun safety to be taught in schools. Primarily among elementary students in an attempt to help protect children.

While the headlines lean one way or the other, the fact is about 1200 children die each year due to accidental gun deaths. Most often one child is showing off a parent's gun to another. Without a basic understanding of firearm safety, a parent's worst nightmare comes to life.

After reading that, I think most people will have thoughts roll through their mind somewhere between "Just lock your guns up" and "Just don't have guns."

Neither of these thoughts accounts for the curiosity of a child.

At a certain age, kids' curiosity becomes an uncanny ability to find anything that piques their interest. I can't tell you how many gun-free homes ended up with guns in them growing up. Of course, it wasn't weird to know which of your friends had guns in their vehicles in the high school parking lot either, and that's not an old sentiment. I went through school in this century.

In truly adopting the Oklahoma spirit these last few years, I've also developed an interest in firearms and firearm culture. Call it a happy and almost mandatory quirk of being friends with Z94's legendary Critter. The first time I picked up a gun, I had no idea what I was doing, and it took a lot of concentration and getting yelled at to keep it pointed in a safe direction.

Perhaps learning how to handle a firearm at an early age properly might be the best way to prevent Oklahoma's portion of those 1200 accidental gun deaths each year.

The State of Oklahoma already offers optional firearm safety classes to kids. 

If you weren't aware, the state does offer firearm safety courses to kids already, but it's optional and wrapped in the pretense of the Oklahoma Hunter Education Course. Something every OK hunter between the ages of 10 and 30 must take before getting their hunting license.

If you've been through it with your kid, you know it's less about hunting and all about firearm safety. It was mind-numbingly boring when I took it at 24 because it's very pointed at the minds of little kids, but it does cover the basics.

1. Always keep a gun pointed in a safe direction.
2. Always treat a firearm as if it is loaded.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot.
4. Be sure of your target and what's behind it.

Basics.

Oklahoma State Senator Dahm recently introduced a similar bill aimed at teaching these basics to all children in the Sooner State. Whether it comes through as a new law or not remains likely but still uncertain. There will surely be much debate on the situation.

In a nutshell, it basically pushes the hunter education course into the classroom at an appropriate age. Proponents think it will satisfy the curiosity of kids, but more importantly drill the firearm safety basics into them too.

Opponents are still on board with total and complete gun abstinence in both schools and the homes of Oklahomans, which is fair if not a bit ironic. Yes, firearms can be a culture and a sport no different than baseball. As parents generally encourage and help develop sports skills in the home and through organizations, there is merit gun safety should be drilled in the home... but the same people shouting this are also of the same crowd preaching the importance and effectiveness of state-sponsored sexual education being taught in school during at an appropriate young age.

Where do you stand on the idea?