Upon first reading that Missouri Republican state Senator Dan Brown proposed legislation that would require 1st graders to take a gun education class, which was designed by the National Rifle Association, to say I was shocked beyond all belief would have been like to say Siberia is cold in the winter. I have to imagine a large majority of people were thinking and feeling the thing upon seeing the headline.
After reading the article in its entirety though, while I'm definitely not going to fully endorse Brown's legislation, I'm also not going to be highly critical of it either. I'll have to wait until more detailed information is released on the proposed bill.
You see, as I'm sure most people thought the same thing upon seeing a headline which included the words "1st graders," "gun class," and "NRA," I thought Mr. Brown was proposing the insane idea of teaching 1st grade kids how to shoot guns. How could I think such a thing? Have you heard some of the things these far-right politicians have been saying following the Sandy Hook tragedy? I rest my case. However, that doesn't appear to be what the bill is about. The legislation appears to not include actual guns in any manner with regard to the 1st grade students. What it appears to propose is to make it mandatory for these students to take a class which centers around what to do if they see a gun - to stay away from it, not to touch it, to tell an authority about it, etc.
Is this a good idea? That's an entirely different matter. I think where Dan Brown got himself into trouble is through not sugar-coating the legislation. In grade school drug programs, we typically don't call them such. We sweeten the name and image by calling them D.A.R.E. or G.R.E.A.T. Perhaps Brown would be better served to find an acronym that would better serve his cause, than to just call it a gun education program. S.A.F.E. could be one such example, which would stand for Stay Away From Evil, or something like that. In closing, though, I do have to say I find it highly ironic that while sex education isn't mandatory for students in the state of Missouri, gun education may wind up being mandatory. Even though sex is much more prevalent among teenagers than guns, let's not require they become better educated about sex, which will leave them more prone to engaging in unprotected sex with the consequences being unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and STDs, all the while requiring they learn about gun safety. Yeah, that makes sense...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/missouri-gun-education_n_2585217.html
After reading the article in its entirety though, while I'm definitely not going to fully endorse Brown's legislation, I'm also not going to be highly critical of it either. I'll have to wait until more detailed information is released on the proposed bill.
You see, as I'm sure most people thought the same thing upon seeing a headline which included the words "1st graders," "gun class," and "NRA," I thought Mr. Brown was proposing the insane idea of teaching 1st grade kids how to shoot guns. How could I think such a thing? Have you heard some of the things these far-right politicians have been saying following the Sandy Hook tragedy? I rest my case. However, that doesn't appear to be what the bill is about. The legislation appears to not include actual guns in any manner with regard to the 1st grade students. What it appears to propose is to make it mandatory for these students to take a class which centers around what to do if they see a gun - to stay away from it, not to touch it, to tell an authority about it, etc.
Is this a good idea? That's an entirely different matter. I think where Dan Brown got himself into trouble is through not sugar-coating the legislation. In grade school drug programs, we typically don't call them such. We sweeten the name and image by calling them D.A.R.E. or G.R.E.A.T. Perhaps Brown would be better served to find an acronym that would better serve his cause, than to just call it a gun education program. S.A.F.E. could be one such example, which would stand for Stay Away From Evil, or something like that. In closing, though, I do have to say I find it highly ironic that while sex education isn't mandatory for students in the state of Missouri, gun education may wind up being mandatory. Even though sex is much more prevalent among teenagers than guns, let's not require they become better educated about sex, which will leave them more prone to engaging in unprotected sex with the consequences being unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and STDs, all the while requiring they learn about gun safety. Yeah, that makes sense...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/missouri-gun-education_n_2585217.html
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