Missouri first grade students could soon find themselves becoming a lot more familiar with guns than they ever thought they would be as first graders, as the Missouri State Senate considers a bill that would make it mandatory for all first graders in the state to take a gun safety-training course.
In a move that is becoming quite popular around the country, the National Rifle Association (NRA) afforded a grant to finance this much-needed program known as the “National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program.”
State Sen. Dan Brown (R-Rolla) delineated on the proposed bill to the Senate General Laws Committee Tuesday on Jan. 29, 2013, by describing the idea as a genuine initiative designed to educate young children about the proper way to deal with an unsecured weapon.
Sen. Brown also said:
“I hate mandates as much as anyone, but some concerns and conditions rise to the level of needing a mandate.”
And, this proposal would also require teachers to spend eight hours in a training course, so they can be armed and ready to confront and potentially neutralize an armed attacker that enters the school. The NRA would foot-the-bill for this too, even though substitute teachers would not be financially covered.
Sen. Brown showed the Eddie Eagle video to the Senate, and if you’re not an NRA member there is good chance that you’ve never heard of Eddie Eagle, but if this bill is passed, every first grader in Missouri could be required by law to watch this NRA version of Joe Camel with a conscience.
Now this rapping, dancing, rhyming Eddie Eagle character flies around the neighborhood telling children not to touch guns, but to leave the area and tell an adult.
This seems like a heartfelt effort by the NRA, and the message is a good one, but do we really need the NRA to make a cartoon about teaching kids to stay away from guns? Couldn’t states like Missouri do this on their own?
Historically, whenever an issue like sex emerges, a large number of these Eddie Eagle supporters would be up-in-arms yelling profusely about how it is the parent’s job to teach their kids about these important subjects, not the school’s job!
What would happen if an LGBT group or a Muslim group decided to follow the NRA’s lead and lobby to pass legislation that would require first graders to learn about tolerance? How many Eddie Eagle supporters would be on board with that?
Apparently it’s okay to indoctrinate, as long as the subject matter has been cherry-picked from an approved, conservative leaning obsession that is blatantly masquerading as a constitutional amendment.
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