Even though it is April Fool’s Day today, it was no premature prank yesterday when an Arizona middle school student brought a gun to school for “show and tell”. The 13-year-old boy fired the gun twice at the bus stop, once in the air and once at the ground, before the gun made its way on to the campus of Desert Winds Middle School in Maricopa, Arizona. A boy waiting at the bus stop was struck with shrapnel from the second bullet fired but was not seriously injured, thankfully. In this day and age, one must ponder whether it is more disturbing that the 8th grader was in possession of a gun or that the gun he was carrying was actually stolen after a residence was burglarized earlier that week.
Each time an incident occurs at a grade school involving a gun shooting, whether fatal or not, it is natural to think “Columbine High School massacre”. This recent incident, along with a more devastating incident near Columbine earlier this year, reignites the absolute need to educate children about gun safety. Without proper gun safety education geared towards children, more incidents are bound to happen, some possibly fatal to one or many. By educating children about gun safety they are put in a position of knowledge and power, which may actually save a life not take it.
Children’s gun safety education does not advocate putting a gun in the hands of every child in America or even Scottsdale for that matter, but it does educate kids about the dangers of guns while removing the enthralling mystique of something unknown. After all, parents send their children to someone else’s home for play dates assuming that there are no dangers, but not really knowing what dangers lurk there. Consider the case of a mother who learned that her child, along with the other children in a friend’s home, found an old rifle in the attic while playing; the homeowners had forgotten about the rifle in the attic. Can a parent ever really be too safe when it comes to guns and kids?
The recent and past gun shooting incidents involving children as both shooters and victims point to one concrete hypothesis: it is mandatory that children be educated about gun safety. Furthermore, educators should also be knowledgeable about gun safety so there are more teachers like Dr. David Behnke who gained a competitive advantage through his knowledge of bolt action rifles to take down a shooter, saving more kids from injury or even death. Shieldher, in conjunction with Bulletproof Securities, is finalizing gun safety classes geared towards women and children to launch this summer.
Click here for more information on children’s gun safety or contact Shieldher for upcoming gun safety class information. Be safe!
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