NRA Alone to Teach Gun Safety in K-6 Classrooms
From the Virginia Center for Public Safety:
In another example of the degree to which he’s prepared to pander to his allies in the political fringe, Gov. Bob McDonnell has taken action to give the National Rifle Association an exclusive mandate to “educate” all primary school children in Virginia on their idea of gun safety.
In the 2010 session, HB1217 was introduced as a firearms safety measure to be added to the K-6th grade curriculum of public schools. This legislation would require the Board of Education to adopt curriculum guidelines using the National Rifle Association materials.
With little hope of shielding our children from exposure to the NRA’s agenda, opponents managed to get the bill amended in the Senate to include the National Crime Prevention materials, known for its education materials featuring “McGruff the Crime Dog” and steps to help “Take a Bite Out of Crime”, as well in an effort to broaden options for resource materials for the Board of Education.
Apparently intending to use a typo as an excuse, the Governor has now recommended that all mention of the National Crime Prevention Council be removed from the bill. In effect,the Governor’s recommendation gives the NRA exclusive control over part of every Virginian child’s education.
State legislators will reconvene on Wednesday April 21 in Richmond and will consider/vote on McDonnell’s amendments to HB1217. Contact them now and tell them to vote “no” granting exclusive control to the NRA to any part of our children’s education.
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April 20th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Your contempt for the NRA’s participation in government education would be a little more credible if you ever had inveighed against the NEA’s participation in government education.
I guess it just depends upon whose propaganda is being propagated.
April 20th, 2010 at 10:14 am
James Young: The difference is that the NRA is the National RIFLE Association and the NEA is the National EDUCATION Association. Public education is about education, not guns. Unless you think teachers should have nothing to do with teaching.
April 20th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I suppose I don’t mind having my peaceful little girls learn about gun safety, although they are unlikely to need it often, and for our lives that time would be better spent restoring the three days of phys ed they are missing each week, or a foreign language class. However, if they must learn much about guns, I would prefer them to be taught from materials written by public safety officers, not an organization of random private citizens – some professional, some not – who happen to love guns.
April 20th, 2010 at 10:48 am
I’m not opposed to using additional resources in the classroom, I just wonder if you have reviewed the Eddie Eagle materials and methodology.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Could the author of this page please drop us a more precise source link? The link does not take us to the original text of what they’ve written. I searched the linked site and could not find this article. So right now it’s just a blog post here with no author and no evident source. Thanks.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Eileen Levandoski posted it. Here’s a link directly to the VACPS press release.
April 20th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
I guess it’s better than abstinence only education when it comes to gun safety… TWIST!
April 20th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Here is the applicable section of the text, before any changes made by the governor: The curriculum guidelines shall incorporate, among other principles of firearm safety, accident prevention and the rules upon which the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program offered by the National Rifle Association or the program of the National Crime Prevention Center is based.
Perhaps my grammar and reading comprehension is lacking, but I don’t see that as saying that NRA materials will be used in school or even has to be based on the NRA material. The curriculum must incorporate the same accident prevention and the rules on which the NRA material is based. I think the only story here is whether or not you want firearm safety taught in schools. I don’t remember any firearms safety training when I was in k -6. I just knew that if I touched any of the guns in closets and corners and cabinets and drawers in my parents’ house that I would be sore for a very long time. Perhaps this is a better approach.
April 20th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
David, if you thing the National Education Association is about “education,” then you’re really too ignorant to comment on the subject.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:32 am
James, that’s quite a thing to say without any supporting evidence to back up your statement. If someone told me that the National Education Association IS about education, I would accept that claim because it seems obvious from their name. If you tell me that they are not about education, however, I would expect a little bit more explanation because it is counter-intuitive. Since your claim sounds absurd, I’ll have to assume that it is absurd until you provide some kind of evidence for it. You probably won’t, because you probably have no evidence, because you are probably simply a far-right conservative who has no use for unions.
I checked out their mission statement and read this: “to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world.” That sounds to me like it’s about education.
Would it be fair to guess that, if your objection is not based solely on the fact that they are a union, that it then has more to do with the fact that you don’t agree with their ideas for education reform (or they don’t agree with yours) and therefore you have decided to just judge them as “having nothing to do with education?”
May 19th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Fantastic topic, but normally I don’t agree with it.
May 8th, 2011 at 6:32 am
Awesome posting cheers