Middle School Students May Receive Gun Safety Training In Class

January 18, 2016

A proposed bill in Utah would set up a program which would allow middle school students to receive in class gun safety & active shooter safety training.

The students would not physically handle weapons, but would learn ways to respond to a school shooting & active shooter incident, as well as what to do if they found a firearm. The program would not be mandatory and would require permission by the student's parents.

With the increase in school shooting incidents in recent years, I think this is a vital way to prepare students for the possibility of an unthinkable scenario. Giving them some basic training so they're not completely unprepared if a situation like this were to occur might be the difference in how many lives are lost. Combine this with some basic firearm safety and I don't see it as being anything but positive. We wouldn't send police officers or soldiers into a combat situation without being trained...and a school shooting is definitely be considered a combat situation. Yes, these students are teenagers and it's a sad statement on our society that they would need to have life saving skills such as these, but ignoring the need for this kind of program doesn't make the necessity go away.

What do you think about schools having open discussions about gun safety and how to react in a shooting incident? Schools drill for other disaster scenarios including earthquakes, tornado's, fire's etc. Should we be talking about guns and violence like this in the classroom?

Resource: Gun Safety Training For Kids PDF

photocredit: abcnews.go.com