Firearms course in schools legal but not likely yet

[Desertdog]

Jst how many excuses do you believe the school boards will come up with to NOT start these classes??
Firearm safety should be required in all high schools, if not Jr. High. Dd


Firearms course in schools legal but not likely yet
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3252465


PHOENIX A new law will let Arizona students set their sights on a new frontier in high school education, but the gun safety course isn't likely to appear in course catalogs anytime soon.

The bill, recently signed into law by Governor Napolitano, allows Arizona school districts the chance to offer an elective in marksmanship and gun safety alongside those such as ceramics and yearbook.

But many administrators in the Phoenix area say their budgets and schedules are over-taxed as it is, and offering an elective that doesn't relate to life skills or state standards isn't in the cards.

State law already allows the Arizona Game and Fish Department to provide training in safe handling of guns and bows at schools requesting the training.

 

[Nehemiah Scudder]

Just out of curiousity, what do you think the class would be like?

Could go a lot of different ways with a whole semester to kill.

 

[Typhoon]

Any volunteer instructors?

 

[fjolnirsson]

an elective that doesn't relate to life skills

Umm, ok???? :banghead: :banghead:

 

[Commissar Gribb]

But many administrators in the Phoenix area say their budgets and schedules are over-taxed as it is, and offering an elective that doesn't relate to life skills or state standards isn't in the cards.

How is marksmanship any less important than say "photography", "wood shop" or "concert band"? Sure, these are all good classes for kids to take but in today's world, to me, it makes more sense to teach them something that could save their life first.

 

[fletcher]

offering an elective that doesn't relate to life skills

Like yearbook?

 

[dolanp]

Yeah and ceramics? Please...

I wish they had something like this in school when I went through, would have saved me from at least one useless class.

 

[El Tejon]

Elective? Getting better, but should be mandatory in order to graduate.

One step at a time.

 

[Control Group]

OK, take a step back for a second and think about this.

Would a gun safety/marksmanship course be more useful than yearbook, photography, ceramics, shop, name-your-elective? Perhaps. But the difference is the schools are already spending money on those things, which means it's going to be tough (read: impossible) to ditch them. So a gun class is an added expense.

Frankly, I think the response cited in the article is a positive one - I was all set for some empty-headed rhetoric about "guns in schools" and "training killers" and so forth. If you want the course to be in schools, then vote for an increased school budget and the taxes to go along with it, or try to convince schools to ditch existing programs in favor of gun training - but you can expect to hit a lot of resistance when you try to eliminate yearbook or the school paper so that there can be a gun class.

Picture yourself if there was a gun class offered at your kids school, and someone came around trying to drop it in favor of ceramics...

 

[El Tejon]

The important thing is that we start using the law to ramrod our agenda. "Liberals don't care what you do as long as it is compulsory."

The Left has set the terms of the battle. Our job to win it.

Seize control of school budgets and force them to teach firearms. It can be "Physical Education" for all I care. The important thing is to make it mandatory for a degree and eventually voting, employment, etc.

 

[1911JMB]

I live in the Detroit area. About 3 years ago, back in my high school days, I tried to get an after school, off grounds gun and archery club started. It would have cost the school nothing. I had about 40 good kids and most of their parents behind me, and the reaction from the Principal and the Administration was pretty much "are you nuts, that would be political suicide for me to allow that". Sad times we live in.

 

[Standing Wolf]

...offering an elective that doesn't relate to life skills or state standards isn't in the cards.

Firearms safety doesn't relate to "life skills" until your life is at risk.

Seize control of school budgets and force them to teach firearms. It can be "Physical Education" for all I care. The important thing is to make it mandatory for a degree and eventually voting, employment, etc.

Frankly, I doubt it would be fair to make firearms safety mandatory: that's a decision that should be left to parents, just like sex education, driver's training, and the like.