Life Magazine photo essay on 1950s school firearm instruction

[Balrog]

Since the number of gun deaths in children is small, wouldn't that time be better spent educating kids of how to be safe around things they are more likely to be killed by?

Public schools in my part of GA for example no long teach driver ed.

 

[hueytaxi]

In 1956 most of us (I was 10) already had a .22 rifle and access to hunting guns. I often shot my grandfather's .410 and at 12 I received a J. C. Higgins 12 ga. SxS. We didn't have school instruction, it came with growing up. I never shot anyone's eye out and for some reason we only hunted in pairs, never more. The game was usually fox squirrels and rabbits. Grandma would fry those up for us.

 

[Sam1911]

Since the number of gun deaths in children is small, wouldn't that time be better spent educating kids of how to be safe around things they are more likely to be killed by?

The number of gun deaths in children is indeed small, and IIRC, is still falling.

I think safety training is a great idea, for any number of products, tools, and potential hazards. I guess I wouldn't argue that gun safety training is more important that training for other more pressing hazards, but I also don't see this as an either/or situation.

I really don't picture firearms safety training as a year-long curriculum that would be taking time away from other safety instruction. As P.P. said, an certified instructor could be brought in to cover all the important factors in an afternoon, maybe once a semester.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I remember when we discussed this in 2011...
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=567371&highlight=life+magazine

That was an era when teaching children safe gun handling was common sense.
Also a time when common sense was common.

So common sense didn't involve hearing protection, eye protection, or as noted 2bfree and me (back in 2011), didn't involve girls.

Of course, use of such implements were not common back then and what was considered "common sense" depends on a real societal context/perspective. The population of 1956 was just 53% of what it is today. http://www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table Things were very different in 1953 on many levels. There were other "common sense" things of much of the general population then that are not appropriate today.

 

[Balrog]

I'm guessing the common sense of 1953 also didn't involve teaching Negros how to handle firearms… this was before integration.