The Daily Beast Slams NRA Over Low Gun-Safety Enrollment – During Plandemic!

[hps1]

Having worked with our county Friends of NRA for over 20 years and taken a personal interest in getting a FONRA grant to get Eddie Eagle program in our local school districts, I'll just say that the program is, out of necessity, presented by schools and law enforcement agencies and the pandemic has certainly precluded in person meetings at schools, etc. School closures due to the pandemic would, no doubt, have a negative effect on participation.

A very important fact overlooked (or intentionally omitted) is the fact that:

NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide told the Beast the Eddie Eagle program is “thriving.” He also pointed out that despite all their blather, Bloomberg’s groups spend zero dollars educating kids about gun safety.

It's a lot easier to sit on the sidelines and throw rocks than to come on down and get yer hands dirty and help resolve the problem.

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- More than 33 million children have learned about gun safety through the National Rifle Association’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program. The exact figures, current as of last month, show that 33,198,060 kids have participated since the program was started in 1988, and 41,325 children have been reached so far this year.

Even NRA’s staunchest critics have acknowledged that the Eddie Eagle program is something special. It works because its message is simple and easy for kids to remember when they encounter a firearm: “STOP! DON’T TOUCH. RUN AWAY. TELL A GROWN-UP.”


Of course, like everything the nation’s oldest civil rights organization does, the Eddie Eagle program is not immune from criticism. The latest salvo came from the Daily Beast, titled: “The NRA’s Gun Safety Program for Kids has Imploded.” Its author certainly didn’t let the facts get in the way of his anti-gun narrative.

The Beast story claims Eddie Eagle has “essentially fallen apart.” The author bases this claim on documents he said he received from Everytown for Gun Safety, which is one of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s astroturf (not grassroots) anti-gun groups.

The author claims “a mere 32,000 children were reached by the Eddie Eagle program in 2020, a drop of nearly 95 percent compared to 2019.”

While that’s certainly a steep decline, I seem to recall there was something of significance that occurred during 2020 that may have caused the drop – like, the entire country was shut down because of COVID-19.

The Daily Beast, of course, sees it differently.

“The documents show the steep slide wasn’t due to last year’s COVID-19 lockdowns, either: In 2019, Eddie Eagle reached 35 percent fewer children than in 2018. In all, participation dropped 96 percent in 24 months, as the NRA cut funding on “safety, training & education” by $14 million, or more than a third.”

Read the full article here:
https://www.ammoland.com/2021/09/the-daily-beast-gets-it-wrong-on-gun-safety/

Regards,
hps

 

[Airborne Falcon]

Amen Brother, preach-it.

And this is something the GOA needs to step-in and takeover regardless imho. The USCCA and GOA should join forces and get involved on a local training level.

 

[wiscoaster]

I've observed a lot of gun-safety education ocurring that has got nothing to do with the NRA. I think it's the gun community itself, not any specific organization, that promotes gun-safety knowledge.

 

[GEM]

I've read that the NRA connection to Eddie Eagle has generated push back because of the organization's clear political orientation and now ongoing corruption. Didn't save the link.

 

[Seedy Character]

I've observed a lot of gun-safety education ocurring that has got nothing to do with the NRA. I think it's the gun community itself, not any specific organization, that promotes gun-safety knowledge.

State Hunter Safety requirements

 

[hps1]

I've read that the NRA connection to Eddie Eagle has generated push back because of the organization's clear political orientation and now ongoing corruption. Didn't save the link.

Yes, sir; and it's not a new thing. I was fortunate enough to have a committee that was like minded and my co-chair, our pastor and a couple of others worked several years to get Eddie Eagle into the local public school system. We started out following the chain of command with absolute resistance from day one. Finally worked our way up to the superintendent of schools and he accepted our committee's offer to get a FONRA grant which payed all expenses for our 27,000 + preK through 5 students (at a cost of several thousand $$/year). We were instructed to send all the materials to each individual school, addressed to attn: Principal, rather than to a central distribution center, which we did.

Then, thanks to a life long friend, who taught school, I was informed that there were EE materials dumped in the teacher's lounge at more than one school and the teachers were not even informed as to the availability....or existence....of such. Based on feedback from my friend, the teachers who chose to present the program were very positive in it's effectiveness, as was the district's COP after he took on the project within the system.

In the meantime, we furnished materials to other school districts in the area, + our county sheriff appointed a deputy to visit outlying schools and present the program there.

Finally, made contact with the school district chief of police (another friend), who took it upon himself to appoint one of his officers to present EE program throughout the school system. As I recall, gaining acceptance of EE was a five year effort (which we first took on as a project in the late '90's) to overcome the grass roots prejudice against the NRA.

ETA: AFAIK, the program is still being funded by our grant, which was renewed annually as long as I remained active on the committee. I retired from committee in 2018 or 19.

Regards,
hps

 

[CapnMac]

The Daily Beast would kvetch about the NRA even if the NRA cureed cancer, eliminated childhood poverty and brought about Star Trek freedom from currency.