Hunting Sense

This is the first post in the Survival Series suggesting courses that could be implemented in our school systems that are taken from hunting but could benefit everyone.

It’s becoming more common to turn on the radio or the television and hear about a student who has taken a gun to a school or university and opened fire on their classmates. Every time such a tragedy happens; you hear screams from every which direction calling for tougher gun laws or the outright banning of weapons. The reality of the matter is, such actions will have no effect on preventing such tragedies.

I, for one, believe that it is a lack in education and of knowledge of our young in the proper handling and use of guns that contributes to these senseless acts of violence. For many of them, the only experience they have had with a weapon is through video games, television, and movies where they are used to kill the bad guy with little thought of what real life consequences of such actions entail. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not blaming any of these mediums, because no matter what children are exposed to, it comes down to proper education to be able to distinguish reality from fantasy.

Gun safety is something that has been and is taught to young hunters by either their parents, a mentor, or through gun safety or hunter education courses that are becoming more mandatory all the time. Through such training, the number of gun related accidents during hunting has seen a drastic decrease. But I believe that such programs could be implemented in our school systems to educate those children who may never come in contact with a weapon for hunting or recreational purposes to help battle the problem of school shootings.

One of the basics of courses like gun safety and hunter education are never to point a weapon, loaded or not, at another person. There are also numerous videos of what can happen to you or friends when this rule isn’t followed. Granted, more may need to be added for this to have the exact results we want to see in schools, but I think it would be a good place to start. The programs and courses could be expanded upon and tweaked as statistics and information began to be accumulated and researched.

The one thing I strongly believe is that if a child never comes into contact with and isn’t ever taught the proper use and responsibility of handling a gun, then we shouldn’t be surprised when they use it in an improper way. Gun safety in our schools is one course of action that could battle this. Other courses I will be covering the next couple days could carry over into this area as well, but those will be discussed latter.

What are your thoughts?

hunting, guns, gun safety, school shootings, education, children, youth, schools, programs, courses