International Youth Hunter Education Challenge
It’s no secret that I believe schools should offer a gun safety course of some kind to our children so they have the proper exposure and training in handling firearms. I’ve written many times about it here at Hunting Sense as many of you may already know. Well, today I stumbled across an article that touches on one such program.
The Forbush High School hunter safety team is on its way once again to the summer international championship.
The other teams are all known by their state.
But Forbush has won the event so many times, it’s in a class of its own.
“They just say Forbush,” said David Moxley, who has coached the team to 10 state championships and five international titles.
The team’s marksmen and archers are legendary in Yadkin County.
Behind the high school, a gravel road leads to a tree-shaded field where students and their parents come together, for as many as 15 hours a week, to practice target shooting, archery and map-and-compass orienteering.
Teenagers wearing T-shirts and jeans stand under the hot sun measuring black powder for muzzle-loading rifles. Other students pull up in their trucks, some carrying their own .22 rifles in cases.
For many on the team, hunting is part of growing up in rural Forbush.
According to the article, there are more than 30 states and two Canadian provinces represented at the International Youth Hunter Education Challenge each year. This is the exact type of thing I think many schools should consider implementing into the curriculum, even if as an extra-curricular elective. I am going to do a little more research on the event and will post more on it when I find out more information.
I find it encouraging that such a program exists.
Hunting, schools, gun safety, hunter education, archery, international youth hunter education challenge
June 4th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I wasn’t aware that something like this existed. I think it’s a great idea.
Why couldn’t it be an extracurricular activity, just like football or drama? I’m thinking that could be a very good thing.