04/18/2024

Amid Concerns about Kids and Guns, Some Say Training is the Answer

Auto accidents now kill fewer children than guns

Guns now kill more kids than car wrecks, a trend highlighting the growing concern about increased gun suicides and shootings among youth. What to do about it? Keeping guns out of children's hands is one way. Some people take a different approach: Train kids to handle guns responsibly.

Jackson Beard, director of training at Securité Gun Club in Woodinville, Wash., teaches introductory classes for kids as young as eight. The class includes the standard gun safety message for kids that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has preached for decades with its "Eddie the Eagle" cartoons about what kids should do if they find a gun: stop, don't touch, run away and tell a grown up.

But Beard says real gun safety education needs to go further and show kids — with their parents' permission — how to fire a weapon.

Please select this link to read the complete article from NPR.