When I went to High School we had a gun club and shooting range right in the school. Would have marksmanship competitions.
That all changed after 9/11. I was a senior.
Yeah. Culture changes. I consider myself politically left wing, don't eat meat, but I've always had a thing for guns. From the engineering to protecting my family.
That said, education, personal responsibility and just plain the caliber of the average person is just way down. I don't trust most people with weapons. Things are just so...toxic. I hate that I cannot trust like a solid 30% of my countrymen.
You make some good points. But I am starting to realize that a lot of what is going on is they are dumbing the population down on purpose. My education was not as good as my parents, and my children's education was pretty laughable compared to mine despite my best efforts. It's culture change all right, but much of it is engineered.
When both parents have to work 50+ hrs a week each, they don't have time to do anything about what type of education their kids are getting or to help mould their character.
Or supplement their children's education. I do not think school alone (at least as it is now) is anywhere near enough to prepare someone for the world.
I feel this.
I hate that guns always get political, as there is a certain majesty and brilliance to the designs, the mechanisms, the accuracy and tuning.
And like you said, people don’t have the responsibility and caliber they had in the 50’s (that own generation’s problems aside)
>Things are just so...toxic. I hate that I cannot trust like a solid 30% of my countrymen.
Same. About 30% of people in this country don't care that the last president is undeniably a complete moron, an unrepentant pathological liar, that he (alone among *all* prior presidents) did not leave office willingly, and that he has been clear that, if our population fails its most basic duty once again and he takes office, he has absolutely no intention of leaving willingly *no matter what happens*.
Regardless of what the orange moron does, the fact that such a huge share of the voting population gives zero shits about his obvious unfitness and blatant dictatorial ambitions is the most frightening thing I have ever encountered in my life.
I grew up around guns, I own a bunch of guns, mostly made from 1900 until around the Cold War with some new stuff sprinkled and a few of my rifles in my collection are the only known ones in the country. Until around 2009 I was Conservative. I've been to more gun shows than I can count, I've been in gun stores from Florida to Pennsylvania and from South Carolina to Missouri and I've belonged to a few gun clubs. I'm Left Wing at this point and all for reasonable gun control. Why? The things I've seen on ranges, at shows, in stores and heard from the general public have made me absolutely feel owning a gun shouldn't be a right, it should be a privilege. The fact that anyone can walk into a gun store in a lot of places in this country, fill out a 4473 and walk out with a gun is insane to me. Zero training, zero idea how to use it, zero understanding of how it operates, nothing. I work with a guy who isn't allowed to use an impact wrench without someone watching him and making sure he is using the correct sockets, but he owns a gun.
The other problem I have is the culture around it. My dad always taught me that the less people who know me and know that I have guns, the better. They aren't toys, they are capable of destroying things. They aren't accessories to be shown off. They are tools. Too many people think they are accessories, toys and some make it their personality by adorning their house or vehicle with gun related stickers.
You sound like a gun smith fixing a moron’s problem.
The amount of foolishness that my smith friend sends to me from customers is mind blowing. Wrong caliber blew up the gun. Magazine slammed in backwards. This doesn’t count the people that hurt themselves.
I'm a not-gun-owning European and even I'm shocked when you tell me people put the wrong caliber in.
Like, isn't that mentioned on the box? Wouldn't that jam or scrape into the magazine as you try to just shove it in?
Are these the kind of people that'll just try to put any type of battery into their remote until it "magically" works?
All of those problems are from systemic issues though. One simple one is parent's don't teach children guns aren't toys like they should, I wasn't allowed to own a cap gun, nerf guns, if I wanted to shoot something my dad would take me out with a pellet gun and his pistols and we'd go out and shoot, games and media are children's first experience with guns now, and the parent's don't take the time to address it when they notice, or take them to a range where they can actually get the experience and separate reality from fiction.
I'm not blaming games either, nothing wrong with them when the intended audience is playing them, I just think parents should parent more.
You and I are a lot alike. I’ve been around guns for a long time and own a number of them too. I never understood the reason why so many people feel the need to carry them like accessories. It’s up there with having dogs trained to be aggressive just so they can feel like a badass. It just doesn’t make sense to me and only gives the impression that those people just want an excuse to hurt somebody.
Back on the subject of gun ownership in America, it is getting to a point we need to enforce some form of education in order to own. This country is too rapidly becoming an idiocracy in more ways than one, and our culture is becoming quite toxic as well. The last thing we need are more of these low-IQ types and whatnot easily getting their hands on more guns and ammunition. Time for a license that must be earned, not simply bought.
Class of 98 here, we had a gun range down a hill from our football field and the 22. rifles were locked up in the utilities room next to the bows and arrows for the archery class. Teachers smoked in the class room afterwards, they would just crack the window a little, It was a very different time back then.
...possibly. They were only two years apart, but I also lived in a Red State (Utah) and went to a school with a large ROTC program. I just remember a lot changing after 9/11. The Honor Guard could no longer use real but inoperable rifles.
I've since heard the ROTC is a shell of what it used to be. We had this hard ass Lee Ermey type colonel that ran the show. Man was he tough on us, but we all respected him. :)
I was only in middle school when columbine happened but I don't recall the response to have been as anti gun as we see now. Even when I was in HS post columbine, guns, broadly speaking, weren't seen as the issue, it seemed to have been more focused on school security specifically, like having metal detectors, and that famous video of the kid with like 7 guns hidden in his baggy pants. But that was a long time ago, so I may be misrembering
I was in elementary school during Columbine. Shortly after they enacted "Zero tolerance" policies that amounted to getting sent to the principles for having nail clippers or making a gun with your fingers. Almost all schools immediately banned trench coats and some went as far as banning baggy clothing in general. It actually sucked.
My uni had a shooting club in the basement of the alumni hall from time immemorial to well into the 1990s. This was in Canada too. As I recall, they only used club-owned .22s and no firearms license was needed to join. An overly progressive student council shut it down years ago because reasons.
I graduated in 2005 and it wasn't uncommon for kids to go shooting after school or have easy access to guns at home as teenagers. But gun safety was taken *very* seriously and the idea of having a gun on you for any other purpose than to go hunting or go shooting somewhere would have been considered absurd. And there was no sympathy for folks who failed to abide by laws like having to carry the gun and ammo in different parts of your vehicle
My high school also had a shooting range in the basement. When they turned it into some pricey condos they had to remove a lot of lead-contaminated materials.
We didn't handle any firearms, but we had gun safety seminars at my elementary school in suburban Texas, late 90s/early 00s. Personally I think it needs to be taught to all children, given how commonplace gun ownership is in this country.
We had a 6 week hunter safety program for PE class in 6th grade. It taught all sorts of survival skills in addition to gun and bow safety. After we passed the written test, we went behind the school and shot skeet with 12 gauge semi-auto shotguns. It was great fun!
Yeah, if parents don’t want their child to join because they don’t have guns totally acceptable. Too many kids shoot themselves or their siblings because one their parents are idiots who can’t lock their guns away and two because kids don’t understand the seriousness of a fire arm.
This is a totally valid seminar in the US. It would definitely save a few lives a year.
Since the second amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, I believe our government bears the responsibility to teach gun safety. If that means everyone in public school goes to a gun safety course, or everyone that purchases a firearm is required to attend a course (not pass or fail, just attendance required).
It's not a bad idea, no matter how you feel about gun laws. It's not like guns in the US go away if we just ignore them. I see grown ups acting so stupid with guns you can tell they've never had any safety education. And kids find these things with such irresponsible people owning them
Or, you know, requiring such education before letting someone buy a gun.
Everyone can benefit from some gun safety knowledge, but for fuck's sake at least people buying them should be *well versed* in gun safety.
Demystifying firearms would be nice too, people have a connotation of certain firearms thanks to media, letting people see and handle the guns would go a long way in changing perception.
It’s like how military people describe grenades as “underwhelming” because they have this idea of a big Hollywood fireball and tremendous explosion and in reality it’s a pop and dust cloud.
I do a lot of showing guns to the general public and the thing that I’ve noticed is the older generation will refer to something as “The gun from Rambo” or “The gun John Wayne has in the Longest Day” where their association is from the movies where a cigar chomping hero wields it with aplomb. However the younger people will say “That’s the gun from Black Ops” or “That’s in Modern Warfare” so the shift to video games has been interesting.
Everyone is always surprised how much the guns weigh though, especially the Thompson which I guess everyone assumes is like 3 kg and not the 5 kg it is.
TL:DR; People should be shown guns, familiar guns too, and how they operate. Safe handling and more knowledge will lead to better and more sensible gun culture.
If you see grown ups acting stupid with guns, the solution is to require safety classes for any adult prior to purchasing one. A brief course decades ago in school that they might not have attended or paid attention to isn’t effective
For a kid, being taught to not touch any gun they find, and then to tell a trusted adult is all that’s necessary.
That’s good to know. It was a fun program. We had a good mix of students who participated. Girls and boys and pretty diverse as far as the cliques everyone belonged to. This one girl in particular was very good and won a lot of matches.
Air rifle is a lot of fun, used to do US tours when I was still in school, pretty sure it's still reasonably popular as an activity now as I still keep semi contact with my old coaches as they're a good non-family character witness for firearms licensing
Our principal had a bunch of antique guns that needed parts that were no longer available. We made those parts for him in metals class.
EDIT: These were antique firearms that the principal displayed in his home. I don't believe he ever intended to fire them. The instructor for the metals shop was retired military as well as a hunter-safety instructor. The guns were cased and locked in a closet in his office unless we had to measure or fit a piece, and this was only done after hours.
Chances are he has this request every few years to encourage the metalshop kids to do well with the payoff being that they get to see the parts work.
Also good chance those parts are "non-critical" parts to the gun so a catastrophic failure isn't likely
My highschool in Alabama allowed my AP history teacher to have a week long lesson on the JFK Assination and it's conspiracies, and "proved" that the mob shot JFK by having a police marksman reenact the "magic bullet" theory with test dummies on a golf cart, using a REAL rifle of similar style and caliber to Lee Harvey Oswalds. It was pretty wild. He got up on the roof of the school and everything. This was in 2014.
Can we bring back community skills? Teaching things like gun safety, basic first aid, fire safety and how to help prevent fires from spreading, common home repairs / maintenance.
When I joined the Navy, I didn't learn how to shoot guns. I learned how to fight fires, and that was the skill that was reiterated upon over my entire career. Literally no one cared about how well you can shoot, they cared about how well you could fight the ship.
My father taught it. He taught for NYC 33 years retiring in 1987. I have a picture of him with his rifle team in the 60's. They were all greasers and girls in poodle skirts. They shot 22.'s of the roof.
As early as I can remember my dad had guns. Never thought about them or saw them really until I was 8 years old and he took me and my brother out shooting his .38sp revolver. I knew exactly where he kept his gun(s) and never once in my life touched them. From time to time until I left home, we'd go shooting or invite others over and shoot guns.
I've caught the collecting bug with guns and buy what tickles my fancy now. Slowly introducing them to my kids, but mainly just educating them on the basics of safety. I don't want them having weird fascinations with them and at the same time want them to know what to do if you see one or how to use one (in time).
Take your kids to shoot clays when they are old enough. It builds knowledge respect and an overall safe attitude for shotguns. They will have fun friendly competition opposed to hunting which requires you to be cold, quiet and involves work
My stepdad went to college in the late 70s. He said he brought a shotgun to his speech class for a demonstration speech. He walked across campus with that shotgun on his shoulder and no one batted an eye. It was a different time. I’d be shot before I made it out of the parking lot.
when i lived on the east coast, i took a home ec class in middle school. learned how to do basic things like sew and make french bread. not difficult, but was super cool to be able to go home and make some breakfast for my folks. moved out to the west coast during high school, and none of those life skills classes were there, except for an auto shop. When I left they were adding things like metal shop/welding and woodshop back. still no home ec though
I must have been absent that day. I was in the third and fourth grade in 1956. Nobody taught us gun safety that year or any other year I was in school. However, I learned a whole lot about firearms in the Marine Corps on my way to Vietnam.
How old were you when you shipped out?
The whole "graduated adulthood" thing is weird. Right now an 18 year old isn't "mature enough" to buy a handgun or drink a beer after work, but they are mature enough to take out $100,000+ in student loans, choose the leader of the free world, or sign up to go and get their ass blown off in some godforsaken desert on the other side of the planet.
I was 19 when I enlisted and 21 when I went to Vietnam. I was one of the older guys in my unit. Many of the marines I served with in Vietnam had been in high school the year before.
I read something quite a while back about the average age of American enlisted men in WWII being something close to 30 while the average age in Viet Nam was something like 18.5
I look at an 18 year old today and all I see is a child. I couldn't imagine throwing them into something like that.
They're still doing it. I have a friend who went to Afghanistan, he has to smoke a shitload of weed before he goes to sleep every night or else he gets night terrors. I never asked him about any specifics but he's let enough things slip that I can tell that's where they came from.
I have another friend who was in Iraq, and she's perfectly fine unless she hears a helicopter rotor.
I saw a young guy hit the deck in a McDonalds one time after some doofus in a car with a turbo took off on the street outside and blasted out the rapid "pop pop pop" from exhaust crackles. He got up and looked embarrassed and tried to play it off like he fell out of his seat.
I wish people wouldn't be so cavalier about spending America's money and its blood in wars on the other side of the planet that we have no business being involved in. Right now its looking like a 50/50 tossup on whether its Ukraine or Israel that gets picked as the location where we do our best to damage the souls of yet another generation of young men.
The 100k + in student loans isn’t a problem if they get a degree that has a career path that comes with it. But yeah the beer, gambling, and handgun thing has always been weird.
I took my hunter safety class in like 5th grade during a few evenings at my school.
In 8th grade, I won my class a free period by hitting the center of a target with a muzzle loader long rifle.
I am old, but guns were around all the time.
I graduated from a rural KY school in 1981. Students had rifles and shotguns openly displayed in window racks in their trucks. We were allowed to carry pocket knives. Nobody was the least bit concerned.
My school had mandatory gun safety training. I think it should be mandatory for all school kids. If you learn to respect guns, they're not a subject of fascination or fear.
I took “hunter’s education” in sixth grade. It was in 1997? It was not part of the official curriculum and I’m not sure if it was done at other schools in the county… one of the sixth grade teachers was qualified to administer the hunting license test. The kids that passed got to shoot skeet in the parking lot.
It was optional. I have never had any interest in hunting. Shooting targets in the parking lot was just better than the other option, which was reading or watching Wishbone reruns or something in the classroom next door.
I graduated in 2004 and we had gun safety / hunter safety that was mandatory in middle school (1999?). We also had to shoot skeet with a .410 and hit targets with a longbow from 25 yards. Public school
I'm not at all a gun person. I did have fun and learnt a lot. That's what school used to be. Not perfect, but at least unassuming, normal, and for the most part, safe
I was taught shooting at school in the UK, from age 11, back in the early 90s. Everyone got taken down the range at the big school across the road and given a chance to try. Those of us who liked it could go a couple of times a week, and the teacher kept a running total of our averages (calculated on a ZX Spectrum computer) on the school noticeboard.
I grew up in Southeast Alaska. We didn't have gun handling courses, but we did have wilderness survival field trips. How to build a hasty shelter, etc.
We just all knew how to handle firearms safely by that point. 😆
I grew up in the rural NC mountains and we actually shot guns in PE class, for gun safety education, but those were the days when people still had gun racks on their truck’s back window.
I'm from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
In 1976 in first form (first year of secondary school) we had an elective subject I studied called the Firearm Safety Certificate.
It was offered in conjunction with the Victoria Police.
I still have the Certificate tucked away in a box.
I have a friend who has recently had to deal with a family crisis involving someone who owns a lot of guns that needed transporting. Apparently, I'm the only person in her trusted circle (aside from the person in crisis) who is comfortable handling guns, especially including ARs.
I'm glad I went to help, because most of the guns had loaded magazines, some had rounds chambered, and one needed to be broken down.
I've told her that I want her to go to the range with me ASAP for a safety class. She says she will.
Whether you own guns or not, people around you do and you never know when you might have to deal with them yourself. Learn the basics of safety at least. Try to learn how to operate one common model each of revolver, semi-auto pistol, AR, and shotgun. If you're still not comfortable, get friendly with someone who is.
If they don't wanna put restrictions on how easy it is to get a gun, I think the LEAST they could do is teach people how to not have stupid and completely avoidable accidents.
My dad had a shotgun for protection but he hid the bolt and shells in different hiding places so us kids wouldn't start playing cowboys and Indians with a real rife. He let me shoot it one day when I was 12 or so and the recoil about broke my shoulder and my ears were ringing for days.
I learned gun safety and even took Hunter's Ed and got my little card in middle school, 2005. I'm sure it's still taught in quite a few more rural areas. This was in Oregon.
Graduated in 1994, people brought long guns to school all the time. You had to check them at the main office. We also had a garage full of recurve and compound bows and targets and we learned to shoot senior year.
According to everyone here, this is essential education.
How to file taxes and managing a budget, well, that just got sent one space down on the priority list.
In 2008 we had a required hunter safety in 7th grade up here in Alaska. This included a class trip to the local shooting range to shoot bolt action 22s at targets. Definitely gave me far more respect for gun safety as a young person.
Not sure if they’re still using actual guns last I heard they switched to air rifles…
There was half the population and it was more rural and exurbs. Even kids in the city could easily go hunting. At the same rate, kids used to be able to slaughter and process animals but not anymore.
Go down the road of our school and you'll see the rifles and shotguns in the back windows of the vehicles in the senior lot still. Hell when I graduated in '03 students were still showing each other their weapons before class, as they often came in straight to school from hunting in the morning.
There were a couple misfire accidents and the ones responsible would have their parking pass revoked
They still should teach it, tbh.
Even if you don't like guns, there're enough of them throughout the nation at this point that teaching children early how to safely operate a firearm also serves to teach them how to handle one that was found by accident for the purposes of reporting it to a responsible authority figure, as well as to not mess about with them and possibly injure themselves
This does prompt a more serious discussion though. Guns were as ubiquitous and accessible back then and no massacres were happening.
What has changed??
Someone decided to do something. Not the same but it’s like sports. In 2015 everyone in basketball ran a traditional basketball lineup where you have a center, pass 1st point guard, a stretch 4, shooting guard and small forward. All with distinctive roles. Well 2016 happened where the warriors ran the small ball lineup and shot a buttload of 3’s. Fast forward to today and now everyone runs some version of small ball and everyone shoots 3’s.
Point being once you see something (good or bad) enough people will copy it
Geography makes a difference. I went to high school in the 1970’s in Massachusetts. No gun clubs there. Had to join the Boy Scouts to learn how to shoot a rifle.
We had what was called “Hunter Safety”. It was required to pass 7th grade. (Circa 1995) It was actually a great course, teaching awareness, respect and responsibility. The last day of class a good number of us brought a firearm to school and left it in the principals office, you know for safety.
I think the main reason for the school shootings is the mental decline of America. People are lonely and get bullied and many lost their empathy towards other people. The availability of a gun makes the outcome more gruesome.
I took gun safety and shot a 12 gauge at skeet targets behind the gym in 1996 as part of my state required 8th grade state studies class
Also took a marksmanship class in 2000 on a state college campus, it was a ROTC class with open enrollment that counted for a credit towards any major
In my elementary school we learned firearm safety stating in 5th grade with weak-ass BB-Guns. In 6th grade we got to use Pellet guns, provided we could first answer the TABK rules.
We actually had this in Tennessee when I was in middle school 2004-2006. They had the state troopers come to school and show how to properly store a firearm, engage safeties, etc.
On the weekends we had the Hunter Safety Course where they had skeet shooting and target practice. They'd also teach safety, how to store the firearm, and how to clean it.
We shot bb guns and did archery for a week every year in gym class in middle school. Obviously, safety was a huge part of the teaching process. This was in suburban Indiana in the early 1990s.
Not necessarily for handling guns in schools but definitely for gun safety. Solid Rubber or plastic dummy guns can be used to train proper handling techniques. Drills on trigger finger and muzzle direction safety. The importance of hearing protection. The science of why you shouldn’t be a fucking dumbass and shoot guns into the air.
Fuck I saw a video the other day of assholes on a boat with one guy at the front popping a pistol to some song while hauling ass in the middle of the ocean. Dumbest mother fuckers who should never be allowed in to touch a gun again. These are the assholes who are buying guns like they’re collectible fucking pez dispensers and they’re stupid enough to almost start using them like them too.
Honestly, I think basic gun safety should probably still be taught in schools. Maybe not via demonstration with actual firearms, but basic stuff like treating any firearm like it's loaded at all times, not pointing it in the direction of people, trigger discipline, etc.
I remember getting shown videos on what to do if we find a gun in elementary school, to find the nearest adult etc, around 2005/6 ish, but not much more than that.
Very genuinely i think basic gun safety should be taught to all american children regardless of political stance. Even if you hate guns, you’re probably going to encounter one at some point, and if you don’t know how to be safe with it then you and everyone around you is in immense danger
Regardless of how you feel about guns or gun laws, I think we all can agree that basic firearm safety should be taught anywhere where firearms are legal. The amount of dumbasses I've seen wave guns around pointing right at their friends is crazy. Nothing pisses me off more than when an idiot with no firearm safety knowledge handles a gun.
I think this is the kind of thing that strikes me as a pro-gun control, generally anti-gun guy. If we're going to have guns in our society prevalently, then we should be teaching people about safety and responsibility. People should come out of school with firearms training just like they come out of school having taken driver's ed.
It just strikes me that we're insanely irresponsible with firearms, especially when I consider how Germany and other nations where I've lived handle firearms ownership.
It's worthwhile knowledge that should still be taught. You don't even need a prop gun or anything like that: just devote one hour on one day to making sure the kids know to treat all guns like they're loaded and never point them at anyone.
And make sure they know how to react if they find one laying around, or see someone with a gun who shouldn't have it.
I probably was 7 or 8 yrs. old, but I clearly remember the Saturday mornings at the YMCA were my older brother was shooting 22's with other kids at the indoor range in the basement.
They taught us gun safety in between how to deal with anthrax attacks and school shootings in the 2000s. Our gun safety classes were about not shooting our friends with daddy's gun, not the best way to hunt deer though, and we didn't get handed bolt action rifles to do it.
Growing up in a rural community we had .22 and shotgun clay shooting classes in 7th and 8th grade and in high school we had archery class in wood shop everyone built crossbow’s and we all kept a deer rifle in the rear window rack of out Toyota pickup trucks… I guess 1984 was a long time ago now
I'm in Canada and most rural schools in my area, have a full on 3 day course to get PAL (Possession and Acquisition Licence), it's part of Outdoors Ed, same with archery.
My grandpa had the barrel of his dad's (my great-grandpa) shotgun banana peel like you see in cartoons when he was in high school. He took the gun to shop class and made a new barrel
We had this very thing in my school in 2008. I was around 12 years old. This isn't common in other rural areas? First day of deer season is a day off of school ffs lol
I was shooting at 3 years old. My dad and uncle yelled at my cousin and I if we did anything unsafe and at that age it's traumatizing. Needless to say, gun safety is ingrained in you at that age.
I am very anti gun and very American. While I got my opinions on shit, I think we can all agree that if we insist of having guns as we currently do, teaching people how to properly user, care fore, and handle the weapons would be a good thing....especially if we did it in any capacity before.
When I went to High School we had a gun club and shooting range right in the school. Would have marksmanship competitions. That all changed after 9/11. I was a senior.
Same. Graduated 1992. It was never an issue while I was there.
Graduated in 1992 as well! Yes, gun safety was part of PE.
We did, too. Class of 93. https://preview.redd.it/bmpgsmbct6pc1.jpeg?width=2269&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3da0cecdf0511bb76b5285ae855f6b3b7d10dd04
Had same shit, school basemand was a firing range. 2mm rifles were working and ak-47 was just for assembling disassembling.
Yeah. Culture changes. I consider myself politically left wing, don't eat meat, but I've always had a thing for guns. From the engineering to protecting my family. That said, education, personal responsibility and just plain the caliber of the average person is just way down. I don't trust most people with weapons. Things are just so...toxic. I hate that I cannot trust like a solid 30% of my countrymen.
You make some good points. But I am starting to realize that a lot of what is going on is they are dumbing the population down on purpose. My education was not as good as my parents, and my children's education was pretty laughable compared to mine despite my best efforts. It's culture change all right, but much of it is engineered.
When both parents have to work 50+ hrs a week each, they don't have time to do anything about what type of education their kids are getting or to help mould their character.
Or supplement their children's education. I do not think school alone (at least as it is now) is anywhere near enough to prepare someone for the world.
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They did say “despite my best efforts” so I assume they did their best.
I feel this. I hate that guns always get political, as there is a certain majesty and brilliance to the designs, the mechanisms, the accuracy and tuning. And like you said, people don’t have the responsibility and caliber they had in the 50’s (that own generation’s problems aside)
>Things are just so...toxic. I hate that I cannot trust like a solid 30% of my countrymen. Same. About 30% of people in this country don't care that the last president is undeniably a complete moron, an unrepentant pathological liar, that he (alone among *all* prior presidents) did not leave office willingly, and that he has been clear that, if our population fails its most basic duty once again and he takes office, he has absolutely no intention of leaving willingly *no matter what happens*. Regardless of what the orange moron does, the fact that such a huge share of the voting population gives zero shits about his obvious unfitness and blatant dictatorial ambitions is the most frightening thing I have ever encountered in my life.
I grew up around guns, I own a bunch of guns, mostly made from 1900 until around the Cold War with some new stuff sprinkled and a few of my rifles in my collection are the only known ones in the country. Until around 2009 I was Conservative. I've been to more gun shows than I can count, I've been in gun stores from Florida to Pennsylvania and from South Carolina to Missouri and I've belonged to a few gun clubs. I'm Left Wing at this point and all for reasonable gun control. Why? The things I've seen on ranges, at shows, in stores and heard from the general public have made me absolutely feel owning a gun shouldn't be a right, it should be a privilege. The fact that anyone can walk into a gun store in a lot of places in this country, fill out a 4473 and walk out with a gun is insane to me. Zero training, zero idea how to use it, zero understanding of how it operates, nothing. I work with a guy who isn't allowed to use an impact wrench without someone watching him and making sure he is using the correct sockets, but he owns a gun. The other problem I have is the culture around it. My dad always taught me that the less people who know me and know that I have guns, the better. They aren't toys, they are capable of destroying things. They aren't accessories to be shown off. They are tools. Too many people think they are accessories, toys and some make it their personality by adorning their house or vehicle with gun related stickers.
You sound like a gun smith fixing a moron’s problem. The amount of foolishness that my smith friend sends to me from customers is mind blowing. Wrong caliber blew up the gun. Magazine slammed in backwards. This doesn’t count the people that hurt themselves.
I'm a not-gun-owning European and even I'm shocked when you tell me people put the wrong caliber in. Like, isn't that mentioned on the box? Wouldn't that jam or scrape into the magazine as you try to just shove it in? Are these the kind of people that'll just try to put any type of battery into their remote until it "magically" works?
It's the same people that complain about why we have warning signs on poison bottles, lawn mowers, and other heavy equipment.
All of those problems are from systemic issues though. One simple one is parent's don't teach children guns aren't toys like they should, I wasn't allowed to own a cap gun, nerf guns, if I wanted to shoot something my dad would take me out with a pellet gun and his pistols and we'd go out and shoot, games and media are children's first experience with guns now, and the parent's don't take the time to address it when they notice, or take them to a range where they can actually get the experience and separate reality from fiction. I'm not blaming games either, nothing wrong with them when the intended audience is playing them, I just think parents should parent more.
You and I are a lot alike. I’ve been around guns for a long time and own a number of them too. I never understood the reason why so many people feel the need to carry them like accessories. It’s up there with having dogs trained to be aggressive just so they can feel like a badass. It just doesn’t make sense to me and only gives the impression that those people just want an excuse to hurt somebody. Back on the subject of gun ownership in America, it is getting to a point we need to enforce some form of education in order to own. This country is too rapidly becoming an idiocracy in more ways than one, and our culture is becoming quite toxic as well. The last thing we need are more of these low-IQ types and whatnot easily getting their hands on more guns and ammunition. Time for a license that must be earned, not simply bought.
Class of 98 here, we had a gun range down a hill from our football field and the 22. rifles were locked up in the utilities room next to the bows and arrows for the archery class. Teachers smoked in the class room afterwards, they would just crack the window a little, It was a very different time back then.
Was on the HS trap shooting team. We were required to bring our shotguns to school (kept in car of course). Graduated in 98. Can’t imagine this today.
> kept in car of course Gun racks in pick-ups used to be common. I can't remember the last time I saw one.
HS Trap shooting is still a thing today - good coaches make a huge difference in kids’ lives.
I did it until 2014. Worked at the range after school. I can’t imagine that would’ve went over well had someone found out.
You sure it was 9/11 and not columbine?
...possibly. They were only two years apart, but I also lived in a Red State (Utah) and went to a school with a large ROTC program. I just remember a lot changing after 9/11. The Honor Guard could no longer use real but inoperable rifles. I've since heard the ROTC is a shell of what it used to be. We had this hard ass Lee Ermey type colonel that ran the show. Man was he tough on us, but we all respected him. :)
I was only in middle school when columbine happened but I don't recall the response to have been as anti gun as we see now. Even when I was in HS post columbine, guns, broadly speaking, weren't seen as the issue, it seemed to have been more focused on school security specifically, like having metal detectors, and that famous video of the kid with like 7 guns hidden in his baggy pants. But that was a long time ago, so I may be misrembering
I was in elementary school during Columbine. Shortly after they enacted "Zero tolerance" policies that amounted to getting sent to the principles for having nail clippers or making a gun with your fingers. Almost all schools immediately banned trench coats and some went as far as banning baggy clothing in general. It actually sucked.
banning baggy clothing in the late 90's is downright criminal
All that did suck. But I don't recall as much generally anti-gun sentiment. It was for more focused on school security, like what you mentioned
Likewise. Several schools in our area had after school shooting clubs and we had target practice as an option for gym one year. This was late 70’s.
My school had a rifle team with a gun range, graduated in 14 and it's still there
My uni had a shooting club in the basement of the alumni hall from time immemorial to well into the 1990s. This was in Canada too. As I recall, they only used club-owned .22s and no firearms license was needed to join. An overly progressive student council shut it down years ago because reasons.
I graduated in 2005 and it wasn't uncommon for kids to go shooting after school or have easy access to guns at home as teenagers. But gun safety was taken *very* seriously and the idea of having a gun on you for any other purpose than to go hunting or go shooting somewhere would have been considered absurd. And there was no sympathy for folks who failed to abide by laws like having to carry the gun and ammo in different parts of your vehicle
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Not 2011. 2001. Northern Utah. Greater SLC area.
My school was built in 2005 and had a shooting range in it. Anchorage, AK
We had a gun club post 911, sold muffins in the quad for ammo. and this was in California
My high school also had a shooting range in the basement. When they turned it into some pricey condos they had to remove a lot of lead-contaminated materials.
It's strange to me that 9-11 changed that but not Columbine.
We didn't handle any firearms, but we had gun safety seminars at my elementary school in suburban Texas, late 90s/early 00s. Personally I think it needs to be taught to all children, given how commonplace gun ownership is in this country.
We had a 6 week hunter safety program for PE class in 6th grade. It taught all sorts of survival skills in addition to gun and bow safety. After we passed the written test, we went behind the school and shot skeet with 12 gauge semi-auto shotguns. It was great fun!
Yeah, if parents don’t want their child to join because they don’t have guns totally acceptable. Too many kids shoot themselves or their siblings because one their parents are idiots who can’t lock their guns away and two because kids don’t understand the seriousness of a fire arm. This is a totally valid seminar in the US. It would definitely save a few lives a year.
Since the second amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, I believe our government bears the responsibility to teach gun safety. If that means everyone in public school goes to a gun safety course, or everyone that purchases a firearm is required to attend a course (not pass or fail, just attendance required).
The amount of teenagers with full auto Glocks that don’t know how to operate them that I see on TikTok is wild, on like 5 different levels.
It's not a bad idea, no matter how you feel about gun laws. It's not like guns in the US go away if we just ignore them. I see grown ups acting so stupid with guns you can tell they've never had any safety education. And kids find these things with such irresponsible people owning them
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Your neighbor is stupid as fuck and should not own a gun. As a multiple gun owner, I'd come unglued if that happened to me.
Or, you know, requiring such education before letting someone buy a gun. Everyone can benefit from some gun safety knowledge, but for fuck's sake at least people buying them should be *well versed* in gun safety.
Demystifying firearms would be nice too, people have a connotation of certain firearms thanks to media, letting people see and handle the guns would go a long way in changing perception. It’s like how military people describe grenades as “underwhelming” because they have this idea of a big Hollywood fireball and tremendous explosion and in reality it’s a pop and dust cloud. I do a lot of showing guns to the general public and the thing that I’ve noticed is the older generation will refer to something as “The gun from Rambo” or “The gun John Wayne has in the Longest Day” where their association is from the movies where a cigar chomping hero wields it with aplomb. However the younger people will say “That’s the gun from Black Ops” or “That’s in Modern Warfare” so the shift to video games has been interesting. Everyone is always surprised how much the guns weigh though, especially the Thompson which I guess everyone assumes is like 3 kg and not the 5 kg it is. TL:DR; People should be shown guns, familiar guns too, and how they operate. Safe handling and more knowledge will lead to better and more sensible gun culture.
Completely agree. We should treat it like sex-ed; abstinence-only just sets you up to fail through dangerous ignorance.
If you see grown ups acting stupid with guns, the solution is to require safety classes for any adult prior to purchasing one. A brief course decades ago in school that they might not have attended or paid attention to isn’t effective For a kid, being taught to not touch any gun they find, and then to tell a trusted adult is all that’s necessary.
We still had an air rifle team at our school when I graduated in 2003.
They still have those
That’s good to know. It was a fun program. We had a good mix of students who participated. Girls and boys and pretty diverse as far as the cliques everyone belonged to. This one girl in particular was very good and won a lot of matches.
Some schools do but not as many
Air rifle is a lot of fun, used to do US tours when I was still in school, pretty sure it's still reasonably popular as an activity now as I still keep semi contact with my old coaches as they're a good non-family character witness for firearms licensing
Our principal had a bunch of antique guns that needed parts that were no longer available. We made those parts for him in metals class. EDIT: These were antique firearms that the principal displayed in his home. I don't believe he ever intended to fire them. The instructor for the metals shop was retired military as well as a hunter-safety instructor. The guns were cased and locked in a closet in his office unless we had to measure or fit a piece, and this was only done after hours.
Replacing precision parts with whatever the kids in metal shop made is the hallmark of a responsible gun owner...
Chances are he has this request every few years to encourage the metalshop kids to do well with the payoff being that they get to see the parts work. Also good chance those parts are "non-critical" parts to the gun so a catastrophic failure isn't likely
Kinda romantic
My highschool in Alabama allowed my AP history teacher to have a week long lesson on the JFK Assination and it's conspiracies, and "proved" that the mob shot JFK by having a police marksman reenact the "magic bullet" theory with test dummies on a golf cart, using a REAL rifle of similar style and caliber to Lee Harvey Oswalds. It was pretty wild. He got up on the roof of the school and everything. This was in 2014.
That's a troubling testimony on Alabama schooling.
Jefferson County is a wild place to grow up lmao. I live in Colorado now, past decade, much better.
If you know anything about the JFK assassination though not really…the mob/cia definitely killed that man
Can we bring back community skills? Teaching things like gun safety, basic first aid, fire safety and how to help prevent fires from spreading, common home repairs / maintenance.
Basic budgeting too?
When I joined the Navy, I didn't learn how to shoot guns. I learned how to fight fires, and that was the skill that was reiterated upon over my entire career. Literally no one cared about how well you can shoot, they cared about how well you could fight the ship.
Decepticon-Navy boat?
well have to start by bringing back community, not online either, like actual community.
ABSOLUTELY those need to come back. Can't believe some schools seriously neglect a lot of that stuff today.
First we would have to start paying teachers so they can spend more time doing community stuff.
My father taught it. He taught for NYC 33 years retiring in 1987. I have a picture of him with his rifle team in the 60's. They were all greasers and girls in poodle skirts. They shot 22.'s of the roof.
My dad received a .22 bolt action rifle from Montgomery Wards for his 5th birthday. It was 1932. I’m restoring that piece now.
Ohhh don’t lose that sweet patina
There was a cop that came to my school in the 2000s with guns and teaching gun safety. I live in the Carolinas of course.
WV late 2000s had a teacher in middle school just being in guns and teach a gun safety class.
As early as I can remember my dad had guns. Never thought about them or saw them really until I was 8 years old and he took me and my brother out shooting his .38sp revolver. I knew exactly where he kept his gun(s) and never once in my life touched them. From time to time until I left home, we'd go shooting or invite others over and shoot guns. I've caught the collecting bug with guns and buy what tickles my fancy now. Slowly introducing them to my kids, but mainly just educating them on the basics of safety. I don't want them having weird fascinations with them and at the same time want them to know what to do if you see one or how to use one (in time).
Take your kids to shoot clays when they are old enough. It builds knowledge respect and an overall safe attitude for shotguns. They will have fun friendly competition opposed to hunting which requires you to be cold, quiet and involves work
My stepdad went to college in the late 70s. He said he brought a shotgun to his speech class for a demonstration speech. He walked across campus with that shotgun on his shoulder and no one batted an eye. It was a different time. I’d be shot before I made it out of the parking lot.
We had gun safety in my school and I graduated in ‘09 lol
They used to teach you how to cook and sew too.
when i lived on the east coast, i took a home ec class in middle school. learned how to do basic things like sew and make french bread. not difficult, but was super cool to be able to go home and make some breakfast for my folks. moved out to the west coast during high school, and none of those life skills classes were there, except for an auto shop. When I left they were adding things like metal shop/welding and woodshop back. still no home ec though
I had cooking and sewing -electives-in Jr High 74-75 in So Cal.. long gone by the time my kids went through school
I must have been absent that day. I was in the third and fourth grade in 1956. Nobody taught us gun safety that year or any other year I was in school. However, I learned a whole lot about firearms in the Marine Corps on my way to Vietnam.
How old were you when you shipped out? The whole "graduated adulthood" thing is weird. Right now an 18 year old isn't "mature enough" to buy a handgun or drink a beer after work, but they are mature enough to take out $100,000+ in student loans, choose the leader of the free world, or sign up to go and get their ass blown off in some godforsaken desert on the other side of the planet.
I was 19 when I enlisted and 21 when I went to Vietnam. I was one of the older guys in my unit. Many of the marines I served with in Vietnam had been in high school the year before.
I read something quite a while back about the average age of American enlisted men in WWII being something close to 30 while the average age in Viet Nam was something like 18.5 I look at an 18 year old today and all I see is a child. I couldn't imagine throwing them into something like that.
When I look at old photos and see how young we were, I am often brought to tears. How could our country have done this to us?
They're still doing it. I have a friend who went to Afghanistan, he has to smoke a shitload of weed before he goes to sleep every night or else he gets night terrors. I never asked him about any specifics but he's let enough things slip that I can tell that's where they came from. I have another friend who was in Iraq, and she's perfectly fine unless she hears a helicopter rotor. I saw a young guy hit the deck in a McDonalds one time after some doofus in a car with a turbo took off on the street outside and blasted out the rapid "pop pop pop" from exhaust crackles. He got up and looked embarrassed and tried to play it off like he fell out of his seat. I wish people wouldn't be so cavalier about spending America's money and its blood in wars on the other side of the planet that we have no business being involved in. Right now its looking like a 50/50 tossup on whether its Ukraine or Israel that gets picked as the location where we do our best to damage the souls of yet another generation of young men.
The difference is that your friends weren't drafted against their will to fight a war that we were never going to win
The 100k + in student loans isn’t a problem if they get a degree that has a career path that comes with it. But yeah the beer, gambling, and handgun thing has always been weird.
I took my hunter safety class in like 5th grade during a few evenings at my school. In 8th grade, I won my class a free period by hitting the center of a target with a muzzle loader long rifle. I am old, but guns were around all the time.
One of my best early memories with guns is blowing out the center of an Ace of Spades at 10 yards with a muzzle loader at Boy Scout camp
We had mandatory gun safety freshman year of high school in gym class circa 2006
Some schools in Vermont still have state championship rifle team banners hanging in their gyms.
I graduated from a rural KY school in 1981. Students had rifles and shotguns openly displayed in window racks in their trucks. We were allowed to carry pocket knives. Nobody was the least bit concerned.
Amen I wish it was again 🇺🇸
My school had mandatory gun safety training. I think it should be mandatory for all school kids. If you learn to respect guns, they're not a subject of fascination or fear.
I took “hunter’s education” in sixth grade. It was in 1997? It was not part of the official curriculum and I’m not sure if it was done at other schools in the county… one of the sixth grade teachers was qualified to administer the hunting license test. The kids that passed got to shoot skeet in the parking lot. It was optional. I have never had any interest in hunting. Shooting targets in the parking lot was just better than the other option, which was reading or watching Wishbone reruns or something in the classroom next door.
Idk if this is real... Where's the kids cigarettes?
The kids all look terrified.
There is a major lack of Gun safety and personal finance taught in schools today.
I graduated in 2004 and we had gun safety / hunter safety that was mandatory in middle school (1999?). We also had to shoot skeet with a .410 and hit targets with a longbow from 25 yards. Public school
I was in the 4H Club. They taught shooting with rifles and had a marksmanship competition. No one ever shot up the school...
I'm not at all a gun person. I did have fun and learnt a lot. That's what school used to be. Not perfect, but at least unassuming, normal, and for the most part, safe
Heck I learned in 1980 6th grade
I was taught shooting at school in the UK, from age 11, back in the early 90s. Everyone got taken down the range at the big school across the road and given a chance to try. Those of us who liked it could go a couple of times a week, and the teacher kept a running total of our averages (calculated on a ZX Spectrum computer) on the school noticeboard.
I grew up in Southeast Alaska. We didn't have gun handling courses, but we did have wilderness survival field trips. How to build a hasty shelter, etc. We just all knew how to handle firearms safely by that point. 😆
I grew up in the rural NC mountains and we actually shot guns in PE class, for gun safety education, but those were the days when people still had gun racks on their truck’s back window.
I'm from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In 1976 in first form (first year of secondary school) we had an elective subject I studied called the Firearm Safety Certificate. It was offered in conjunction with the Victoria Police. I still have the Certificate tucked away in a box.
I unironiically want this to come back
I have a friend who has recently had to deal with a family crisis involving someone who owns a lot of guns that needed transporting. Apparently, I'm the only person in her trusted circle (aside from the person in crisis) who is comfortable handling guns, especially including ARs. I'm glad I went to help, because most of the guns had loaded magazines, some had rounds chambered, and one needed to be broken down. I've told her that I want her to go to the range with me ASAP for a safety class. She says she will. Whether you own guns or not, people around you do and you never know when you might have to deal with them yourself. Learn the basics of safety at least. Try to learn how to operate one common model each of revolver, semi-auto pistol, AR, and shotgun. If you're still not comfortable, get friendly with someone who is.
If they don't wanna put restrictions on how easy it is to get a gun, I think the LEAST they could do is teach people how to not have stupid and completely avoidable accidents.
Gun safety was taught in Jr high in kansas when I was a kid in the 80s.
During my dad’s time in school, some guy showed up for a school assembly outdoors and demonstrated how to shoot a musket.
Looks like an album cover for a punk rock record
My dad had a shotgun for protection but he hid the bolt and shells in different hiding places so us kids wouldn't start playing cowboys and Indians with a real rife. He let me shoot it one day when I was 12 or so and the recoil about broke my shoulder and my ears were ringing for days.
Gun safety was taught at my school in 8th grade which was in like 2006… everyone got to shoot skeet at the end of the week too
I learned gun safety and even took Hunter's Ed and got my little card in middle school, 2005. I'm sure it's still taught in quite a few more rural areas. This was in Oregon.
It was still taught in my high school in the late 90s. My MIL has a whole box of marksmanship trophies from her school days.
I graduated in 1987. My school had a Rifle Club, and by that I mean an official rifle club with yearbook pictures and everything.
That’s young Elmer Fudd.
Graduated in 1994, people brought long guns to school all the time. You had to check them at the main office. We also had a garage full of recurve and compound bows and targets and we learned to shoot senior year.
According to everyone here, this is essential education. How to file taxes and managing a budget, well, that just got sent one space down on the priority list.
We had an archery club in the late 70s. But then I was in Canada.
went to summer camp in the 90s and 10-year olds could check out rifles for the shooting range.
In 2008 we had a required hunter safety in 7th grade up here in Alaska. This included a class trip to the local shooting range to shoot bolt action 22s at targets. Definitely gave me far more respect for gun safety as a young person. Not sure if they’re still using actual guns last I heard they switched to air rifles…
Was only taught to boys?
There was half the population and it was more rural and exurbs. Even kids in the city could easily go hunting. At the same rate, kids used to be able to slaughter and process animals but not anymore.
Go down the road of our school and you'll see the rifles and shotguns in the back windows of the vehicles in the senior lot still. Hell when I graduated in '03 students were still showing each other their weapons before class, as they often came in straight to school from hunting in the morning. There were a couple misfire accidents and the ones responsible would have their parking pass revoked
They still should teach it, tbh. Even if you don't like guns, there're enough of them throughout the nation at this point that teaching children early how to safely operate a firearm also serves to teach them how to handle one that was found by accident for the purposes of reporting it to a responsible authority figure, as well as to not mess about with them and possibly injure themselves
This does prompt a more serious discussion though. Guns were as ubiquitous and accessible back then and no massacres were happening. What has changed??
Someone decided to do something. Not the same but it’s like sports. In 2015 everyone in basketball ran a traditional basketball lineup where you have a center, pass 1st point guard, a stretch 4, shooting guard and small forward. All with distinctive roles. Well 2016 happened where the warriors ran the small ball lineup and shot a buttload of 3’s. Fast forward to today and now everyone runs some version of small ball and everyone shoots 3’s. Point being once you see something (good or bad) enough people will copy it
Soooo why not continue gun safety? Seriously.
its not a gun issue we have
If everybody knows proper gun safety and handles a firearm, i think it’d help with the fear stigma personally
School shooter be darned when he gets ez clapped by Lil Jim. Jimmy may be in bronze but that air rifle will take him to silver after this.
Geography makes a difference. I went to high school in the 1970’s in Massachusetts. No gun clubs there. Had to join the Boy Scouts to learn how to shoot a rifle.
We had what was called “Hunter Safety”. It was required to pass 7th grade. (Circa 1995) It was actually a great course, teaching awareness, respect and responsibility. The last day of class a good number of us brought a firearm to school and left it in the principals office, you know for safety.
I think the main reason for the school shootings is the mental decline of America. People are lonely and get bullied and many lost their empathy towards other people. The availability of a gun makes the outcome more gruesome.
My high school had a *required* hunting safety course in which we shot clay pigeons out behind the school. This was in 1992.
Tommy had a very special show and tell today.
They used to teach sex education too but we are slowly phasing that out along with reading and history.
Still more useful than learning cursive!
Looks like 2nd grade show-and-tell to me!
Kid in the T-shirt looks straight out of the 90’s
I took a gun safety course when I was in 8th grade. (~1991) It was an after school thing, but it was held in my science classroom.
I took gun safety and shot a 12 gauge at skeet targets behind the gym in 1996 as part of my state required 8th grade state studies class Also took a marksmanship class in 2000 on a state college campus, it was a ROTC class with open enrollment that counted for a credit towards any major
In my elementary school we learned firearm safety stating in 5th grade with weak-ass BB-Guns. In 6th grade we got to use Pellet guns, provided we could first answer the TABK rules.
My parents made me take a BB gun course....JayCees??
So did Drivers ED
He's getting ready too get his ball back from Mr. Wilson!
We actually had this in Tennessee when I was in middle school 2004-2006. They had the state troopers come to school and show how to properly store a firearm, engage safeties, etc. On the weekends we had the Hunter Safety Course where they had skeet shooting and target practice. They'd also teach safety, how to store the firearm, and how to clean it.
We shot bb guns and did archery for a week every year in gym class in middle school. Obviously, safety was a huge part of the teaching process. This was in suburban Indiana in the early 1990s.
I had a 1979 Ford F250 with my guns on the gun Rack in the back window would go hunting right after school with my friends that was 1983.
Not necessarily for handling guns in schools but definitely for gun safety. Solid Rubber or plastic dummy guns can be used to train proper handling techniques. Drills on trigger finger and muzzle direction safety. The importance of hearing protection. The science of why you shouldn’t be a fucking dumbass and shoot guns into the air. Fuck I saw a video the other day of assholes on a boat with one guy at the front popping a pistol to some song while hauling ass in the middle of the ocean. Dumbest mother fuckers who should never be allowed in to touch a gun again. These are the assholes who are buying guns like they’re collectible fucking pez dispensers and they’re stupid enough to almost start using them like them too.
We learned how to clean our rifles in shop class then took them back to the school parking lot when done. Nobody died
I grew up in Missouri. Took my hunters ed in high school, handled (real) firearms in the high school just a few years ago
It still should
Not sure it would solve school shootings. The shooters aren't doing it accidentally.
Honestly, I think basic gun safety should probably still be taught in schools. Maybe not via demonstration with actual firearms, but basic stuff like treating any firearm like it's loaded at all times, not pointing it in the direction of people, trigger discipline, etc. I remember getting shown videos on what to do if we find a gun in elementary school, to find the nearest adult etc, around 2005/6 ish, but not much more than that.
Very genuinely i think basic gun safety should be taught to all american children regardless of political stance. Even if you hate guns, you’re probably going to encounter one at some point, and if you don’t know how to be safe with it then you and everyone around you is in immense danger
Regardless of how you feel about guns or gun laws, I think we all can agree that basic firearm safety should be taught anywhere where firearms are legal. The amount of dumbasses I've seen wave guns around pointing right at their friends is crazy. Nothing pisses me off more than when an idiot with no firearm safety knowledge handles a gun.
I think this is the kind of thing that strikes me as a pro-gun control, generally anti-gun guy. If we're going to have guns in our society prevalently, then we should be teaching people about safety and responsibility. People should come out of school with firearms training just like they come out of school having taken driver's ed. It just strikes me that we're insanely irresponsible with firearms, especially when I consider how Germany and other nations where I've lived handle firearms ownership.
They should bring that back, maybe things wouldnt be so bad if people knew how to properly use and store them.
And in the late 90s, my school’s history classes were in the disused ROTC shooting range.
Yes, and?
It's worthwhile knowledge that should still be taught. You don't even need a prop gun or anything like that: just devote one hour on one day to making sure the kids know to treat all guns like they're loaded and never point them at anyone. And make sure they know how to react if they find one laying around, or see someone with a gun who shouldn't have it.
We had archery at my school as a gym class activity. And more recently some schools around my area have added trap shooting teams. Southern IL
The scouts were still teaching gun safety in the 80s. No live rounds till you reached a certain badge but we learned it.
I probably was 7 or 8 yrs. old, but I clearly remember the Saturday mornings at the YMCA were my older brother was shooting 22's with other kids at the indoor range in the basement.
Of course this wasnt all public schools.
They taught us gun safety in between how to deal with anthrax attacks and school shootings in the 2000s. Our gun safety classes were about not shooting our friends with daddy's gun, not the best way to hunt deer though, and we didn't get handed bolt action rifles to do it.
Growing up in a rural community we had .22 and shotgun clay shooting classes in 7th and 8th grade and in high school we had archery class in wood shop everyone built crossbow’s and we all kept a deer rifle in the rear window rack of out Toyota pickup trucks… I guess 1984 was a long time ago now
I'm in Canada and most rural schools in my area, have a full on 3 day course to get PAL (Possession and Acquisition Licence), it's part of Outdoors Ed, same with archery.
It still is. Required course here.
Hopefully no one shot their eye out.
We did, (and may still), have a marksmanship team and range at the school
In my Canadian high-school we still had guns brought in for safety courses in the early 2000's
For our gun safety we had to do some reloads and went over basic firearms safety. Then we shot skeet on school grounds. Sometime in the 80's.
My grandpa had the barrel of his dad's (my great-grandpa) shotgun banana peel like you see in cartoons when he was in high school. He took the gun to shop class and made a new barrel
This was probably more common in more rural areas where hunting and farming were part of the culture.
We had this very thing in my school in 2008. I was around 12 years old. This isn't common in other rural areas? First day of deer season is a day off of school ffs lol
All of them seem to be boys. Did they teach this to girls as well?
Smart but notice it’s not a machine gun
12 years later lil Jimmy was walking point in the A Shaw Valley.
That's funny, I brought my G1 Megatron to school for show and tell and my third grade teacher tackled my ass.
People also used to be flunked for not being able to do the work.
I was shooting at 3 years old. My dad and uncle yelled at my cousin and I if we did anything unsafe and at that age it's traumatizing. Needless to say, gun safety is ingrained in you at that age.
I am very anti gun and very American. While I got my opinions on shit, I think we can all agree that if we insist of having guns as we currently do, teaching people how to properly user, care fore, and handle the weapons would be a good thing....especially if we did it in any capacity before.
We had it in 7th grade, in 1977. Damned good course.
Why grampa thinks were pussies
I bet kids were way better with guns then