Ol' Buffalo Blog: My day in the state legislature

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

My day in the state legislature

Today, I joined State Senator Dennis Stowell in speaking to the legislature's joint committee on law enforcement and judiciary. The topic was firearm safety training in schools. Currently, state law says schools and districts may voluntarily teach firearm safety. But, like many other safety issues (ie snowboarding, riding the bus, drugs and alcohol, sex, strangers, poison, etc.) there is no requirement that the schools do so. (I remember when I was in the third or fourth grade, a couple of firemen came to class to teach us about avoiding blasting caps.)

Many youth take the Hunter Education Course and others earn the Boy Scout Shooting Merit Badges. These youth get some formal safety training. But, a majority of youth -- especially children younger than 10 or 12 -- get no formal training. These kids are extremely vulnerable to harm if they find a gun in Grandma's house or if a child brings a gun to school. Every child on Earth needs to know what to do in these events. At least two members of the above-mentioned committee seem to disagree. In the case of guns, political correctness overrides child safety.

The NRA (National Rifle Association) and the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) both have programs that would achieve the goal in a half-hour or so. Dave Turner of the Davis County schools worked with the NSSF to establish a similar program back in the '90s. The current NSSF program appears to be an update and expansion of the Davis County effort. None of these programs advocate or reject gun rights or ownership -- they are politically neutral. No firearms are used in the training. My recommendation is that every student receive yearly exposure to this training from Kindergarten through grade 12.

What got me involved in this was a letter I wrote to Senator Stowell after the accidental shooting of a 6-year-old Arizona girl visiting Iron County last year. Others contributed some very good ideas and strategies including fellow firearm instructors Clark Aposhian and Curt Oda (the latter is also as member of the State House of Representatives).

On reporting about our presentation to the committee, the Salt Lake Tribune got my name wrong in their report, but that's understandable since my name was spelled wrong on the agenda.