Eureka Springs School District recently offered an Arkansas Game & Fish Commission hunter safety education course as a part of an introduction to agriculture class. Supt. Bryan Pruitt said he feels that such courses are an important educational tool that could end up helping save a life. But one local parent was upset about the lack of notification after his 13-year-old daughter came home and told him she had been expected to handle a rifle during a class that day.
Gun violence is now the number one cause of death for children in the U.S. with gun deaths surpassing car accidents as the leading cause of mortality in children and teens in 2020. Considering the amount of gun violence, the parent who raised concerns said he feels he should have been informed about his child being required to handle a rifle.
“This needs complete transparency,” the parent, who asked to remain anonymous to prevent any embarrassment at school for his child, said. “This community deserves awareness to know what their children are being taught at school. Some people don’t want their children to see guns. If we are going to teach them about guns, let’s teach them the whole dynamic around gun violence and school shootings in the U.S.”
The parent said the schools should teach about the role guns play in our society, both good and bad. He was opposed to any child being taught how to use a rifle without parents being notified and the child being able to opt out of the training.
“If your child goes to Eureka Springs schools, you need to know he or she will be subjected to firearms,” he said. “Guns can be a trigger mechanism for some people. Some people might want to keep their kids away from guns because they have a fascination with guns.
“I don’t have a problem with an educational institution that might help youths in rural areas get their hunters’ education. If students pass this class, they can participate in youth hunts and hunt with someone who is licensed even if they aren’t yet sixteen. But this is a required curriculum, not an elective.
“I’ve spoken to a dozen of my friends both pro-gun and anti-gun. They agreed that greater awareness is important. I think you should start with textbooks about gun awareness and gun violence, and not start directly with a gun. I think there is a distinct difference.
“Every person I’ve talked to said they would want to know if their child was going to be handling a gun. This is about as common sense as you can get. I think gun awareness, gun history, should be mandatory. But I disagree with a child being taught how to operate a firearm without my awareness or consent. Both my pro and anti-gun friends agreed with me that the decision to access if someone has the intellectual capacity to handle a gun should be made at home.”
The parent said he believes this class should be offered. Guns aren’t going anywhere, and kids need to know about them. His concern is the timing when young people learn about guns, what type of information is being relayed, who is relaying it, and parents’ awareness and consent. He said showing a teen how to operate a firearm without first having discussions about gun violence is putting the cart before the horse.
“I believe it is valuable information and programming, but should be more balanced,” the parent said. “A broader vision would have been good. In the long run this training might save a life, but it is disappointing the way I became aware of this.
“We need more complete programming so people can have this awareness and have these discussions with their children. There has to be somewhere we land between complete normalization of guns and the reverence that they deserve. If we had a chance to give consent, we would have had a family discussion about this instead of it being a surprise. There should be a little bit more thoroughness for something so sensitive for so many people.”
Pruitt said in the future parents will be notified and students will be able to opt out. He said he considers the program a public service. Youths can get a deer hunting license at age 16 but only after completing the hunter safety education program. He said students were shown how to handle and operate the rifle safely.
“Having the training makes students aware of possible danger from hunters in the woods even if the student is not hunting,” Pruitt said. “We have many students who ride bikes, horses, and hike in wooded areas. We want to do everything we can to raise safety awareness and protect our students.”
Pruitt the guns used in the class are inert, non-functional rifles painted orange, with no firing pin or firing capability. A dummy shell is used to show students how to load and unload the rifle. Kids are then allowed to handle the gun while being advised on the correct way to handle the firearm.
Pruitt said the course is part of an eighth-grade class, a 10-hour introduction to the agriculture course. He said otherwise youths who want to hunt would have to take an all-day course on a Saturday.
“Doing it an hour a day is a better service for our kids,” Pruitt said. “It is a little slower pace. It is to teach them how to carry a gun so you don’t hurt yourself or anyone else. We don’t want kids to get involved in an accident when deer season is going on. All these kids are excited about getting to go deer hunting, and how many will get hurt who haven’t had training?
“We do this as a community service to make our kids know about gun safety. Whether you like guns or not, you need some background knowledge. We are not trying to promote or push something on anybody, but we want our kids to have intelligence about it. If kids are going to hunt, we want to offer a course to them to be safe. I would rather take a bashing than not offer this and a kid gets shot or hurt.”
Pruitt said that AG&F puts out a list of hunting accidents and indicates if the person injured was trained in a hunter education course. Most were not.
“One of the most common mistakes is shooting before properly identifying the target,” Pruitt said. “Don’t shoot because you hear leaves crackling. Be aware of your surroundings. In a nutshell, this training is for the safety of the kids and everyone else.
“We can’t please everybody. We have to have thick skin. We won’t make everyone happy. If providing this training helps save someone’s life, I’m okay with it.”