“Despite broad support for policies requiring that prospective firearm owners receive training before acquiring a firearm, little is known about the scope and content of firearm training in the USA,” injuryprevention.bmj.com reports. They then set out to fill that gap. And the survey said!
61% of firearm owners and 14% of non-owners living with a firearm owner reported having received formal firearm training. The most commonly reported combination of training topics was safe handling, safe storage and preventing accidents.
The proportion of the US firearm owners with formal firearm training has not meaningfully changed since two decades ago. Training programme contents vary widely. Efforts to standardise and evaluate the effectiveness of firearm training are warranted.
Is it me or do these “efforts to standardise” firearms training smack of government infringement?
Because any and all mandatory firearms training is a violation of Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arm without government infringement.
Besides, who cares? OK, sure, the NRA cares. And thousands of independent firearms trainers. I’m pro-training all day. But how much training does the average gun owner really need to defend themselves against an imminent, credible threat of grievous bodily harm or death?
Estimates of annual defensive gun uses vary wildly — from 80,000 to 1.2 million. I’d be surprised if even half of those gun owners could perform what you and I might call “basic” marksmanship.
Again, how important is firearms training, really? Have gun, load gun, aim gun, pull trigger. Done. Yes?