Judging from this report you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s an epidemic of pint-sized Michiganders getting ahold of their elders’ unsecured guns and shooting themselves or their playmates. The words “all too often” and “most times” and “often” and “most recent” and “all over Metro Detroit” and “keeps happening” are bandied about without any statistical citation. I know, I know: every life is precious. And I have nothing but respect for any program teaching gun safety. But Detroit leads the nation in big city homicides: 333 or 48 homicides per 100k in 2013. Surely gangs are where the bankrupt city‘s “gun violence” cop cash should go. Just sayin’ . . .
I love the way that the news spot carefully avoids which bird says “stop, don’t touch, leave, tell an adult.”
At about 2:06, you can VERY briefly see an Eddie Eagle CD on the table.
Heaven forbid the news would ever say that the NRA is doing something positive about REAL gun safety. For the children.
I was about to say the same thing.
Then again many of us have been wanting gun safety and instruction to be part of classroom learning. So I guess we can call this a WIN even if the media won’t give credit to the root of evil NRA.
Given the quality of parenting in Detroit Rock City, instruction by cop seems like a reasonable alternative. The brainless antigun propaganda is there because it’s an MSM report.
“look for some new ideas”
Haha are you serious
There’s nothing new about eddie eagle. Just the fear mongers who think saying the word gun to kids will make them die.
Detroit has a pro-2A police chief. It’s probably the only city in America where cops are using anything from the evil NRA.
Not at all! It may be the only MAJOR city that does it, but there are plenty of cities who’s public officials are majority 2A supporters.
I grew up in Madison MS (suburb of Jackson with about 25k residents) and gun safety was taught in schools. There have been exactly two shootings there in the 31 years I’ve been alive. The first was a robber who grazed a woman’s leg leaving a McDonald’s that he had just been robbed and he barely survived his arrest. The other was a woman who shot her cheating, absuive husband as he came in one night “thinking he was an intruder,” and once the photos of her bloody face made the news, everyone quietly accepted that she actually thought he was an intruder and moved on.
I moved from there to Jackson, a city where crime is rampant (the murder rate was lower in Baghdad than Jackson in 2005) and No Guns Allowed signs are posted on just about every doorway, disarming law-abiding citizens who don’t pay for the enhanced license that allows them to ignore those signs. VERY unfriendly to guns.
Now I live in Gulf Shores, AL and haven’t seen a single one of those signs since I moved here other than on the police station’s front doors. They make it VERY clear that they will arrest, shoot, or both; anyone who walks in with a loaded weapon.
Birmingham loves their guns so much they have done everything they can think of to bring indoor shooting ranges into the city. Thinking that the more the public and police practice shooting, the safer bystanders will be when bad things happen and someone has to defend themselves or someone else. It’s no Detroit or Chicago, but Birmingham is a pretty large city.
I thought Chicago lead the way with about 500 murders, am I mistaken?
Detroit has more murders per 100,000 people. Chicago has more murders.
Detroit also has about… 100,00 people…
the detroit population is about 670K . and we do have issues with kids getting guns and shooting each other accidently.
I don’t like the propaganda added to the safety lesson. But I belive it is a good use of police resources.
Ideally the parents would do it but that just isn’t happening.
You notice the example they used, “A convicted felon left his shotgun…” So, once again, gun control laws don’t work…. and we’re educating kids because the grownups all are bangers, druggies, or ex-cons in this part of town….
They should take it a step further and bring it into the schools.
“They should take it a step further and bring it into the schools.”
YES!
1 – STOP!
2 – Don’t touch it!
3 – Leave the area immediately!
4 – Tell a responsible adult!
Actual, REAL gun safety.
That right there is the number one thing I want on Obama’s desk to sign.
If he won’t sign it, I’d *love* to hear his excuse.
If Congress won’t park that bill on his desk, I want to hear their excuse.
Now, how to accomplish this?
Money should go to catching sh¡ts who shoot non -bangers, no effort should go toward finding the killers of bangers, and spending it on kids (who are inherently worthwhile) also makes sense.
Usually I would toss an pro gun, “They should be putting their money elsewhere,” comment down, but in this case, meh, I think this is money well spent. We do argue for education on firearms safety for children, and I’m pretty sure I have seen that argued on this blog before. This is actually a step in the right direction. I like it, and can’t actually say anything bad.
Aw c’mon RF…it’s “for the children”. I don’t really have a big problem with this. Glad my kids are grown and I don’t live in Detroit.
Better the DPD step in and provide these children with the Gun Safety Instruction their Parents are, apparently, not providing. Kids are bombarded daily with unrealistic images of guns and gun-involved violence on TV, in Movies, in Video Games and on the Internet. They need to be given some real, hard information to counteract all the junk they see and the ignorance it breeds. This would be one instance where I would accept the tired, overused inappropriately, old axiom “if it saves one life.”
Nothing to talk bad about here…..
Same things I taught my kids
BEFORE they were taught to shoot
and handle guns safely…………
Safety is good.
Making monsters of inanimate objects…….
NOT
This is a great idea and will help. I live in Detroit and any thing that can bridge the gap between the citizens and the police is a good look. Also parents should teach their kids to shoot and handle a gun when the kid gets to the appropriate age, knowledge of firearms is a close second to firearm safety.
1. Based on the age of kids seen in the video, I am pretty sure the Officer’s digression about Call of Duty and respawning would sound idiotic to you. I am pretty sure anyone over the age of 7, without mental impairment, understands video game violence is different than getting hurt in the real world.
I do think it important that these safety classes not be so stupidly patronizing. When I was a child and was present safety instructions that presumed I was far dumber than I was, I tended to drown out the rest. I could imagine upon hearing the message that killing is different in human life than video games, just assuming the whole message is aimed at idiots (I was an arrogant child) and therefore not applicable to me, after all I am smarter than the target audience, therefore could handle it safely.
2. Most kids who find a gun do not end up shooting it and killing themselves or another. That is tragic when it happens, but frankly most kids have some understanding that guns can kill and aren’t exactly going to suck on the barrel. The danger may be if the kid presumes it is unloaded and fantasizes about being a gangster/cop/soldier. But we should give kids (at least those above the age of reason) some credit for not being drooling idiots. And in that accord, I wonder if the STOP, etc approach is satisfactory. It treats it like a mysterious object.
But I never had gun safety classes outside of boy scouts.
The Eddie Eagle Curriculum teaches kids:
“If you see a gun: {presumably lying about – my note}
STOP!
Don’t touch!
Leave the Area.
Tell an Adult.”
The NRA should sue Detroit.
The 4 instructions
1) Stop
2) Don’t touch
3) Leave the area
4) Tell and adult
Are EXACTLY the 4 steps in the NRA’s Eddie the Eagle program for children’s gun safety. Hmmm
Also, there is nothing inherently wrong with that message. My 6 year old daughter, who shoots with me, has been drilled on this since she was 3. She knows these 4 steps. And until she is old enough, based on my judgement, she will continue to abide by those rules.
At some point, she’ll reach a level of maturity and proficiency where she should pick up the gun, clear it, and then call an adult. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Don
DPD is using Eddie. It’s just the media weenies that are suppressing that fact.
At about 2:06 in the video, you can see an Eddie Eagle CD on the table. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
It’s just that the reporter would probably not be able to say “NRA” without totally freaking out.
it is now 17 years ago that a 5 year old child of the ‘hood brought his mother’s loaded pistol into our daughter’s kindergarten class, where he had been bussed in (much smaller city, much farther south). Fortunately he bragged about it, another kid reported it to the teacher, the police were called, the gun was confiscated, and the mother arrested (and then doubtless released on her own recognizance). The kids in the video are old enough that they probably could teach the cops a few things about ‘hoodlum guns. The training literally needs to be in kindergarten or even Headstart. Our taxes are paying for Headstart, after all.
So what’s the antigunners’ problem with Beretta 92 anyway?
I’ve always noticed the 92 seems to be the stand-in silhouette icon for “any gun” a lot.
This is a good idea and I’m glad DPD is doing it. Too many parents are completely ignorant about firearms, and naively assume their children will never encounter one. Sadly, many gun owners don’t properly educate their children on gun safety or store their guns in a way that prevents children accessing them. As gun owners, it really is in our interest to promote firearms education and to reduce accidental shootings involving children. I’ve said it before: the progressives have long known that they can use public education to indoctrinate children. It’s time we got our foot in the door and began educating children on our issues and values.
Knowledgeable editor: “Change ‘all too often leading to tragic results’ to ‘while relatively rare, can result in tragedy’.”
PS to TTAG, ever since your recent site shutdown, your site hangs up my browser (Chrome). It has taken me 5-6 minutes to type this short note. I don’t think this is a problem at my end, no other sites cause me issues. Correction, 7-8 minutes.