“Two Houston school district principals have cancelled gun-safety presentations for their young students since learning the National Rife Association is involved,” chron.com reports. As Fergie would say, h-h-h-h-h-hold it. Who did the principles think ran the Eddie the Eagle safety program? The Texas Bikini Team? “A spokesman for the Houston Independent School District said the principals of Peck Elementary and the Martin Luther King Early Childhood Center thought the safety lessons were being taught by the Metropolitan Transit Authority police department.” What was that they taught us about “assume”? Anyway, so what? . . .
The principals made a decision they didn’t want to participate in an event that folks could perceive as them taking a position one way or another on the gun control debate or any other debate the NRA is involved in.
Or any other debate? Ouch! On a personal note . . .
I sold my house the other day. My emigration from the Ocean State to the Lone Star State continues apace. I’ve decided to put my daughter into the Austin public school system. I’ve been warned by several members of our Armed Intelligentsia that Texas schools are bastions of liberalism. Yes well . . .
My daughter currently attends the world’s most politically correct educational facility. While I’ve cautioned my daughter to appreciate the values of empathy and sympathy underlying their philosophy, I’ve also taught her to listen to the school’s teaching on diversity, history, global warming, etc. with a grain of salt the size of Guadalupe Peak.
She knows the fallacies of liberalism (I’m always amazed when I hear my values coming out of her mouth). She’s so familiar with the common sense arguments for gun rights that I gladly (gleefully?) let her debate the subject with my liberal friends. My experience affirms what conservatives have long maintained: that education within the family trumps social conditioning. Well, that and genetics.
More to the point, I taught Lola about gun safety (real gun safety, not gun control) at the earliest possible age. And regularly. Hands-on. I see nothing wrong, and everything right, with schools teaching gun safety to back-up parental guidance and provide firearm safety instruction to those who don’t get it at home.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think Eddie the Eagle goes far enough. The NRA should have a second program for older children that talks about what to do if someone around them—friends, family, strangers—has a gun.
Anyway, if Houston school principles are uncomfortable with the NRA, fine. (Truth be told Eddie kinda creeps me out.) Make up your own damn gun safety program. Hell preach gun control at the same time for all I care. (I’d love to be at that PTA meeting.) Just don’t forget that teaching how to safely handle firearms is a lot more important survival skill than algebra.