“Hunting and fishing could soon enter physical education curriculum in high schools throughout the state if a bill is passed in the Assembly,” watertowndailytimes.com reports. That’s a big “if.” The New York state legislature has torpedoed this idea for the last ten years. Though this year’s version made it to the Senate floor, Bill S1625 — “an act to amend the environmental conservation law and the education law, in relation to hunting, fishing and outdoor education in high school physical education courses “– the odds of passage are slim. Because guns.
In years past, according to District Superintendent of St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Thomas R. Burns, more schools in the area offered outdoor educational courses. Clifton-Fine Central School was one of those schools, but their program ended when the teacher of the course retired.
“Our thinking at the time, many years ago, was that many of the homes that our children lived in had guns in them,” Mr. Burns said. “We thought it was really important to provide the opportunity to our kids to teach them hunter and gun safety. It was a positive thing.”
And now, many years hence, gun safety is Voldemort in New York schools. Tempus fugit.
If the bill is passed and signed into law, classes would include teaching students the history of hunting and fishing, how to obtain a hunting or fishing license and what species may be taken with a sporting license. Nowhere in the bill does it state students will participate in any hands-on activities associated with hunting or fishing, such as learning how to use a hunting rifle.
Yes, but nowhere does S1265 state that students won’t participate in any hands-on activities associated with hunting or fishing, such as learning how to use a hunting rifle. In fact, it “authorizes instructions to be given in the safe and proper use of firearms allowed by law to be used in the taking of wild game.” Which is why it’s doomed.