New Legislation Aims to Put Firearms Education in Wisconsin High Schools
Posted at 12:07 pm on July 13, 2017 by Jenn Jacques
Well, hallelujah, what wonders never cease!
On June 30, 2017, 18 Wisconsin Representatives and 5 State Senators introduced Assembly Bill 427, common sense legislation aimed at putting firearms education into high schools across the Dairy State.
The bill would require the state superintendent of public instruction to work with the Department of Natural Resources, a law enforcement agency, or an organization that specializes in firearms safety to develop a curriculum for a comprehensive firearm education course to be offered as an elective to high school pupils. It would not require any school district to offer the course and would prohibit the presence or use of live ammunition.
Lead author of the bill, Representative Ken Skowronski (R-Waukesha) has been participating in shooting sports since the age or 12 and was inspired to draft the bill after seeing a rise in trap shooting clubs throughout Wisconsin.
“What we’re doing is allowing the high schools to offer an elective as a choice,” Skowronski said. “It can be yearlong, a quarter or a semester. It’s up to the school.”
The legislation drew quick criticism from hoplophobes like State Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Mt. Horeb), who thinks students should learn about gun safety somewhere other than in schools “because it is not the responsibility of the school district.”
“I know Wisconsin is a hunting state, I grew up in a hunting family, but I think it denotes something completely different, especially with handguns, in an urban setting,” Pope said.
Pope then inadvertently made a case to pass the legislation, saying, “I think we are all aware of the proliferation of death and injury because of the accessibility of guns in our society. I don’t see a reason to introduce guns to students in school,” before she concluded, “I think it’s inappropriate.”
If schools were to offer a firearm safety course which would greatly curtail “the proliferation of death and injury” from guns in our society, wouldn’t that be a good thing and an appropriate response to the issue?
Now if only we could get the Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program in every school across the United States, then we’d really be taking a tremendous step toward gun safety in every town of America.
But that, of course, would make entirely too much sense.