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发帖数: 11154 | 1 Utah is awash in guns. About 132,000 Utahns hold permits to carry a
concealed weapon, and various studies estimate that more than half of
Utah homeowners keep guns. A Utah Department of Health study two decades
ago said that 1 in 20 Utah households keeps loaded firearms.
Given this reality, the Utah State Board of Education made the right
call when it gave preliminary approval to a new rule clarifying that
schools may provide age-appropriate instruction on firearm safety.
Included would be the proper steps for a student to take if he or she
sees a firearm, or something that looks like a firearm, in school.
Clearly, this training could save the lives of children who discover
loaded firearms in homes or elsewhere.
We have opposed mandatory gun safety training in schools in the past,
partly because the schools have so many other responsibilities. But we
believe that the state board has struck the right balance with this
rule, allowing schools to provide basic safety training if local school
officials, weighing the costs and benefits of the rest of their
responsibilities, determine this is a good idea.
The training that the rule anticipates would be very simple. It would
include things like, “If you see a gun, don’t touch it. Go tell a
teacher or another adult.”
Children also should be taught that it’s not always easy to tell a toy
gun from a real firearm.
Kids are naturally curious, and when they see a gun, the natural thing
to do is to pick it up. Researchers proved that with a controlled study
of groups of boys ages 8 to 12 that was published in the journal
Pediatrics in 2001. The researchers found that 76 percent of the groups
of boys who found a handgun in a room handled it, and someone in 48
percent of the groups pulled the trigger. (The gun had been disabled and
was unloaded.)
So it is not easy to overcome children’s fascination with guns, but that
does not mean that teaching them what to do if they come across one is
fruitless. Some schools already teach kids not to touch guns and to run
and tell an adult if they find one. The new state rule clarifies that
schools may offer this instruction as part of their regular curriculum
and their efforts to prevent violence.
Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, began looking into efforts to provide
gun safety lessons after an Iron County girl died as a result of finding
a gun in a relative’s home.
Given the numbers of guns, and loaded guns, in Utah homes, telling kids
what to do if they come across a firearm should be part of their basic
education. | f****a
发帖数: 4708 | 2 不错，低年纪学告诉大人，高年级就应该学load firearm, check chamber, unload
firearm。 |
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