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FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WSMV) — Franklin Special School District says its reevaluating its gun safety resources after NRA literature was sent home with elementary school students.
For 21 years a counselor at Moore Elementary School has taught a gun safety lesson for K-4 students using the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program. The program teaches children not to touch guns and to get a parent if they find one.
“Just having children watch a cartoon and repeat some things that an adult says to them is not really an effective learning technique,” Safe Tennessee Program policy director Beth Joslin Roth said.
Roth doesn’t believe the Eddie Eagle program is enough.
“We are 100% behind parents having conversations with their children about gun safety and what to do if they encounter a gun, but numerous studies have shown that the Eddie Eagle program is actually not terribly effective at actually preventing children who encounter guns from picking them up and handling them,” Roth said. “None of this is an attack on gun owners, certainly children and guns can coexist in the same home but it is 100% responsibly of the parent to make sure their child can’t access a firearm.”
The NRA media liaison, Amy Hunter sent us this statement:
“The NRA’s top priority for nearly 150 years has been to promote the safe and responsible use of firearms. No other organization in the world does more to educate gun owners on firearm safety. We’re immensely proud of our Eddie Eagle program, which has reached 31 million children since it first launched, and coincided with an 80 percent drop in childhood deaths from firearm-related accidents. Extremist gun control groups are trying to claim that education doesn’t matter? That’s ridiculous. The NRA educates its members to choose the safety precautions that work best for each gun owner and gun-owning family.”
The Director of Schools for Franklin Special Schools, Dr. David Snowden also sent us a statement regarding the NRA program bring used in its school:
“Unfortunately Tennessee is a national leader in accidental child gun deaths. While we do not take a specific stand on gun ownership, we certainly understand that the home is not the only place children might come across an unattended firearm. Just as we try to teach children what to do in the event of other dangers – such as strangers, intruders, cyberbullying, and fire – we completely support our schools teaching students to stop and tell an adult when they come across a gun. At the same time, we also understand that some members of the community distrust the organization that one of our schools used to convey the gun safety message through age appropriate resources. Although none of the messaging that was provided to our students encourages gun ownership, we will look for other resources going forward to convey the message of gun safety. We certainly look forward to the parent presentation on gun safety in December by Moms Demand Action and are happy to provide them a forum to discuss their recommendations. Ultimately, we are all trying to prevent children from having unsupervised access to guns and to educate them in what to do should they happen upon one.”
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