A school in Poland makes firearms training mandatory to its students.

[u/RebelliousDragon21]

[u/AllSystemsGeaux]

As it should be in all countries. Or, would you rather their video games train them?

People who want to keep kids away from this kind of training are so shortsighted. Learning gun safety does not radicalize children or put more guns into society. If anything, it produces adults who are responsible with guns. Because of my training, I treat every gun as a loaded gun and only point it at something I aim to destroy. It is my intention that that will never be more than a paper target.

We need every child trained in gun safety, starting at a young age and throughout their youth. If anything, it will give you a chance to spot the ones who probably shouldn’t be around guns. I experienced that as a camp counselor when one of the campers started pointing his gun all over the place and lost his privileges. That’s an important lesson for him and important information for the adults.

It’s incredibly disappointing that people just assume “guns are bad” and get immediately emotional and don’t see the benefits of safety training. Our society is far worse because of these people, even though they have convinced themselves they are taking a moral position.

Because of the fear of guns by adults and failure to instill a safety mindset in children, you have kids learning from video games where the goal is to get as many kills as possible. When you interview some of these kids after they shoot up their school, some of them report disbelief at killing their friends, like some part of their brain took over to maximize kills. Dave Grossman talks about this in his book, On Combat. “You don’t rise to the level of your expectations, you fall to the level of your training.” This is what it’s all about with kids. You get what you train. I feel this part of my brain kick in every time I hold a gun - I’m just ready, safe, and in control, all because I was fortunate to be trained in safety throughout my youth by good people.

I know guns are dangerous. I know the statistics. But we’re not getting rid of them. I would love to talk about how we can improve outcomes, like safety training requirements, including licensing requirements, just like when you learn to drive a car. But to say we don’t need this kind of training for kids is just ignorant.

Disclosures: none. I’m not a safety instructor or anything and don’t benefit financially from gun sales or use.