This program should be in every elementary school nationwide.

Children learn ABCs of shooting guns

Michelle Pinkard / The Times
Posted on December 29, 2002

Nearly a dozen children ages 8 to 12 attended a course Saturday morning at the Caddo sheriff's Training Academy to learn the ABCs of shooting.

The First Gun Course is offered this time of year to children who received their first gun for Christmas. The class, which generally lasts several hours, provides basic instructions for children who may never have fired a gun but want to learn how to use one safely. Children are taught about storage, cleaning and shooting. The first part of the course is classroom study. Then children are taken to a shooting range to practice.

The same course will be offered Saturday.

"It's really cool," said L'Anthony Davis, 10, of Shreveport. The fifth-grader learned how to shoot a .22-caliber rifle, a youth model gun cordially called the Cricket. "I learned that all types of guns can kill people and that it's not a toy."

The program started last year but got a boost a couple of months ago when Shreveporter Roy Broughton and Wal-Mart donated roughly $1,000 to purchase guns for the class. Now any child can participate, even if they don't have a gun. However, instructors advise bringing their own guns, including BB and pellet guns or .22-caliber rifles.

"When I was young, my Dad bought me a gun and sat me down for an hour to teach me the dos and don'ts," said Broughton, 68. "So when I heard about this, I just had to do something to help in the message of safety. ... Once you're taught, these lessons really stick with you."

Teaching youths about gun awareness can boost their confidence, he added. "If you want to build a kid's self-esteem, buy them a gun and teach them how to shoot."

Caddo sheriff's Deputy April Wright said the youngsters generally take the lessons taught in order to hunt animals such as squirrels and deer.

"Sometimes people pick up a gun without knowing how to properly use it, and that's why there are so many accidental deaths," Wright said.

Fox News was on hand to videotape the training. The material will be shown on that network at a later date, possibly Monday night, sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick said.

Sheriff's Lt. Kenny Sanders said Saturday's message was about preventing deaths.

"Parents are buying BB guns and similar guns thinking that they are toys when they are, in fact, killing people," he said.

"We can't ban guns, but we can educate people about them. If we prevented a death today, then we were successful," Sanders said. "And at the very least, we have a bunch of kids having fun with their Moms and Dads. With all these smiles, you can see we were very successful."

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/html...3424CBB13.shtml

Well so long as they wear stuff to cover their ears...

I guess though its up to the enviroment that the child was raised in, i learnt how to shoot a rifle when i was 11 and i turned out fine... i've never had any desire to go on a killing spree or anything

i can see that in the long run these children when they grow up will know where to store their guns safely and not in somewhere where a child could get at it.

actually it's about time some of these places got caught up with us backwoods hunter types...we've had "hunters safety since i was in elementry school...a child under eighteen has to pass the season long(spring to summer) session in order to get a hunting liscence...but most of the parents have the kids out shooting way before than...my five year old daughter came home the other day telling me she wanted to go shoot a deer...i'm sure the boys in her class were talking about it...i think this is the way to go with guns also...i can't remember the last time we had an accidental shooting(except a drunk idiot cleaning his gun) and kids are rarely involved...

saying no! never works

So True...

nice adds there, sure beats a drunken hunter in bright camo print orange...

yeah and they carry a good point although im not sure about the israel one... but the others are good.

Hunter Safety Education will greatly reduce such negligent behavior. Thus we need to make these classes available in K-12 schools.

KOL,

You are well aware of the Winter War of 1939-1940 when your country was invaded by the communists.

From what I read, the greatest assets of Finland was that it had so many men that really knew how to shoot. Hunting and shooting seems to be popular in Finland and I think the Reds found out what a mistake it was to invade a nation of riflemen.

Here are a couple of impressive riflemen.

Simo Häyhä. Finland, 1939 - 1940.
A member of the 34th Infantry Regiment and a farmer by trade, Simo Häyhä became a most feared sniper during the 1939-40 (30 November 1939 14 March 1940) Winter invasion of Finland by the Soviet Union. Using nothing more than an iron sighted Mosin-Nagant Model 28, Simo is credited with killing 505 Russians during a nine month period - a feat still unmatched today by any sniper in any conflict. The impact of Simo and men like him forced the Soviets to pay dearly for their transgressions. While Finland lost the Winter war, it cost the Soviets 1,000,000 men killed out of the 1,500,000 man invading force*. The Finns lost a total of 25,000 men in that conflict. A testament to their bravery and determination in the face of amazing odds.

He passed away on April 1st 2002 at the age of 96



Suko Kolkka. Finland, 1939 - 1940.
During 105 days of combat Suko was credited with 400+ enemy kills as a sniper in the Winter War (30 November 1939 14 March 1940). He used an iron sighted Mosin-Nagant rifle. He often took the war to the rear of the Soviet lines, causing much fear and frustration as this area was supposedly safe. In addition to the kills he made as a sniper, Kolkka also was apparently quite fond of the submachine gun as he made an additional 200 kills with it during this same time frame. Hunted often by the Soviets, he outlasted them all, killing the sniper sent to hunt him at 600 yards with a single shot after a running duel of several days. Like Simo Häyhä, Suko Kolkka exhibited the hard determination and skill that kept Finland a sovereign nation even after its inevitable defeat. At the end of the Winter War a Soviet General is said to have quipped, "We gained 22,000 square miles of territory. Just enough to bury our dead".*

*Information gleaned from Rifles of the White Death Doug Bowser. Camellia City Military Publications

i know all about the winter war my great uncle was second in command to Mannaheim and was commander of the lapland sector.

The finns are very good natural soldiers and this is why we are a very proud people as there are none finer in artic warfare than us, we know how to survive in those conditions ebtter than anyone on planet thats why we train most of the worlds elite soldiers to fight in artic battles.

Being trained to use a rifle is part of growing up in finland, in 5 of the six provinces boys are taught hunting when their about 8, they learn trapping and stealth and all the skills neaded to hunt bear and deer, these skills are turned into ruthless killing skills when we go to war

the SKKK boasts nearly all of the worlds finest snipers and few can compare to the best of the best that we have, but the thing is these men are part time soldiers all of them are farmers or woodsmen or whatever it is very rare for you to be a career soldier up here s it is belived that you loose skills by refining yourself and you must constantly adpat to new situation.

Simo Häyhä was also buried with full military honours and his rifle is in display in a museum in helsinki, he was also awarded the order of finland 4 times.

That describes much of traditional, rural America.

The USA is becoming more urban due to overpopulation though. Wildlife habitat is consumed by urban sprawl. There are fewer hunters now that there was 20 years ago.

There is still alot of the traditional America still left, and its those areas that produce the best soldiers.

isnt having sex with sheep also another traditional rural american trait?

funny enough i was listening to sportman's voice (z600am) and they mentioned that (in this area anyhow), there are more woman participating in hunting than ever before...so while the hunters may be on a downswing(because of misguided environmentalists!)the appeal of hunting is growing...here it's actually normal for people to take off work for hunting. When requesting a leave of absence from school, they even have hunting as a choice for reasons, i just wanted to point out that women can be as good as men, in some cases better, and while the concept of hunting may seem to be lowering, it's still a big deal in a few places...my sister became and expert in sharpshooting, even setting a record down at the wyoming boot camp...and she really hadn't shot guns since we were children, no one in her platoon(including men) were able to do that.

i'm a rural american but that's more for cowboys who spend too much time with their livestock...if you can't love your work...

i agree there are some great women shooters, in finland they have the only army in the world that allows women to serve on the front lines with the men, they are regular infantry and whatnot....

But more than likely their put in the SKKK where their trained as snipers, assassains (many a russian general or official has died at the hands of the young blonde secratrey... ) saboteurs and a whole host of other stuff, but they cant serve with the recon teams as they operate for 6 months at a time in 4 man teams and well 3 men 1 woman.... you do the math.

But women are definelty as good as men.

When it comes to teaching people how to shoot, the women are alot easier to teach than the men.

Women will listen and follow directions. Too many men think they already know everything when they know nothing.