3 minute read
OPINION: MANDATORY FIREARM CLASSES
OPINION: MANDATORY FIREARM SAFETY CLASSES AT NRHS BY DYLAN SAUNDERS
When I was in sixth grade, a young woman drove to North Royalton High School with her dad’s pistol on her rear bumper. Without knowing or meaning to, the high schooler brought a firearm onto campus and put lives in danger. I remember huddling in the NRMS locker rooms, wondering if my brother would live through his honors biology class. Thankfully, the students who spotted the firearm knew what to do, and nobody got hurt that day. However, those events left me with an unsettling mental scenario: what if it wasn’t those students who found the gun?
My family doesn’t own firearms, and we have no interest in them. This hasn’t prevented me from coming across unsecured guns over the course of my life. In many places, especially schools, guns are a taboo subject. No one wants to associate themselves with firearms because they are attached to violence, danger, and death in general. Herein lies the problem: fearing firearms does not prepare one to handle a firearm situation. An uneducated person around a loose firearm is a danger to themselves and others. For this reason, firearm safety should be a graduation requirement for high school.
To be clear, this isn’t a statement piece on the Second Amendment, gun violence, school shootings, or any related issue. This is an argument for a public health and safety program. Guns are a major part of American culture. Experts from the Small Arms Survey estimate that Americans civilians own 393 million firearms, used for recreation, hunting, sporting, and defense. It is highly unlikely that legislators will completely ban firearms in the near future, so finding an unsecured firearm remains a very real possibility for civilians.
The Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services report on unintentional firearm injuries found that males in the 15-24 year-old range were most
Data provided by the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services illustrating fatal firearm accidents by age group from 2012-2014.
prone to unintentional firearm death. This is roughly the age group of most high school and college students. Officer John Karl of the NRPD said that improperly storing a firearm, “followed by uneducated people handling something they don’t know anything about,” typically causes accidents and injury.
“The North Royalton Police Department deals with some type of firearm-related call on a very regular basis. Sometimes daily,” said Officer Karl. Calls range from a person with what looks like a gun, a person with a gun making threats, gunshots heard, or a suicide by gun. Firearms are not uncommon in North Royalton.
Firearms are prevalent in our community and pose a threat to uneducated citizens, particularly teenagers and young adults. High school is meant to prepare students for the real world, whether that be the workforce or college. It should also prepare students to deal with a firearm situation. Officer Karl already leads a firearm safety class within the Lifetime Activities phys-ed class.
“The purpose of the class has always been to raise awareness and educate people. The prevalence of firearms in our society and around the world demands a basic understanding of what they are and how
they work,” said Officer Karl. With every class, he aims to educate students enough so they will not hurt themselves or others by mishandling a firearm.
Not every student takes Lifetime Activities, so Officer Karl’s firearm safety portion of the class should be incorporated into the required health class. After all, firearm safety is a public health and safety issue. Students would have the opportunity to learn the basics about handling guns from a trained professional. Those who have completed hunting classes or other qualifying firearm safety courses would be exempt from this portion of the class. Ideally, students would leave health class with enough knowledge to keep them safe should they encounter a loose firearm. If just one high schooler’s injury, suicide, or accidental death is prevented by these classes, they will have been worth it. In the meantime, Officer Karl shared two very important tips for firearm safety.
First, “treat all firearms as if they are loaded,” he said. No gun should ever be played with or pointed at anything that one isn’t prepared to shoot.
Second, “if you are not familiar with it, don’t touch it and call someone who knows what they are doing.” The North Royalton Police Department is always available to help with any gun-related situations and can be reached on their non-emergency number at (440) 237-8686.
