More Anti-Firearm Stupidity.

Have you missed the whole Kansas Evolution/Intelligent Design debate? Or parents excluding kids from biology classes because of animal disections?

Of course the curriculum is available for their review. And that is exactly the deal. If you don't like it find somewhere else for your kid to get a HS diploma.

Which is not a new debate. And they can take alternative courses to get the required credits. No biology, take chemistry.

No, the deal is you have some parents compromising their children's necessary education over their "evolved sensibilities".

Guns are bad and I don't want my kids to learn how to be safe around them.
Evolution is bad and I don't want my kids to learn about it.
Condoms are bad and I don't want my child to learn about it.
Cocaine is bad and I don't want my kids to learn about it.

None of that leads to a HS diploma. Which is why they are in HS.

Science classes aren't required to graduate? Health classes aren't required to graduate?

I'm not advocating teaching kids to shoot properly, I'm just saying so long as we're telling schools they have to teach safety issues on things like sex and drugs and CPR, we need to tell them to teach kids how to act around a firearm and how to handle them safely, parents be damned.

When you opt out of something for your child, that implies that you will be teaching them how to deal with that subject. It puts the responsibility on the parent, which, quite frankly, is where it should be anyway, especially in these matters.

So really, you want to take the responsibility away from the parents here, unless they dare to think that they could manage to teach it better according to their philosophies. What if they took the kid out of it because they didn't want him learning how to hunt? What if they took the kid out of it because they had already had him take a safety course so that he wouldn't pick up a handgun and go "Pop pop pow!" and instead wanted his time better spent?

The simple fact is that just because a kid's taken a gun safety course doesn't mean they won't fuck up with a gun. Just means they'll be comfortable handling a firearm. And humans have a tendancy to become more careless with things we are comfortable and familiar with. Hell, even in my hometown, there would be stories of accidents amongst those who had received formal firearm training.

You want a different punishment for the same crime just because they dared disagree with your parenting ideas.

I'm, oddly enough, fine with what I was taught in school. "Guns are dangerous. They can kill people, and they won't come back. If you see one lying around, go tell a teacher, policeman, or parent. Don't touch it." Kids shouldn't feel responsible for engaging the safety and unloading that gun they find. It is an adult tool.

To be fair, I think I've heard of protests on...all of those. Yes, even math ().

I don't agree that it's an adult tool. I took a hunter's safety course whenI was fourteen and went shooting ith some friends afterwards.

If chldren are taught how to handle a firearm in a responsible, most will treat a firearm with respect.