Children's Firearms Safety Class

[Linda]

I'm an NRA pistol instructor. I've had several parents ask me to instruct a children's introduction to firearms safety class when it gets warm out.

For those of you who are instructors, have you done something like this? What would you include? How long would the class be? Any suggestions would be helpful.

My initial thoughts are: insist 1 parent attend with the child, limit size of class to no more than 5 kids, teach a quick version of Eddie Eagle first, then the NRA safety rules. I have a Ruger 22 pistol. Should I also get a small .22 rifle or just concentrate on pistols?

Please give me as much commentary as you can, so I can develope a quality program that will keep the kids interested.

 

[bill in IN]

I taught both rifle and pistol through 4H. I started with a little history and theory then quite a bit of safety stressing muzzle control.

I would agree on using parents, although I didn't require it there were plenty who were there. Most parents were excellent. Some were dangerous. I would suggest requiring the parents to attend a safety session with the kid before handling firearms.

I would suggest starting them out on pellets. The lead is a problem but hearing protection is too.

Actually, I prefer teaching kids to teaching adults. I had class sizes up to 40 and everything went well.

Have a good time!

 

[TexasRifleman]

If you are using the Eddie Eagle program then I'm not sure why you actually need a firearm.

Are you teaching a shooting class or a Gun Safe class?

If they are young enough to get the Eddie Eagle maybe you should stop there for now.

As a matter of fact, you might not know that :

The program prohibits the use of Eddie Eagle mascots anywhere that guns are present.

I'd rethink my plan.

 

[Linda]

Good point! Scratch the Eddie Eagle. Perhaps I should call the thought process more along the lines of an "introduction to shooting". Of course, always focusing foremost on safety issues.

 

[Nickotym]

Maybe you could do a safety evening first, showing Eddie Eagle and the rules and then do a review of the rules the next time and do some shooting then. That way you could have no guns present when doing Eddie Eagle.

Good luck.

 

[TexasRifleman]

I think I would do that too.

Eddie Eagle is a great program. I'd offer that to a wider audience then at the end offer to take it to the next level for those that are actually interested.

Never turn down a chance to do the Eddie Eagle thing. I've done it a couple times and it's fantastic.

 

[Starter52]

You didn't say how old the "children" would be. For the under-10 crowd you should keep the class at 30-45 minutes. 10-12 yr olds can hand 45 minutes to an hour. The older ones will have lots of questions.

Your idea to require that one parent attends is a good one. You don't want your class to turn into a drop-off and leave babysitting session.

If you're going to have the kids shoot, bill's idea to use air pistols (or airsoft) is excellent. Kids love 'em. Really young kids (under 10) should not handle or even be exposed to real handguns in a classroom setting, IMO. I'd use a less-threatening training gun to teach muzzle control.

And don't talk down to the kids. If your class contains 7-yr-olds and 12-yr-olds, address at a 12-yr-old level.

Good luck.