A Republican lawmaker and advocate for Second Amendment rights wants all New Hampshire students to learn how dangerous guns can be.
Rep. Terry Roy has proposed legislation that would require one hour of gun safety education annually for public school students beginning in kindergarten. The youngest students would be taught to avoid guns. Older students would learn the dangers of mishandling a gun.
There would be no guns in schools during the lessons, and parents could pull their kids from the class if they objected. Similar bills have recently passed in Arkansas, Tennessee and Utah. Opponents have called Roy’s legislation misguided and dangerous.
Roy said a Tik Tok video inspired the idea of mandatory gun safety lessons. In the video, a man who’d been involved in a shooting posed with a gun in one hand and a handful of cash in the other.
“I said, ‘You know, this is all our kids are getting as far as firearms,’ ” Roy said. “There's no societal or certainly government counter-message to the glorification of firearms (that says), ‘they give you respect, they give you power, you can get money, you can get girls.’ ”
Roy said mandating gun safety training is necessary, as fewer young people are taking hunter safety courses or learning how to use guns safely in Boy Scouts, as he did. And he’s concerned about the impact of violent video games where players survive dozens of gunshots.
He said his proposed safety course could include a trauma surgeon talking to students about treating a gunshot victim.
“The more people look into it and realize I'm not trying to teach a combat class, the more people are saying, ‘You know what? That makes a lot of sense,’” Roy said.
Gabrielle Goldstein disagrees. She told lawmakers last week how scared she was during lock down drills at Portsmouth High School and the trauma of seeing an active shooter at the University of North Carolina her freshman year.
“The root of gun violence in schools isn't a lack of knowledge,” she told lawmakers. “It's the choice to cause harm. In training students in firearm safety won't stop that choice. It won't prevent trauma. It just brings us one step closer to accepting guns as a part of everyday school life, somewhere guns don't belong.”
Advocates from several groups testified against Roy’s legislation, including Moms Demand Action, New Futures, and Gun Sense New Hampshire.
Roy has attached his legislation to a state Senate bill that would change the penalties for repeatedly driving while intoxicated and for refusing to undergo blood testing for alcohol levels during a police stop.
He said the House committee considering the legislation could vote this week whether to recommend the full House pass it.
