NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As the new school year unfolds, students across several states will be introduced to crucial safety lessons: how to respond if they come across a firearm.
Arkansas, Tennessee, and Utah have pioneered new legislation mandating public schools to teach gun safety and proper firearm storage to students as young as five. Of these, only Utah’s law provides an option for parents or guardians to exempt their children from participating in these lessons.
While a similar proposal was rejected by the governor in Arizona, lawmakers in at least five other states are considering such initiatives, thrusting schools into the ongoing national debate over gun violence.
In Tennessee, educational activities might include interactive elements like stickers, games, quizzes, or videos that feature lively music and vibrant illustrations of firearms, such as a Lego-style gun and a description of a muzzleloader.
The fact remains that many children in America are frequently exposed to firearms in their environments.
At Memphis’s Berclair Elementary School, a survey of 16 fifth graders revealed that nearly all had encountered a real gun, highlighting the pervasive nature of firearms in children’s lives.
“It just shows you how much a class like this is needed,” said Tammie Chapman, a health and physical education instructor, who has been leading the lessons at this school.
“While there is some controversy around guns, there doesn’t always have to be,” said Emily Buck, director of public relations for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which created a curriculum with the state Department of Education. “I think that having some education and foundational knowledge really can be beneficial in the long run.”
Stop, don’t touch, leave quickly, tell an adult
The lessons are often adapted from hunting safety courses already administered by state hunting and wildlife agencies, but with key differences.
Hunter safety courses typically involve hands-on instruction and explanations of how to safely handle and fire a gun. These classroom lessons, on the other hand, emphasize that children should not touch a firearm.
In Tennessee, the legislation prohibits any use of actual firearms, but in Arkansas, the law allows parents to opt into alternative curriculums, such as an off-campus firearm safety course that could include live guns.
The main takeaway is a series of steps for when a child finds a gun: Stop, don’t touch, leave quickly, tell an adult. This is consistent with instructions created by other organizations, including one from the National Rifle Association that features animated characters, videos and coloring pages.
At Berclair Elementary School, the faculty designed a relay-race game to keep students engaged. In the gym, students took turns running to buckets that had different photos. Students who found a picture of a gun then reported it to one of the adults. They also listened to a catchy jingle emphasizing the steps.
Buck acknowledged that adults might be the ones responsible for creating unsafe situations at home and said children should be prepared if they find guns in unusual spots, like on shelves or under a mattress.
“We hope that maybe students will take some of what they learned back to their house, back to the parents and maybe they’ll encourage their parents to adjust their storage method,” said Buck.
The lessons are supposed to be neutral
Gun legislation is a partisan issue across the U.S., with Democratic-led states enacting more limits on access to guns and efforts to tighten gun laws often failing in Republican-controlled legislatures.
Republicans sponsored and supported the education bills in Arkansas, Tennessee and Utah. The legislation says the curriculum must have neutral viewpoints on any gun-related topics, such as gun ownership in general.
Voices for a Safer Tennessee, a nonpartisan nonprofit created by parents after The Covenant School shooting in Nashville, supported the legislation. The organization supports gun ownership and advocates for policies like expanded background checks.
These lessons may encourage families to start necessary conversations, said Jessica Jaglois, director of communications for the organization.
“It could possibly prevent a firearm tragedy from occurring, because we know that a moment of access can lead to a lifetime of tragedy,” said Jaglois.
In 2022, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that firearms were the leading cause of death among children and teens. Arkansas and Tennessee have rates of firearm deaths among children and teens that exceed the national average, according to an AP analysis. But some Democrats and gun control advocates argue this kind of legislation is the wrong approach to gun violence.
“Using the school day to teach kids about guns won’t stop adults from leaving their firearms unsecured or keeping deadly weapons out of dangerous hands,” said Meg Beauregard, policy counsel fellow at Everytown for Gun Safety, in a statement. “If lawmakers were serious about protecting students, they’d pass laws that hold adults accountable, such as secure storage — not put the burden on kids to keep themselves safe.”
How will schools teach the lessons?
The states gave school districts some discretion on whether to use provided lesson plans or go with other instructions that adhere to the laws’ language. The schools also can decide which faculty or staff will lead the lessons, or in some instances bring in police officers to talk about gun safety.
In Arkansas, schools might choose to incorporate the lessons as a part of annual safety training, such as when they are practicing fire safety or tornado drills, said Spencer Griffith, a deputy director with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
“We hope they will interject this in a way that kind of helps to maybe prevent some of these accidents from occurring, but not in a way that puts a political focus or fear around that, because it’s just not the place for that,” said Griffith.
Berclair Principal Clint Davis said the issue of children getting hurt in firearm accidents is not new, even if this curriculum is.
“It’s not something that’s necessarily just become a modern issue. It’s always been there,” said Davis. “And I think we’re just now really responding to the need to provide that sort of training in school.”
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Sainz reported from Memphis. Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville and Associated Press data journalist Kasturi Pananjady in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
