By David Codrea
The child wasn’t “taught about guns.” NRA’s Eddie Eagle program teaches children to avoid guns, emphasizing the message that if they come across one, they should:
Stop.
Run away.
Don’t Touch.
Tell a grown-up.
“They’ve just undone seven years of parenting in one hour,” the unidentified-by-request mother sniveleled to Action News. That precondition is understandable. Anyone who can have seven years of parenting derailed by an eight-minute cartoon and a booklet has to be a really crappy parent. As her further revelation of ignorance — the universal precondition for prejudice — reveals:
She said she teaches her 7-year-old that all guns are bad.
The mother then proved herself to be a liar, again unsurprising for an anti-gun alarmist:
She said her son came home with a pamphlet that said otherwise. “’Mommy, you’re wrong. Toy guns are OK. See, guns are OK, mom. See? It says so right here,” the mother said her son told her.
It doesn’t “say so right here.”
Neither Eddie nor any members of his Wing Team are ever shown touching a firearm, and there is no promotion of firearm ownership or use.
But don’t just take their word for it. You can see for yourself.
Here’s the “pamphlet” kids that age receive. And here’s the video they watch.
So we have a prejudiced, lying, cowardly hoplophobe snitch demonstrating that her primary parenting skill of choice is ensuring ignorance. Who wants to bet she’s not a sourpuss Bloomberg MILM in real life?
And she’s not done with the stupid:
The mother also doesn’t like that the gun lesson was designed by the NRA. She called it propaganda.
So the truth of something is determined by who presents it? How very “progressive.” Hey lady, you’re walking toward a cliff! And by the way, I’m an NRA member, so proceed accordingly.
Admittedly, it could be argued the school should have sought parental permission first, as per policy, hardly NRA’s fault. Then again, they indoctrinate kids with all kinds of “progressive” claptrap these days that parents have little or no say in – at least the ones who opt for public schools. But that would lead to a whole ’nother discussion on compulsory education and routine rights violations, and it should be no secret that the agenda is not to produce young adults inclined to “guard with jealous attention the public liberty.”
Back to Eddie Eagle, the gun-haters have been tearing it down since the program was first introduced. They’re disparaging a message they’d embrace if they were consistent, but instead dismiss the cartoon mascot as “Joe Camel with feathers.” That’s because their real agenda is not “gun safety,” as they falsely claim these days.
That field is dominated by NRA; the gun-grabbers don’t even attempt to compete on it. They just adopted that term to mask their original agenda of banning guns so that they can posture their incremental steps toward that goal as “reasonable” and “common sense.”
I introduced my own sons to the original Edie Eagle program when they were little. Candidly, by itself it’s better than nothing, but it’s hardly “enough.” The thing is, no one but eye-closing, ear-plugging, “Lalala!” chanting and tantrum-throwing gun-grabbers would assume anyone thinks otherwise. It’s up to parents to first educate themselves, and then educate their children with development-appropriate (notice I didn’t say “age-appropriate”) training.
My own guys accompanied me to the range from an early age, so they understood what guns do and the importance of safety. They watched me clean my guns, and were able to sit down, talk about what I was doing and why, and even help. They learned the rules, and could demonstrate and discuss them. They learned about and how to use safety equipment to protect eyes and ears. They got BB guns and training when they were interested and ready. Ditto, they got to shoot actual firearms under careful and, when appropriate, assisted supervision. Each step along the way, they proved to me they were ready for the next one through careful observations of safety adherence, maturity levels, motor skills, and attitudes. They knew if they were ever curious, all they needed to do was ask. And all of that was done with an additional goal of anticipating what they’d do if a friend had access to a gun and they saw any rules being broken.
We managed to get them both to adulthood with zero “accidents” and incidents of misplaced trust regarding firearms. It’s something those of us who practice real “common sense gun safety” do all the time.
And we didn’t learn how by sticking our heads in the sand and trying to suppress information.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.