A Republican bill that would mandate a National Rifle Association gun safety course for all middle and high school students in Arizona passed out of committee Monday evening.
According to AZMirror, House Bill 2448 requires school districts and charter schools to teach gun safety training to students at least once between grades six to 12. The bill prevents instruction that would teach children how to fire guns or hunt.
The bill’s sponsor Republican Rep. Quang Nguyen told the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee that the bill was designed to require schools to use the NRA’s “Eddie Eagle” gun safety program. The American Academy of Pediatrics considers the program to be ineffective in real-world scenarios and others have criticized the program, saying it “lure” kids towards gun culture.
Asked about experts saying the program is basically useless, Nguyen, who works as a coach for the Arizona Scorpions Junior High-Power Rifle team and is president of the Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association, says he has found the Eddie Eagle program to be effective.
The bill requires that all school students in Arizona take the gun-safety class unless their parents opt them out. However, one Republican on the committee threatened to notify child protective services if any parent decides to opt their child out of the program.
“I can’t think of any parent in their right mind that wouldn’t want this,” Rep. John Kavanagh said. “I would forward the name and address of the parent to child protective services if they opted out of this.”
The bill passed out of committee on a party line vote and now heads to the full House for a vote.
