Children can satisfy their curiosity about guns and learn the dos and don’ts at the Royal Hawaiian Shooting Club’s Keiki Gun Safety Class.
The course is intended for children ages 9 to 14. The shooting club decided to offer the class to coincide with the first fall break of the school year — a time that children might be in at home without parental supervision and come across a firearm.
|
SURE AS SHOOTING
Keiki Gun Safety Class:
>> Where: 2201 Kalakaua Ave., Suite 404
>> When: Level 1 class, 9:30 a.m. Oct. 3; Level 2 class (for children with one year’s experience with firearms), 9 a.m. Oct. 10
>> Cost: $20
>> Info: rhshooting.com/en/course or 922-4212. A parent is required to attend the class with the child.
|
"A lot of kids, they know they’re not supposed to be touching a gun, but curiosity drives them closer to the gun," said Aiko Tanaka, manager of the Royal Hawaiian Shooting Club. "Before we send them into the range, we’re going to educate them on what not to do. And if you do find a gun, just walk away and then tell the parents."
The class includes the opportunity to shoot a .22-caliber gun, with parental permission, "just to show them what it can do," Tanaka said. "We hope that experience, not just the lecturing, will help (them) understand why they should not play or toy with the gun."
While a .22-caliber firearm has the least recoil, it does make "a loud noise," Tanaka said, so children will be required to wear protective gear for their ears and eyes.
Gun use in popular culture contributes to children’s fascination with firearms and leads them to believe that they know how to handle a gun without ever having touched one, Tanaka said. "They watch movies, with the superheroes, so even people who never touched a gun … they know where the trigger is. And when they hold the gun, they put their finger on the trigger, and that’s the scary thing."
The shooting club was prompted to offer the courses after members saw a hidden-camera video showing kids getting instruction on gun safety. "As soon as the adult left the classroom, and when they find the gun, they knew they were not supposed to, but they kept getting closer and closer and ended up touching the gun," she said. "And those few who did not touch the gun, they were the ones who had firearms experience."
Parents are required to attend with the child, and they also get instruction on safe storage of a firearm. "Hiding the gun in the closet, or in the garage, or in a box in a nightstand is not a very good way to store a gun, because the kid will find it," Tanaka said.
Even experienced gun owners can make mistakes with gun storage, she said, adding that a member of the gun club once visited a home where a gun was kept in a combination lock box, which is recommended, but the parent had told the child the combination, which is not preferred.
Tanaka said it is also beneficial to have children learn gun safety with a licensed instructor rather than from a parent. The club has had these sessions before, and parents have said that "kids listen to an instructor better than their parents."
The sessions last about two hours, and instructors are available to answer children’s questions.
The club also has a Level 2 gun safety course for children up to age 18 who have at least a year’s experience with firearms.
