KIDS, CONDOMS, & GUNS | In Maryland, Democrat Gov. Parris Glendening has just vetoed
bipartisan gun safety education legislation. It would have made Maryland the first in the nation
to establish public-school guidelines for gun safety instruction from kindergarten through grade
12.
Some teachers' groups and school administrators argued against top-down, unfunded curriculum
mandates. But the same groups hardly complained when the state legislature passed a
politically correct mandate for HIV-AIDS education in 1988.
Gov. Glendening's objections show just how willing some liberals are to sacrifice children's
safety to absolutist anti-gun ideology. The bill, Glendening said, "would create a clear
appearance of the state encouraging young people to handle weapons and potentially
furthering their interest in a time when we are trying to fight the scourge of gun violence." He
attacked a provision allowing students in grades seven through 12 to participate in hunter-safety
programs at certified shooting ranges, and he blasted another provision allowing local school
boards to work with community or civic groups to develop their safety curricula.
Those parts of the law, he said, raised "the specter of the National Rifle Association (NRA) taking
bus loads of 13-year-old boys and girls off to a firing range for a day of shooting."
And what exactly would be wrong with that? The NRA teaches tens of thousands of children and
teens across the country every year how to handle firearms safely and responsibly...more.......
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