Texas Students Could Soon Learn Real Gun Safety in School

High school students in the state of Texas could elect to take a class on gun safety as early as next school year if a bill under consideration gets signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.

HB 1085 will get its first hearing in the House Committee on Public Education today, and bill author Rep. Pat Curry is hoping that the measure will receive support from both the public and his colleagues. 

“It’s beneficial to have physical education that supports outdoor activities and can teach about guns and gun safety,” Curry said.

The gun safety course would also set a path for hunter safety. 

“For children who want to get into hunting, you are required to get a license once you are 16 years old to complete a hunter safety course in the state of Texas and many states by the way,” Curry said. “That hunter safety course in Texas transfers for the rest of your life.”

Representative Curry says the courses would all depend on the parent’s approval.

Under Curry’s proposal, the state Board of Education, in consultation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, would develop curriculum requirementes for a “lifetime recreation and outdoor pursuits” elective class that includes a hunter education component, which would satisfy a physical education requirement. As Curry says, students and parents would have to opt-in to the class, so any mom or dad who preferred to take an abstinence-based approach to teaching their kids gun safety could still do so. 

Considering the outrageous lessons being taught in mandatory classes in progressive bastions like northern Virginia, Curry’s proposal is a breath of fresh air, and one that should find favor among all but the most ardent anti-gun lawmakers in Austin. 

It’s too late for this session, but there’s another way to introduce high school students to genuine gun safety that legislators in the Lone Star State should back as well: adding trap shooting to the list of sports governed by the University Interscholastic League. Currently, about 30 school districts across Texas participate in the Texas State High School Clay Target League, the state affiliate of the USA Clay Target League. The sport isn’t sanctioned or recognized as an accredited athletic activity by the UIL which is run under the auspices of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. If the University Interscholastic League won’t agree to adding trap shooting to the list of sports that it oversees, maybe the legislature should get involved and bring the governance of all high school athletics under a non-partisan organization that won’t let anti-gun bias stand in the way of bringing one of the fastest-growing high school sports to schools across the state. 

Curry’s current bill is a great step towards teaching high schoolers genuine gun safety, but those same lessons can be taught on the range in a safe and fun setting, and there’s no reason why these students shouldn’t have multiple options to learn how to be safe and responsible with a firearm under the supervision of vetted and trained adults.