Missouri State Football Player’s Death Evidence We Need Gun Safety Training in Schools

One thing many gun control proponents push for are permit-to-purchase laws, often with some kind of training requirement attached. One of the biggest issues with debating against this is that it’s impossible to say that gun training is inherently bad. There are, of course, arguments against requiring training, but training itself can’t be undermined.

This creates issues in trying to convince those in the middle to oppose it. Maybe not insurmountable ones, but it’s a challenge we don’t need.

But I do think everyone should have training before they buy a gun. In fact, I think everyone should have at least some gun safety training in general, just in case they end up encountering a gun in the wild or something.

To say nothing of someone buying a gun.

In fact, a recent tragedy seems to highlight this for me.

Missouri State safety Todric McGee died early Saturday from what authorities say was a possible accidental and self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 21.

Cris Swaters, spokesperson for the Springfield Police Department, said officers responding to a request for a wellness check found McGee at his home Friday morning.

The university reported news of his death Saturday, saying that he had died early Saturday from injuries he sustained at home Friday.

“On behalf of the university and our entire department, we want to express our condolences to Todric’s family, friends and teammates,” said Missouri State Director of Athletics Patrick Ransdell in the statement. “This tragedy has shaken our football program to the core, and we want them to know we are here to support them in every way possible at this extremely difficult time.”

I’m sure a lot of people are shaken by this.

Note that the authorities believe it’s possible this was an accidentally self-inflicted gunshot wound. He didn’t commit suicide. He seems to have just killed himself by mishandling the gun.

Missouri, of course, doesn’t have a permit-to-purchase law on the books and doesn’t require any kind of mandatory training. However, it’s also likely he never got any real training on how to handle a gun, either. I don’t know his upbringing, of course, but in this day and age, most people who don’t spend part of their childhoods on hunting land haven’t really been taught how to handle a gun safely.

But where they go with their lives is up to them. Some people are going to buy firearms for a variety of reasons. This is their right.

So if we’re going to have public education, why not include basic firearm safety as part of the curriculum? Give people the tools to make wise decisions with guns regardless of whether they buy them are encounter them in some other way. Give people the tools they need not just to handle them properly themselves, but to identify improper handling by others so they know good and well that they should extricate themselves from that situation before someone gets hurt.

Firearm education is something that should be universally accepted in this country. Both sides of the debate should, in theory, support this kind of training in our schools.

The fact that one side doesn’t is pretty telling in my book, but this senseless tragedy highlights how important it is just the same.