Hey, kids.
The organization that wants guns on college campuses, in public parks and everywhere else — and to prevent local officials from doing anything about it — wants to teach you how to not accidentally shoot yourselves, or your siblings, or anyone else.
On Saturday, Halloween, the National Rifle Association is hosting multiple events throughout the state, including Tampa, aimed at teaching gun safety to children, according to a media release. They'll be working with law enforcement officials, schools and other organizations to show kids how to behave around guns.
“Halloween offers a great opportunity to talk about safety with our children, and the NRA is thrilled that so many communities are using the chance to teach firearm safety,” said Amy Hunter, an NRA spokesperson, in the release. “The ‘Trick or Treat with Eddie Eagle and the Wing Team’ promotion is fun, informative, and it saves lives.”
It's also fitting, given how Halloween is a celebration of the macabre and all.
After all, notes the Washington Post, the NRA has been more or less mum on how its push for guns EVERYWHERE might impact the number of child-related gun deaths in a not-so-good way. The rate of such deaths is an average of 62 per year, according to Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group — nine times the child gun death rate of the rest of the developed world.
So they plan on spreading the message via its Eddie Eagle Gunsafe (R) program, which of course involves cartoon characters like the program's namesake, and a bunch of his fun-loving anthropomorphic bird friends.
The message is simple: Stop, don't touch, run away and tell a grown-up.
Problem solved, because kids always listen to grownups forever and ever.
But we don't think it would be as effective as hanging an image of notorious NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer's icy death stare over their beds.
In its media release, the NRA says it has no ulterior motive in trying to push gun safety among children, which we hope is true.
"The Eddie Eagle program has no agenda other than accident prevention — ensuring that children stay safe should they encounter a gun. The program never mentions the NRA. Nor does it encourage children to buy guns or to become NRA members."
And, hey, if lawmakers keep pushing bills that make guns ubiquitous and the criteria for owning one scant, at least they're sort of acknowledging that guns are, you know, capable of causing death. In other words, guns, in combination with human irresponsibility, kill people.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2015.