Bet These Guys Don't Have Any School Shootings

Juneau middle school principal Tom Milliron is teaching gun safety to sixth-graders.

"In sixth grade, we can get kids to internalize the need to practice safety around firearms," he said. "They're willing to listen to instructors and take to heart what instructors tell them."

As part of their outdoors education, students take the standard state of Alaska hunter safety education course. After safety lessons, they take a "shoot-don't shoot" field course, deciding whether it would have been safe to discharge a weapon at an animal simulated by a silhouette.

They also must demonstrate proficiency in firing a weapon, shooting 20 rounds from .22-caliber rifles at Juneau's indoor firing range.

In Mesa, Arizona, where I grew up all junior high school students had to take swimming instruction because pools and canals are so common. They would never have dreamed of simply telling us to avoid the water; nor did they worry that we would use our increased swimming prowess to drown the less fortunate. I'm glad to see the same approach being taken with guns, and I wish it were so where The Children go to school.