Second Amendment in Schools

Many years ago when I was in high school myself, I recall that we had a class in which we were debating education as a preparation for citizenship -- we were probably reading Plato's Republic and riffing off of that, but I can't recall that part for sure. I recall suggesting that one of the duties of citizenship is the responsible keeping and bearing of arms, and therefore that public schools ought to provide instruction. 

The teacher shut that down immediately and refused to proceed, although one of my friends jumped in to ably defend the proposition by analogy to sex education: it might be uncomfortable for some people to think about, but it is a real set of hazards that will come up in a normal American life. If it's reasonable to educate children and youths about sex so they manage it better, why wouldn't it be reasonable to educate them about the firearms that they will soon be able to purchase and carry about themselves? The teacher as I recall granted the quality of the analogy, but refused to allow a discussion of the proposition.

Well, today I read that the University of Wyoming is developing a 2nd Amendment course for high schools in that state. They still won't be teaching the safe and accurate use of firearms, but at least they'll be teaching something about why the right is recognized and its legitimate history. 

The U.S. Department of Education awarded a $908,991 grant to the college this year to develop what university officials have promised would be “historically grounded school curriculum on the Second Amendment.”

The money came from more than $137 million in federal funds that were redirected by President Donald Trump.

The University of Wyoming hosts the nationally known Firearm Research Center, which is one of very few college programs that do not add a leftist “gun-violence” perspective to everything they study and teach.

Instead, the FRC’s mission is to “foster a broad discourse and produce meaningful change in how firearms and the Second Amendment are discussed and understood in America through research, scholarship, legal training, and publicly available resources.”

FRC officials said the funds would create nationwide tools that will allow educators “to better understand the constitutional right to bear arms.”

FRC is a good organization. It gives me some confidence that they are involved.