I’m going to admit it right now. I’m a Maj Toure fan. I love what he’s doing with his group Black Guns Matter, and not just because the name is a nice play on the name of another famous group that most reading here aren’t fans of. He’s doing some good stuff in America’s cities with regard to the Second Amendment, but he’s branched out from his roots of arming the good people in our inner cities.
That’s not all he’s doing, though. He’s also educating about gun safety.
Guns were allowed in a Philadelphia school this week.
Bright orange replicas used for making holsters were sprinkled throughout the classroom at YESPhilly Accelerated High School last week, with Black Guns Matter founder Maj Toure leading the way.
Toure is a leader in the gun safety movement, and YESPhilly is a nonprofit educational program where youth who’ve dropped out of school can finish their education and discover their talents and dreams.
“I think that they’re living in communities where there is a lot of gun access, without a lot of information, such as how to hold one,” said YESPhilly principal Taylor Frome. “A lot of students need to learn safety, and there would be less gun-related incidents.”
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“I felt as though Black Guns Matter caught my attention and gave me something I wanted to learn about,” said Dymond King, 18. “I needed this information.”
From what started as a license-to-carry drive, Toure’s organization Black Guns Matter is growing like wildfire.
The Justice Week gun workshop took place in between stops on a 13-city, 50-state tour spreading his message.
Obviously, one of the core things taught was for people to keep their booger hooks off the bang switch, which is important. So few people actually understand how to handle a firearm that accidents happen. Far too often, those accidents can lead to tragedy. Toure’s efforts need to be just the beginning, however. This needs to be a part of the standard curriculum of American schools.
Think about it, many schools will teach students how to drive a car–something that kills far more people than guns but is not a constitutionally protected right–but shudder at the mere thought of educating students how to handle a firearm. Let’s ignore the fact that mishandling car keys won’t result in someone’s death, but mishandling a firearm might.
By teaching students what to do if they encounter a firearm, and not just the “tell an adult” thing but also what to do if you do have it in your hands for some reason, the odds of a negligent discharge become greatly reduced. They know what to do and, more importantly, they know what not to do.
It’s not an immunization to gun accidents, but that can’t be laid at Toure’s feet. The human factor is still in play and people who have been professionally trained and supposedly know better still screw up, so there’s no reason to believe that the rest of humanity would be any different. However, there’s an important question that needs to be asked. How many lives did Maj Toure save this week?
The truth is, we’ll never know, but I suspect he saves a few.
That’s why we need formal firearms education in schools. To borrow a phrase from the gun control crowd, “If it saves just one child’s life, it’s worth it.”
In this case, it’s true.
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Black Guns Matter Founder Goes Into Philly School To Teach Gun Safety