An Upper Peninsula state representative is supporting efforts to make firearm safety course available is schools.

State Rep. Dave Prestin voted to allow schools to offer firearm safety programs.

“Guns were a part of life in days gone by. Having a gun in every home was part of America,” said Prestin, R-Cedar River. “Parents taught their children about firearms and their role in life. Nowadays, guns are much more of a mystery to kids. For many, their only exposure to firearms comes through video games or movies. It’s created a culture where guns are a mystery that can manifest itself in horrible and tragic accidents.”

House Bill 4285 would create an elective hunter’s safety program to teach firearm basics to students. The program would be developed by the Michigan Department of Education and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Course materials would include proper usage and handling of firearms, safe cleaning and maintenance of firearms, as well as safe hunting practices.

“Expanding these classes to schools will help kids – both urban and rural – understand firearms and the role they play in society today,” Prestin said. “Yes, these classes promote hunting and going outdoors, but they also promote the lost respect for firearms. If more kids could learn the basics, there would be less mystery around guns and their role. These important lessons stick with you; I know they did for me. I’ll never forget what my parents taught me:

“You always treat a gun as though it’s loaded, and you never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot.”

Instruction under the program would need to comply with the requirements of the DNR’s safe firearm handling standards and would have to be taught by a DNR certified hunter-education instructor.

Local school boards would have the option of offering the course as part of their physical education classes or as an optional extracurricular class. Anyone can opt out of the firearm safety instruction without penalty or loss of academic credit.

If the bill is passed by the Senate and signed into law by the governor, hunter’s safety programming in schools could begin this fall.