While gun control advocates claim their preferred policies work, I'm skeptical, to say the least. I find the idea ludicrous, actually. Criminals don't follow the law, so why would they follow gun laws?
No, at best, they just use another weapon to kill, which then corresponds to a drop in "gun deaths" that anti-gunners celebrate, all while ignoring the fact that someone is still dead.
When there is a drop in the total homicide rate, there are often numerous other factors involved. In fact, I'm not convinced that gun control has ever saved a life, despite what we've all been told.
But a new law in Utah is going to do far more to make people safer than restrictions on our rights ever could.
A new law requiring gun safety lessons in elementary, middle, and high schools is now in effect. That means for the 2025-2026 school year, public schools in Utah must offer this curriculum.
House Bill 104 was passed during the 2025 legislative session. It requires school districts to provide firearm safety courses to students at least three times between kindergarten and grade six, once in middle school, and once in high school, for a total of at least five times between kindergarten and grade 12.
“One of our standards is making healthy decisions and practicing decision-making skills in safety situations,” said Susan Marshall, secondary health specialist for the Granite School District.
While gun accidents aren't particularly common, despite what you might have heard, every one of them is avoidable. They're not really accidents, in most cases. They're generally someone doing something stupid and something bad happening.
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Yet those incidents do happen, and they happen more than they should.
All too often, the child who finds a gun doesn't know what to do with one, but it looks cool in the movies, so he picks it up and does something idiotic with it. He's a kid. They're not exactly well-versed on what they should do and what they shouldn't do. That's why we don't let them make decisions for themselves until they're much older.
This plan, however, will involve age-appropriate material, teaching them how to handle themselves in such a situation. Not every gun encountered by a kid is a parent's firearm, after all. Sometimes, they encounter them in places where guns have no place being. Over the years, I've seen them recovered on store floors, in dressing rooms, and under shrubs, just to name three examples. It happens, which means you can't even put all of the responsibility on the parents to do the right thing with their guns. Many of them are.
Knowing what not to do will go a long way toward keeping these kids safe. The fact that it will repeat and build on itself as they get older means it's far more likely to stick.
That's going to make a difference. That's going to save lives.
And the best part? It doesn't infringe on anyone's rights.
That past part is likely why some people are going to lose their minds over this, too, though. Then again, they lose their minds over everything else, so what's more more thing?
