A community for pro-gun liberals.
I think it's fine. Hunting is a popular sport here and very much needed. They used to give drivers training in school too. That's how I became the world's greatest driver.
This is much preferred over banning "scary looking" rifles and magazines over 10 rounds.
There's states where you can't get a hunting license without hunter's safety classes, which are often offered in school. No reason that a genteel general firearms safety class shouldn't be offered. They're making it opt-out, so I say rock on.
I think that the boilerplate Eddie Eagle kind of stuff is fine and probably a good idea. Teaching how to handle firearms without maiming yourself or others, and impressing the lethal consequences if you do not respect them. I'm quite soured on gun culture but the reality is that guns are ubiquitous in this country and this training would save lives.
But I don't think marksmanship or shooting sports should have any place in modern public schools. Beyond the possibility of a disturbed child enrolling specifically for access to firearms, it just gives paramilitary, Hitler youth vibes.
If you read the article, the classes are for middle schoolers and high schoolers. They're too old for Eddie Eagle stuff. And quite a few at that age are wanting to hunt with their parents.
As one who would favor military and military-like weapons not being widely available (but conversely has a significant interest in how firearms work), I still agree with you.
My ideals, like anarchism are more of a "North Star" (no global anarchic society is likely in my lifetime and ideology should always take backseat to helping people, so doing one's best to in non-ideal circumstances to enable positive change and mitigate harm is mandatory). That is to say, while I don't think military and military-like arms should even exist, that is a pipedream and the reality is that they do exist. So, education on safe handling and the associated risks that they have is important to reduce unintentional harm and give people a better chance against this inflicting intentional harm.
But will the students also be learning about who NOT to shoot? Or will they be trained like the gop has been training them currently, to hate everything not like themselves.