Gun culture tends to be more accepted in rural than urban areas in the U.S., but outside of Ohio’s cities, how do kids learn about gun safety?
Among adults who live in rural areas, 46% say they own a gun, compared to 28% who live in suburbs and 19% who live in cities, according to Pew Research Center. Seventy five percent of rural gun owners say they own more than one gun, and 47% say they became gun owners before they turned 18.
At Camp Whitewood, a 4-H camp in Ashtabula County, kids 8 and up participate in a variety of activities – hiking, arts and crafts, swimming, boating and shooting sports, Camp Director Andy Hudak said.
“That might look like we’re just handing kids guns and all week long they’re using them," he said, "but it actually starts off much more simple than that. So on day one, they get a slingshot.”
From there, kids learn range commands and the basics of gun safety, before ever touching a rifle, Hudak said.
“They get to learn how to work on a range, how to listen to range commands, when they can shoot something and what they can shoot at," he said, "so all the kind of basics of gun safety when they do eventually get a rifle in their hand are kind of built into day one with a slingshot.”
A majority of kids in Ohio's 4-H shooting sports program are comfortable around firearms already, Shooting Sports Coordinator Lindsey Van Gundy said.
"We also get parents who say, 'Hey I want to teach my kids the right way to do this,'" she said.
Kids who have less experience around guns may start off hesitant, Van Gundy said.
“Cause a lot of people are simply afraid of guns because they don’t know anything about them," she said.
The experience is positive for kids who don’t grow up around firearms, because they get the opportunity to learn about gun safety firsthand, Hudak said.
"All of those kids now have the knowledge of gun safety in general, right?," he said. "How to load it, how to make sure that it's not loaded when you get it, just general safety around a firearm."
The 4-H program is great for teaching kids firearm safety, but the main goal is positive youth development, Van Gundy said.
"A lot of people are like, 'Well you just go out in the range and shoot guns,'" she said, "and that's really not what it's all about. We're in the business of building really good kids through firearms and gun safety."
