SB 801 : Oregon Public School First Graders Learn Gun Safety. Gun Purchasers Do Not.

Position: Oppose Status: Failed to be voted out of the Senate Committee on Education

Scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Committee on Education on March 27.

Authorizes public schools to provide firearm safety and accident prevention class to all students in first grade.

Update


February 22, 2019: Referred to Senate Committee On Education with a subsequent referral to Senate Committee On Judiciary February 15, 2019: Introduced by Senator Beyer and Representative Sprenger at the request of Robert Schwartz

Why are Oregon legislators placing the burden on first graders to learn gun safety but not requiring Oregon gun owners to learn gun safety before purchasing a gun?

Why is the burden of gun safety placed on six-year-olds but not on adult gun owners in the form of safe storage, training, and other regulations proven to reduce gun violence?

Why are Oregon legislators submitting concepts that studies show do not reduce gun violence? Children who participate in gun safety programs often ignore what they learned when encountering a real firearm, according to a Rutgers School of Nursing study. [Rutgers University. (2018, May 15). Gun safety programs do not prevent children from handling firearms: Findings suggest that children do not retain safety skills when encountering a firearm in a real-world scenario. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 17, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180515113601.htm]

Public policy must be evidence-based.