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Targeting Safety: A Parent-Child Firearm Safety Adventure

Online and community courses, training and materials to equip parents to have competent conversations with their children around firearms and safety.
https://www.smart-shooters.com
5×5 Night On the Road In Spanish! Partnered with LAUP in Holland
Voting Closes:

September 16, 2024 11:59 pm

About this idea
Right in Grand Rapids Michigan, there has been 4 incidents this school year of children bringing firearms to school. Rather you're republican, democrat, pro gun or anti gun, we should ALL AGREE that minors being in unsupervised possession of a firearm is unacceptable. Smart Shooters LLC has spent the last few months developing a curriculum to walk parents and children through healthy dialogue about firearm safety. We've developed 2 courses to have educational conversations with children about guns. One course is instructor led and will be offered free to the community, and the other course is built to allow parents to lead the conversation on their own without an instructor. We also have created FREE guides to help parents assess when is the right time to initiate these conversations with children. Our goal is to get ahead of the media outlets that misinform children about guns, and give children safe spaces to learn about guns in an educated an safety oriented way. We also hope to create more safe spaces for children by teaching parents to be educated advocates.
Impact
It will educate children of all ages in a safe welcoming way. We've found that most parents/guardians/caregivers want to have gun conversations with their children, but don't feel equipped to have an honest and educated conversation. Likewise, we've found that children don't always feel okay talking to adults because their answer is often "guns are bad" and that's usually where the conversation stops. We are presenting a solution that is neither pro nor anti gun. We focus solely on education that will teach children what to do if they encounter a gun, remove or clarify incorrect beliefs about firearms, having a personal protection plan and situational awareness, long term consequences for mishandling firearms as well as similar concepts for parents. This doesn't prevent the problem, but it definitely gives parents and children the tools to start conversations and have education around the topic.
What I'll do with $5,000
We will upgrade our website where these materials and online courses will be hosted. Our current website does not have the full capabilities to be the educational resource we are trying to provide. We also plan to work with a developer to make this happen. We also plan to spend on free materials to give to schools, churches and community organizations that will funnel people to our courses as well as give quick example of an emergency response plan. The goal is to push people to our resources but still provide instant value.
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