Enough Liberal bias, bring back Firearms Education in Schools

It is not the fault of Canadian gun owners, or the lobby groups that advocate for firearms rights in Canada, for the current popularity of gun control in the country; it’s the education system.

Trudeau’s “assault style” rifle ban as well as the newly proposed municipal handguns ban are only going forward with little outrage from the majority of Canadians because of a deep lack of education on firearms and legal ownership.

There is no doubt that the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair’s biggest asset in pushing the Liberals new firearms regulations and bans is public ignorance, not well reasoned arguments.

Legal firearms owners and their lobby groups have good arguments, so when 52% of Canadians living in major cities want a total ban on firearms it is evidence that a fair and balanced discussions on firearms has not been allowed to take place yet.

Both primary and secondary school education in Canada is well known to be saturated in a left-wing bias on several political issues like social justice, environmentalism, economics, and of course also firearms.

I remember when I was in primary school, which was not that long ago, that the only resources ever shown in class regarding firearms and gun control were all blatantly left-wing sources. I myself, as a strong conservative, was significantly more pro-gun control after graduating from high school than I am today. 

Kids in school are not listening to or reading about the honest positions of both sides of the firearms debate; they are watching Michael Moore documentaries and videos produced by Vox, or AJ+ (a Qatari funded media company).

These left-wing sources of information not only politically bias but they often push misinformation about guns, using statistics in a misleading way and fail to actually take on the arguments from the pro-gun ownership sides of the debate.

Whenever one of these media figures or companies pushes false information or a false narrative you can be sure an American or Canadian pro-firearm rights figure like Steven Crowder will counter them, but again the issue is this type of content is unlikely to ever make it into the classroom.

Fear Mongering is the key tactic used by these companies to turn people against firearms, often demonizing the United States, and all this is being shown without the chance for a rebuttal by gun owners in Canadian schools.

Canadian students in primary school, and especially those going into university would have no idea that Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) holders are less than one third as likely to commit a homicide, and probably wouldn’t even know Canadian gun owners go through training and testing before being able to purchase a firearm. 

This is why Canadian gun owners and supportive non-gun owners need to demand a review of curriculum and teaching practices related to firearms and ask that a more balanced approach be used when addressing the issue. 

Tracey Wilson VP of Public Relations for the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights (CCFR) said that the enviroment around firearms education in schools was not always this biased in favour of the pro-gun control lobby and their talking points.

Wilson said:

Only a few decades ago, many high schools had shooting clubs or even ranges in their basements. Firearm safety courses were a normal part of educational growth, providing young people with an appreciation for the awesome responsibility that comes with firearm ownership and handling. Guns have played an integral part in Canadian society since before confederation. 

Wilson added that even outside of school kids are bombarded with media and news that does not perpetuate the image of firearms being used responsibly:

The shift away from this culture of safety means a young person of today may only experience firearms in the context of violence, be it gang crime on the nightly news or the glorification of it in Hollywood movies or video games. The quicker we return to fostering a healthy atmosphere of safe, responsible use, the better our society will be for it.

This is not to say that firearms content must be regulated to only show guns being used in the context of a responsible legal owner, but that the current situation where the majority of kids growing up will never see that side of firearms use is quite troubling. It would be great that along side left-wing gun control media schools also show content made by the CCFR, or other pro-firearms lobby groups and online content creators.

Gun control lobby groups are able to push the idea that the vast majority of Canadians agree with their positions because most Canadians have only heard their positions and arguments.

Kids in Canada need to be taught both sides of the issue in a balanced manner if we are ever going to be able to truly say which side of the debate has won the argument. Currently the argument is not even being allowed to take place with our education systems and media only talking about the anti-gun ownerships views acting as if they have won.