While I very much agree with this legislation and am glad to see the Southern region take steps towards encouraging new generations of responsible gun users, I am curious as to how the Southern region will determine how people would be qualified to safely teach these courses. Would that be something that varies between school districts? Or would standards be outlined by the region for an instructor to meet in order to teach these courses?
The intent of this bill is to avoid overreach by stepping out of the way of local school boards more familiar with local conditions. That would include decisions of which groups to allow on to their property. I imagine they would largely just use any group which complied with the old ccw licensing requirements of their respective States. But there may be some small rural districts where it makes more sense to have volunteers from the sheriff or police department, which might deviate a bit from a state approved concealed carry course. Safe handling classes for kids and teens need not be designed to get them ready to concealed carry; with younger kids its probably best just to teach them not to touch the trigger or point the barrel at people and how to unload a gun or tell if its real. So I think its important for the local school boards to have flexibility in designing their policies without us writing a topdown curriculum to taught from Boones Mill, VA to Miami, Fl.
I mean I can understand the region not writing a top-down curriculum, but wouldn't it be at least good to set a bare minimum set of standards for instructors to meet to ensure that students are being taught safely by someone who isn't going to put their child at risk (much like those who are hired to coach sports)?