A new law in Arkansas means students enrolled in the state’s public schools will begin attending a mandatory gun safety course during the 2025-2026 school year.
FOX News reported that House Bill 1117 was signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) last week.
HB 1117 was sponsored by state Rep. Scott Richardson (R-Bentonville), who explained the conversations with neighbors led to the idea of gun safety training for students, “All of our children play together and invade whatever home happens to be the play of the day. And in that process, they may go into a neighbor’s home and discover that unsecured firearm, and how would they react.”
5 News Online noted the curriculum/safety instruction to be used in the course will be developed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC).
AGFC spokesman Trey Reid believes the state’s hunter education program can serve as a loose guide in fashioning the public school course.
Reid said, “We’ve had hunter education in Arkansas for, oh, 45 years, probably now it has been mandatory. It’s mandatory for anybody born after 1968 you have to have it in order to get a hunting license.”
He believes the school safety course will be more basic than hunter education, focusing mainly on safety.
Rep. Richardson similarly focused on basics, “Let’s remove the unknown factor. Let’s make sure we portray it as what it really is, that it is a firearm, that it should not be handled by a child, and make sure that they know how to appropriately respond by going and alerting an adult that that situation exists.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
