Moms Demand Action launched a new campaign this year to encourage parents to \u201cBeSmart\u201d about gun safety. The problem? Their \u201cinstructors\u201d don\u2019t appear to know the first thing about safe gun handling.<\/p>\n
BeSmart instructor Marcia Banta spoke to a local chapter of the League of Women Voters in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley about the need for parents to \u201cmodel responsible behavior\u201d to their children. In the process, as reported by The Lewiston Tribune<\/a>, she held a training handgun by the muzzle.<\/p>\n Group promotes firearm safety; Moms Demand Action presents information in Lewiston on its campaign that encourages responsible gun ownership. https:\/\/t.co\/3d69JvQx1r<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/MciQkJq8Uc<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 LewistonTribune (@LewistonTribune) December 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cDeliberately, there is nothing in this program that says you shouldn\u2019t have a gun,\u201d Banta told the Tribune. \u201cAs a matter of fact, we are speaking much to people who do own guns. I am confident there is no one in this valley who sells guns that wants those guns to harm children.\u201d<\/p>\n Funded by Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety, BeSmart encourages parents to secure firearms in homes and vehicles, model responsible behavior, ask about unsecured guns in other homes, recognize the risks of teen suicides, and tell peers to be SMART.<\/p>\n BeSmart claims that \u201cnearly\u201d 300 children per year unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else in the United States. They also note that \u201cnearly\u201d 500 commit suicide with a gun.<\/p>\n As evidence for their claims, the group links to another Everytown campaign, #NotAnAccident, that only identified 196 unintentional shootings by children in 2018. In the past four years, the group identified 278 incidents in 2015, 264 in 2016, and 287 in 2018.<\/p>\n But statistics on this issue are famously difficult to verify \u2013 and often misrepresented and exaggerated.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence released an ad stating that 8 \u201ckids\u201d are unintentionally killed or injured by gunshot wounds every day in the United States. A closer look at the statistics<\/a> they cited revealed that the real number of children (age 0-17) is closer to four.<\/p>\n BeSmart\u2019s stat is lower (less than one per day) because they only include children who find their parents\u2019 unsecured firearms. But even this number is likely inflated. One of the incidents they cite, for example, involved a 17-year-old girl who shot herself in the leg<\/a> with a stolen AK-47. The girl was with the 16-year-old boy who had stolen the rifle, and she was trying to fit it down her pant leg.<\/p>\n Another incident cited by BeSmart involved a 16-year-old male who accidentally shot<\/a> a 19-year-old male in a residence hall at the University of Akron, OH. While this is the kind of incident the campaign might point to as justification for its work, it\u2019s difficult to imagine how a parent could have prevented it, and local media doesn\u2019t mention where the 16-year-old acquired the weapon.<\/p>\n Moms Demand Action launched a new campaign this year to encourage parents to \u201cBeSmart\u201d about gun safety. The problem? Their \u201cinstructors\u201d don\u2019t appear to know the first thing about safe gun handling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":101923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,25,593,240],"tags":[132,469,607],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-101911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-current-events","9":"category-jordan-michaels","10":"category-this-week","11":"tag-buzz","12":"tag-gun-control","13":"tag-news"},"yoast_head":"\n\n
Exclusive: New Brady Campaign Ad Uses Misleading, Trumped-Up Stats to Push Safe Storage<\/a><\/h2>\n
***Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica!<\/a>***<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"