Gun-safety speakers scheduled to address a couple of student bodies at Texas elementary schools were abruptly told not to come, shortly after administrators learned they were affiliated with the National Rifle Association.
Peck Elementary and Martin Luther King Jr. Early Childhood Education Center were about to host the NRA’s “Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program,” The Blaze reported. The program teaches kindergartners through third-graders who have found a gun to run and tell an adult. But shortly after a Houston radio station aired a report about the training session, school officials dropped their plans.
They cancelled the program.
A Houston Independent School District spokesman subsequently told the radio station that the program was cut because of Eddie Eagle’s affiliation with the NRA, The Blaze reported. Peck Elementary officials wouldn’t respond to comment — but the cancellation’s timing was curious, given the school’s initial excitement about the program, followed by its speedy back-walk after the radio station’s mention of the NRA affiliation.
At first, the Peck principal said that the school was “elated to have a gun safety program in our school” and that so far, no one had complained, The Blaze reported. “It is very necessary so our children know playing with guns is to be something serious. We have to make sure all of our children are safe, all of our adults are safe, and it starts in elementary school.”
But a day later — and just hours after the radio station mentioned the NRA angle — Peck canceled the program without explanation, The Blaze reported.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Second Amendment & Gun Control
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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