KEY POINTS
  • Legislative bill in front of the House Education Committee proposes mandatory firearm safety instruction in Utah's public schools.
  • Parents would have the choice to keep their kids from participating in the firearm safety classes.
  • The bill is currently on hold in committee for further discussion.

Jeff Jarrett lost his 17-year-old son Harley a decade ago to a gunshot accident.

The Cottonwood Heights youth was killed when a friend accidentally shot him while reportedly joking around with a handgun that he thought was not loaded.

Had the teens been exposed to proper firearm safety education, “My son,” said Jarrett, “might still be here.”

Jarrett shared the tragic memory of losing his child to a firearm accident on Thursday during the public comment period at a Legislative House Education Committee meeting.

The committee gathered to discuss a proposed law that would require Utah’s public schools to provide firearm safety instruction to students.

Sponsored by Rep. Rex Shipp, R-Cedar City, HB104 mandates that gun safety be regularly taught to K-12 students.

The instruction sessions would be brief and age-appropriate — and parents or guardians would have the choice to have their child opt out.

Presenting his bill to the education committee, Shipp noted that there is already a statute in place allowing firearms safety to be taught in Utah classrooms, but it’s optional for schools.

“This would make it required in schools for K-through-12,” he said.

In recent years, added Shipp, accidental firearms tragedies like the one that claimed Harley Jarrett’s life have continued.

The lawmaker said he grew up on a central Utah ranch where hunting and shooting was part of everyday life. “I learned from a very young age how to safely handle a firearm … but that’s certainly not the case anymore.”

Many Utah kids don’t have opportunities to learn how to safely handle firearms and keep themselves and others out of harm’s way, he said. They may not know what to do if they come across a firearm — or if they see someone else playing with a gun.

“So in an effort to protect our children, we feel like this is an important bill,” said Shipp.

State-mandated firearms safety courses

If ratified, HB104 would require Utah elementary schools to present elementary-age students with an annual firearms safety instruction course. Older students would then be presented with an age-appropriate safety course once during their middle school years and once during high school.

The instruction would emphasize “the best practices and guidelines for the safe handling and storage of firearms to prevent accidents and ensure personal safety,” according to HB104.

Individual schools, according to the bill, could choose to provide the firearms safety instruction as an existing hunter safety course, during PE classes or as part of suicide prevention instruction.

And local schools and districts would likely decide who teaches the firearms safety course. The bill notes that school resource officers would be apt choices.

While schools would be required to provide the firearms safety instruction, student participation would be optional and up to parents or legal guardians.

Clark Aposhian of the Utah Shooting Sports Council spoke in favor of HB104, calling it “important legislation.”

The firearms safety instruction taught at the schools would be neither “pro-gun” or disparaging toward firearms, he said. Instead, it would simply be a brief period of firearms education grounded in safety.

“Education is always better than ignorance — especially when over half of the households in Utah have a firearm in them,” said Aposhian.

Parents teach their children to stay away from snarling dogs, hot stoves and strangers, he noted. But if mothers or fathers did not grow up around guns, they might be uncomfortable talking to their kids about firearms safety.

“Yet kids are being inundated on TV, in movies or on TikTok or Facebook reels with improper handling and improper use and behavior with firearms,” said Aposhian. “So we encourage (passing this bill).”

Shipp said he plans to work with the Utah State School Board to develop age-appropriate curriculums.

Parents voice-in on gun safety instruction

During the public comment section, Diane Livingston agreed that not all parents are confident teaching their children about firearm safety.

“I’m in that category, so I appreciate that schools can take on that role in ways that I’m not able to do so. Again, based on the high degree of danger that firearms pose to minor safety, I think it’s really important that we teach children about firearm handling and storage.

“It deserves priority in our public education system.”

Not everyone Thursday was on board with a state-mandated firearm safety training in Utah schools for children still learning their “ABCs”.

Kevin Korous of Millcreek is the father of a pre-school-age son who will soon be starting kindergarten.

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“Him learning about guns in kindergarten is not something I want him to be learning about at that time…I feel like this bill should be opt-in (rather than opt-out).”

Korous added he would at least like the starting age for the firearm safety instruction to begin later than kindergarten.

For now, the status of HB104 remains at the committee level.

By majority vote, the education committee voted to hold the bill for continued debate and to seek further consensus prior to passing it along to the House floor.

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