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There was a time when kids were taught to respect firearms, not fear them (photos)
(Image: LIFE/TIME)

There was a time when kids were taught to respect firearms, not fear them (photos)

Kids today are reprimanded for carving out a gun-shaped pastry or wearing a tee-shirt from the National Rifle Association. But America hasn't always been so gun-phobic.

Check out these pictures of firearm safety, taught in Indiana schools in 1956...

(Image: Grey Villet--Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

From LIFE's article (emphasis mine):

In 1954 more than 550 U.S. children under 15 were killed in accidents involving the careless handling of firearms, five of them in lake County, Indiana. [In 2010, 606 people were killed by "accidental discharge of firearms," according to the CDC. — Ed.] This situation shocked Indiana Conservation Officer Rod Rankin, who decided to offer a course in gun safety to any interested child in the county. In the past year 2,500 children from 6 years on, with the approval of their parents, have taken him up on it.

Rankin stresses two things: never point as gun at anybody, even in play, and always check immediately to see if the gun is loaded … Rankin is glad to answer routine questions such as “How fast and far does a bullet go?” but tries to discourage ones like “Have you ever shot anyone?” and “If you shoot a man in the head how long does it take him to die?”

Some people think Rankin is starting the kids on firearms too young. But the National Rifle Association points out that four states now permit gun safety courses in grade school and says, “The earlier a kid learns to respect a gun and what not to do with it the better chance natural curiosity won’t get him in trouble.”

By banning gun-shaped Pop-Tarts, are we teaching children to respect a gun's power or are we only feeding their natural curiosity -- curiosity that, without proper education, could be deadly?

(Image: Grey Villet--Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(Image--Grey Villet: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

I think this one might be my favorite -- I spy with my little eye a future gun-control advocate in the back, third from right:

(Image--Grey Villet: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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