W. Va. lawmakers, reacting to decline in hunting, want optional gun classes in high schools

For more than a decade, two West Virginia lawmakers have tried to make a gun safety course part of the high school curriculum. Unsuccessful so far, they are making progress with their latest attempt, in which "gun safety" becomes "hunter safety," veteran statehouse reporter Mannix Porterfield writes for The Register- Herald in Beckley.

Sens. Billy Wayne Bailey, D-Wyoming County, and Shirley Love, D-Fayette County, introduced the bill that would compel the states' schools to "offer the optional instruction period" for a "two-week, 10-hour course that dovetails with graduation requirements for physical education classes," Porterfield writes. Bailey said the bill could help address a decline in hunting because young people would be able to gain hunting certification from the state's Department of Natural Resources. Currently, new hunters have to take a three-hour evening class to get that license. No live ammunition would be on school campuses and only teachers will handle disabled guns.

The idea has drawn attention from national and international media, and other states such as Colorado, Montana, Texas and Vermont are considering similar bills. (Read more)