CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTW/CNN) – A North Carolina man is heading a training program to teach kids how to use a gun, and it has a lot of parents talking.
The children, as young as six years old, spend four hours both in the classroom and on the range, starting with a nerf gun and working up to a real handgun.
Michael Pegram, who teaches the program, says it’s all about safety. But some parents are alarmed by the ages of the children.
“My daughter’s turning five, so I think of her as like a 6-year-old shooting a gun. It seems kind of crazy,” says Bryan Moore.
Pegram says there are extreme opinions on either side. “People are extremely against it or they’re extremely for it,” Pegram says. He didn’t think there would be any opposition to what he was doing and was surprised by the negative comments on social media.
“It’s the parent’s choice of what their kids should be around. I’m just offering a class to let them learn to be safe if they’re going to be around them.”
One student, Aiden, says he’s learned about safety. “If you see a gun, tell your parents and never, never point a gun at people,” Aiden said. And that’s what Pegram says it’s all about – taking away the unknown for kids.
“They don’t have the knowledge to be safe when they do come across guns,” Pegram says.
