The principals at Peck Elementary and Martin Luther King Early Childhood Center were happy to start gun safety programs at their schools, but when they found out the National Rifle Association (NRA) developed the lessons they quickly pulled out.
“The principals made a decision they didn’t want to participate in an event that folks could perceive as them taking a position one way or another on the gun control debate or any other debate the NRA is involved in,” Houston ISD spokesman Jason Spencer said.
It was not until a news reporter asked Peck’s principal Carlotta Brown to attend the presentation that she realized the NRA was behind the lessons, even though she gave a radio interview with an NRA representative and the radio host told her the NRA was involved. In the interview, Brown admitted the lessons are needed.
“We have to make sure that all of our children are safe, our adults are safe and it starts in the elementary school,” Brown told KTRH.
No one in the NRA would be involved with the actual lessons. The Metropolitan Transit Authority’s own police officers would give the presentations. Metro Police Chief Victor Rodriguez knew the NRA made the lessons.
“I am supportive of gun safety and programs that make our community safer by educating our youth,” Rodriguez said.
The NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program is the one of the top programs in the nation. Private donations through Friends of NRA and The NRA Foundation provide the program to poorer schools at little to no cost. One of the main purposes of the NRA is gun safety aimed at children. In fact, they were the only organization who even came out with a plan to promote gun safety in school after Sandy Hook with their NRA School Shield.
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