Gun safety doesn’t only have to be a topic for lawmakers and law enforcement. It’s a subject that, over the last several years, has been integrating its way into classrooms and university halls all over the United States.
Since there have been several gun-related incidents that have grabbed headlines and put safety concerns on everyone’s minds, it’s maybe about time that we started talking about how to prevent problems before they even start.
And guess what? Universities are stepping up to the plate.
While it may sound somewhat surprising, colleges and universities are actually playing a major role in shaping the future of gun safety. And no, they’re not just churning out graduates who have law degrees or who will be going into police training. They’re also diving deep into research, creating tech-driven safety programs, and getting a bit creative with how to make sure that gun owners are both educated and responsible.
All of this is not just about making sure that people know about the four essential rules of gun safety or how to operate a gun—even though that is certainly important. It’s also about understanding the bigger picture of gun safety as a whole.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the most notable ways universities are tackling this issue. From virtual reality—yep, VR—gun training to groundbreaking research and community programs, universities are doing their part to ensure that, as we move forward, gun ownership comes with the responsibility it deserves.
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Tech Savvy Safety: How Virtual Training is Shaping the Future
Long gone are the days when gun safety training largely meant standing in a dusty classroom or firing a few rounds at a target to show you know how to shoot.
Today, universities are utilizing high-tech tools that would’ve sounded like science fiction as little as a decade ago. For example, simulation-based training and virtual reality are both becoming the new norm in firearm education—and honestly, it’s about time.
For example, Virginia Commonwealth University launched an innovative project in 2023 called “A Virtual Reality Brief Violence Intervention: Preventing Gun Violence Among Violently Injured Adults,” which is aimed at reducing gun violence and injury via a hospital-based intervention program. Since patients who have been injured violently are at a much higher risk of sustaining injuries again or even engaging in retaliatory violence, the initiative from VC sought to intervene directly to reach these high-risk individuals with VR technology.
This initiative was funded with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was designed to engage hundreds of violently injured adults with immersive VR experiences that cover topics ranging from gun safety to regulating emotions to strategies for resolving conflict.
Then there’s Johns Hopkins University, which isn’t just known for producing doctors and researchers. They’re now at the forefront of using simulation-based training for gun safety.
In their online course, “Reducing Gun Violence in America: Evidence for Change,” they’re teaching students how to tackle gun violence from every angle, including education on gun safety and discussing policies aimed at reducing gun violence.
If we’re going to train people to handle firearms safely, why not do it with some of the most advanced tech that’s out there?
University Research For Real-World Change
Let’s remember that to affect gun safety, it’s not just about teaching people how to shoot safely or store firearms responsibly. It’s also about policy and about shaping laws that can help prevent gun violence before it even happens. And universities They’re leading the charge in this department.
Take the University of Maryland, for example. They’re not just studying criminology. They’re also studying the real-world effects of gun violence and how education can reduce it. Their research has shown that when gun owners are educated about safe storage and handling, the risks of accidents and misuse drop significantly.
This isn’t just theoretical stuff. These studies are shaping how policymakers approach gun violence prevention, and their findings are being used to push for more comprehensive safety training programs in communities that are at higher risk for gun violence.
Meanwhile, the University of Washington’s Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program (FIPRP) is dedicated to preventing firearm-related harm and improving health through interdisciplinary research. Their work includes examining any disparities in court orders to relinquish firearms in civil domestic violence protection orders, as well as analyzing changes in trends with young adults who carry handguns in the United States.
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Educating the Next Generation of Responsible Gun Owners
One more thing to keep in mind is that universities are not the only educational institutions that are investing a strong effort into gun safety. Other organizations are focusing on educating the next generation of gun owners on firearm safety measures as well.
Take 4-H Shooting Sports, for example. You might remember 4-H from those fun, old-school fairs from your childhood, but the organization has now gone full throttle into firearm safety education. All over the country, they’re offering youth programs that instruct kids on personal responsibility, marksmanship, the importance of respecting firearms, and how to use and store firearms safely.
Sure, it’s one thing to teach a person how to handle a weapon, but it’s something else entirely to teach them about why handling it responsibly is so important. This is precisely where universities and some super cool community-based programs like 4-H are stepping in to make a real difference.
Conclusion
So, what’s the key takeaway here? Long story short, it’s that the future of gun safety revolves around equipping people with the knowledge and the tools they need to handle guns responsibly.
Universities are putting themselves at the forefront of this effort by showing that education and technology can be useful tools in promoting responsible gun ownership.
Image by seligaa on Adobe Stock; Asset ID#: 367317124
And how much are universities getting paid to do this?
Gun safety used to be taught in K-12 when children were still young enough to learn it.
I still remember the kindly older police officer coming into my third grade classroom and pulling a bullet out of the cowboy-style belts police had back then, showing us what it looked like, and telling us to tell a grownup if we ever saw one — and to never throw it into the trash because “trash is still burned sometimes” — this two years after open burning of trash was banned.
We used it as an art room because no one cared how much of a mess we made, but my elementary school had a gun range in the basement. Two decades earlier, when Grades 7 & 8 were in the building, those students learned how to shoot .22 rifles down there. (Prior to Vietnam, it was felt that all boys should know how to shoot a rifle in case there was another war.)
As late as the 1980s, some urban high schools still had a rifle teams — a competitive sport for kids who weren’t good at football or basketball.
“Since patients who have been injured violently are at a much higher risk of sustaining injuries again or even engaging in retaliatory violence, the initiative from VC sought to intervene directly to reach these high-risk individuals with VR technology.”
First and foremost, and almost without exception, these shootings are drug related. And as long as the people are into drugs and the drug culture, the gun violence will be around them. And how many of them were shot by someone who wasn’t supposed to have a gun in the first place — either because of age, immigration status, and/or prior convictions?
Putting those people in jail would sorta reign this in a wee bit, wouldn’t it?
“… examining any disparities in court orders to relinquish firearms in civil domestic violence protection orders…”
There’s a term for that: Gun Grabbing.
Name one other Constitutional right that can be revoked on the basis of a CIVIL judgment.
And 4000 lb motor vehicles can be (and often are) quite lethal in domestic violence situations. As is gasoline and rat poison…