{"id":1247,"date":"2011-03-10T12:21:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T17:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2014-04-07T07:16:34","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T12:16:34","slug":"students-and-faculty-convey-their-concern-for-gun-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/?p=1247","title":{"rendered":"Students and Faculty Convey Their Concern for Gun Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Freshman Riley Cartwright knows all about how to be safe when using a gun. Photo by: Ashley Combs<\/p><\/div>\n

By Ashley Combs<\/em><\/p>\n

At Plymouth High School there are some students and faculty members who hunt and own guns. \u00a0At any age, owning and shooting a gun is not something to be taken lightly.\u00a0\u00a0Hunting can be an enjoyable sport, but being responsible and safe\u00a0is a priority\u00a0of all who own a gun. <\/p>\n

Part of being responsible is taking the time to learn gun safety. \u00a0Freshman Marcus Gunderson and sophomore Dan Samuelson both state, \u201cI took a hunter\u2019s education course to learn gun safety.\u201d While some gun users take classes to learn gun safety, others such as sophomore Doug Andrews and Mr. Mike <\/span>Kershner, who teaches health and physical education, learned gun safety from family members.<\/p>\n

To own a gun there are few rules that have to be followed, but to shoot a gun there are many requirements.\u00a0\u00a0Freshman Riley Cartwright explains, \u201cYou do not have to take a class to own or shoot a gun, but you have to take a class to be able to shoot an animal.\u201d \u00a0Sophomore Trenton Pletcher says, \u201cThere are several rules set by the DNR [Department of Natural Resources], and there are also limits on the number of animals you can kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though there are few rules on being able to own a gun, the criteria for when and how to shoot effectively and safely is strict.\u00a0 Andrews\u00a0says, “Make sure that\u00a0your gun is not loaded until you want to shoot it and don\u2019t point it at anyone or anything unless you want to shoot. Also, make sure that the safety is always on and for your first time shooting, make sure that you are with someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

While having the safety on is a good feature for protection, sophomore Gabe Vervynckt explains, \u201cThe safety is a mechanical device and it can fail, so don\u2019t rely on it.\u201d \u00a0He also suggests that people who own and use guns clean them regularly to prevent misfires and keep fingers outside of the trigger guard unless aiming at a target. \u00a0Mr. Kershner says that he treats every gun as if it were loaded. He also wears orange to stand out during hunting seasons and wears ear and eye protection.<\/p>\n

Shooting can be a pleasurable sport for those who enjoy it, but knowing how to be safe needs to be first on the minds of those who use a gun.\u00a0 As Pletcher says, “you can never be too safe.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ashley Combs At Plymouth High School there are some students and faculty members who hunt and own guns. \u00a0At any age, owning and shooting a gun is not something to be taken lightly.\u00a0\u00a0Hunting can be an enjoyable sport, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature","category-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8885,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/8885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/social.plymouth.k12.in.us\/perspective\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}