MountainWitch ⛤:flag_bisexual:<p>My granddaughter started kindergarten this fall. The first week they had an info session and drill on what to do if a *bear* gets into the school. How to hide, how to be quiet, how to look after each other, how to stay safe. Obviously this was coded for a shooter so that 4 and 5 year olds could understand it and not be terrified by an unknown danger. I am in Canada. You can't even imagine how much this pisses me off. <br>In rural Canada, most households have guns for hunting and livestock protection, at least almost everyone that I know. We have gun ranges and gun clubs, gun camps and classes. When my youngest was 14, she attended a week long firearms camp for teens 13 to 19. I was there the whole time because I helped a filmmaker film the whole week. I participated in shooting skeet, black powder, 300's, and 22's. We also learned basics of archery, survival shelter and fire building. Each day consisted of classroom in the morning, field work in the afternoon. The kids really learned a ton of safety and survival skills from a variety of older people with hunting, farming, and survival skills. One instructor was an author and pilot that had survived a small plane crash in the wilderness in winter for weeks and his skills in doing so. The kids that passed the written test and demonstrated they understood safety and function with firearms got their acquisition and possession license. The division was aprox. 50/50 girls to boys. This is an important and significant point. <br>The marked difference between our 2 countries with regard to firearms is the culture. The kids were never ever taught that you need a gun to protect yourself from "a bad guy". There was no swaggering around with pistols. There were no photo-ops posing with guns. There was no toxic masculinity. There was no "othering" of people into good and bad. There was no teaching the kids that "someone is going to come for you so you better be ready". The kids were taught self reliance, hard core skills, and how knowledge is what will keep you safe. They were taught that the guns were another tool in the toolbox to be used properly and respected. <br>There are many more nuances to this whole topic, it would take novel length posts to cover them. But the discourse I see all over the interwebs right now just never seems to get to this point. </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SelfReliance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SelfReliance</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SelfSuffiency" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SelfSuffiency</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Homesteading" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Homesteading</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Firearms" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Firearms</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GunCulture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GunCulture</span></a></p>