IMPD officers teaching kids gun safety lessons to prevent accidents
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — There have been a number of accidents in recent years in which children came across a gun and then end up injuring themselves or someone else.
Indianapolis is working to keep that from happening again.
IMPD’s community engagement office has a new program for elementary school students to prevent future accidents.
The officers have taken the presentation to about 20 schools at this point.
They show a video and have a question and answer session to teach kids what to do if they come across a gun.
IMPD Officer Vincent Stewart hopes Eddie Eagle can help teach Indy kids a valuable lesson.
“We sing along with the kids and we keep singing along to make sure they remember what we have taught them,” Stewart said.
IMPD came up with the gun safety program last year after learning about the Eddie Eagle video, produced by the NRA.
“Officer Phillips who works out of our East District Community Resource Office presented the idea to me and once we watched the video, we were like this is the best thing since sliced bread ,” he said.
The video teaches kids a few simple steps to take if they ever find a gun.
“If a child comes across a gun, we want them to stop, don’t touch, and run and go tell a grown up,” he said.
That’s what the song lyrics say, lyrics that Stewart hope go home with the kids.
“My hope and my prayer is that they go home, they’re still singing that song, it catches their parents attention, and that the parent and the child can have a meaningful conversation about gun safety because we do realize that there are a lot of guns in a lot of households,” he said.
Parents often wonder when to start talking to their kids about guns.
“Right at the age of kindergarten,” he said, “If you can kind of curtail the curiosity, you’re already ahead of the game.”
His goal is making sure 2017 is a year free from accidents caused by children who find firearms and don’t follow Eddie Eagle’s advice.
If you’d like IMPD to bring the program to your school or group, write to Vincent.Stewart@indy.gov
You can also watch the video here.