Posted on 07/30/2014 7:01:20 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
Minnesota began hunter education in 1955 in response to a growing number of hunting accidents.
"The curriculum ... has greatly contributed to a steady decline both in non-fatal and fatal firearms accidents," the DNR website states.
In an effort to make hunting even safer, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law in 1990 requiring anyone born after Dec. 31, 1979, to have a firearms safety certificate before a hunting license can be issued.
About 4,000 volunteer instructors around the state teach the hunter education course to about 23,000 students annually.
Safe handling of firearms and hunter responsibility are the goals of the course, which consists of 12 hours of classroom time and experience in the field, time spent handling weapons and showing what was learned. The course can be taken in a classroom setting, usually over six weeks, or online.
The online option is relatively new. The DNR began offering it to adults in 2002, to youths in 2010, and the adult online course with "virtual field day" in 2013.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Awfully large hog leg for those little mitts!
Kin John Kerry git him a huntin’ license theah?
I had a good upbringing with guns, starting with spring BB guns, to lever compressed air BB guns, then .22 shorts, .22LR, then a shotgun, and finally pistols, which I remember I didn’t like at first because they were too short and far less accurate. I got over it.
Somewhere in there I developed a fondness for knives and studied karate, which I liked a lot more for the fighting theory than the actual fisticuffs.
But the one itch I could never scratch was archery. Be it longbow, compound bow or crossbow, I felt I missed out on a big part of weapons craft. You shoot a few hundred BBs, and you really learn the BB gun; but you have to shoot a few hundred arrows to get the *zen* of archery.
And recently, with the popularity of the animated movie Brave, and The Hunger Games, there is a window of opportunity for both boys and girls who may be hesitant with guns, to still learn some weapons skills that will eventually carry over to guns.
That’s funny, my experience started with archery and went on to firearms. I can say with full sincerity my experience with archery helped me pick up firearms skills faster when the time came for training. I started as a archery instructor and ended up a fiearms instructor.
CC
I re-read what I wrote and didn’t emphasize enough that I sorely regret not being able to practice archery, which I longed to do as a kid.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.