North Carolina class teaches kids as young as 6 to use guns
“There was no other class like this,” said Michael Pegram, firearm trainer. “So, I decided to come up with it.”
Aiden, 9, is a graduate of one of Pegram’s gun safety classes near Mint Hill, North Carolina.
The children spend four hours both in classroom time and shooting.
They start with a Nerf gun and work up to a .22 or a 9 mm.
“It’s the parent’s choice of what their kids should be around,” Pegram said. “I’m just offering a class to let them learn to be safe if they’re going to be around them.”
Some students start as young as 6-years-old.
“A lot of times they’re not shooting 9 mm, but once in a blue moon if they know what they’re doing and I know they can do it, we have done that,” Pegram said.
Pegram has had some social media feedback and he said there’s extremes on either side.
“People are extremely against it or they’re extremely for it,” he said.
Aiden said he’s learned about safety.
“If you see a gun, tell your parents and never, never point a gun at people,” he said.
Which for Pegram, is what it’s all about, taking the unknown away from kids.
“They don’t have the knowledge to be safe when they do come across guns,” Pegram said.
Pegram says he didn’t think there would be any opposition to what he was doing.
He says he was surprised by the negative comments on social media.
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