MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In a response to recent gun violence that has plagued the Frayser community, a pastor is hosting a gun safety class for kids as young as six-years-old.
The pastor says he’s taking preventative measures to keep our kids safe, as LeBonheur Children’s Hospital sets a record for children shot last month. He says he hope this will keep kids safe.
“If they’re going to have their hands or be anywhere near it, they need to know some fundamental rules about being safe around a firearm,” Pastor Ricky Floyd said. “It’s just really frustrating to keep trying to prevent something that just keeps happening.”
Last year, Lebonheur Children’s Hospital set a record for the number of children shot. They’re even more concerned with how things are going this year.
The hospital reports 20 kids were shot last month, which is a single month hospital record.
“About half of our gunshot wounds are accidental. I think sometimes we think a lot of our problems we are dealing with are all related to community violence and a lot of them are not related to community violence but just unsafe storage,” said Dr. Regan Williams, a Trauma Medical Director.
That is why Pastor Ricky Floyd reached out to a gun instructor to teach children in his mentor group about gun safety.
“You don’t have to teach a child how to use a firearm in order to teach them how to be safe with it,” said Jonathan Cross, of Dauntless Tactical Training.
Cross says he’s been teaching gun safety classes for years now. He says one of the biggest mistakes children and adults make is thinking a gun isn’t loaded.
“Most of the time children think the firearm is unloaded, adults think they’ve unloaded the firearm and they’re breaking the first rule of firearm safety which is treat every gun as if it’s loaded,” Cross said.
Cross says being a responsible gun owner is the difference between life or death and the consequences are far reaching.
The class starts Monday night at 7:00 at the Pursuit of God Transformation Center in Frayser.
