Civil War re-enactors fire a salute near Fort Sumter in South Carolina to commemorate the first shots of the war on April 12, 2011. Coursework on the history of gun rights may be coming to the state's schools.
If a state legislator has his way, South Carolina students will spend three weeks studying National Rifle Association-approved lessons on the Second Amendment.
The Republican state representative – also upset about a Maryland boy’s 2013 suspension for brandishing a Pop-Tart nibbled to resemble a gun – says students are learning that guns are bad and are not learning about the historical significance of the Second Amendment.
Clemmons introduced the Second Amendment Education Act to alter a mandatory high school course on the Constitution to require a three-week focus on the Second Amendment. Clemmons says he’s heard that schools gloss over the Second Amendment in the course.
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The bill, as introduced, also requires that three-week courses be taught at elementary and middle schools.
“Zero tolerance, I’ve learned since this incident with the dinosaur, has shut down all discussion of the Second Amendment in our schools, ” Clemmons says. “We are raising a generation of students who, when they leave high school, will know nothing about the Second Amendment … and will believe the gun itself is an evil instrument.”
Clemmons describes the hypothetical coursework as an apolitical, scholarly series of lectures on the amendment, with an emphasis on understanding its inclusion in the Constitution alongside an analysis of recent Supreme Court decisions.
But the plan also calls for the NRA having a role in crafting the curriculum – an incendiary prospect for gun control advocates.
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The bill instructs the state’s superintendent of education to “adopt a curriculum developed or recommended by the National Rifle Association or its successor organization” within 30 days of becoming law.
Mick Zais, the outgoing state superintendent, who successor would oversee implementation of the legislation, says he supports expanding education about gun rights.
“As a veteran who carried a weapon in combat, I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, ” Zais says. “I believe that all students in America should be taught civics and the importance of our constitutional freedoms.”
But not everyone’s convinced the bill will become law.
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Deb Marks, vice president of operations for the conservative education reform group South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, says the Second Amendment is already taught as part of the high school course focused on the Constitution.
“I am not sure that the legislature would pass a bill requiring a particular Second Amendment focus in the course, ” says Marks, who stressed she’s only speaking for herself.
