Today’s lesson, children ...how to fire a gun
FOR children, the highlight of school trips to meet the police is usually getting the chance to sit in a panda car and turn on the siren and blue flashing lights.
But for this class of seven and eight- year- olds, posing with machine guns on a mock police firing range proved the most memorable – not to mention controversial – part of their school trip.
The laughing Year Three children were pictured lined up at the range, their replica pistols and machine guns aimed at drawings of ‘terrorist’ targets on boards yards away.
But the decision to hand children toy guns for ‘target practice’ at the West Midlands Police firearms training centre has divided opinion among parents and social media users. The youngsters from Kings Norton Primary School in Birmingham were invited to the training centre in the city last week after writing to the force to thank officers for keeping them safe.
The letters followed a class discussion about recent terror attacks in Manchester and London and the role of the emergency services.
One father, who only wanted to give his first name, David, said: ‘The police even put out a press release entitled “Ready, aim... smile!”
‘Well that sends out the wrong message in my book. It glamorises guns and makes shooting terrorists nothing more than a game.’ But Claire Milliner, whose eight-yearold son went on the trip, wrote on the force’s Facebook page: ‘Kings Norton Primary do a wide variety of “life skills” on top of academic learning. The trip was not about firing guns. The kids had all sorts of other experiences and it certainly didn’t glamorise guns.’
Sergeant Mike Dunbar said: ‘For children to be scared of seeing police, or see them as an intimidating authority figure, is the last thing we want.
‘You can see from the photos and from the looks on the kids’ faces that they all had a wonderful time. They were our VIPs for the day and it was a pleasure to host them.’