Aiming for safety:
Eddie Eagle helps constable keep kids safe around firearms with memorable tips
DeSoto County constable Bobby Holloway gives kids guidance about what to do if they find a gun — with help from Eddie Eagle, NRA mascot.
“What does he look like?” DeSoto County Constable Bobby Holloway asked 5-year-old Jayden Myles.
“A duck!” proclaimed the incoming kindergartner at Southaven Elementary School.
“No,” Holloway gently corrected. “He’s a bald eagle.”
But the lawman had the child’s attention, and that of his older sister, Breonna Yates, who’ll be a sixth-grader this fall at Southaven Middle School. And that’s what matters for Holloway.
He portrays Eddie Eagle, the gun accident-prevention mascot of the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program of the National Rifle Association, who’s spreading his wings and the message of safety to kids across the county.
“Grown-ups shouldn’t have guns in the house where little children are running around and can find them,” said Breonna. If a gun is found, she said, “they’ll think it’s a toy and play with it.”
The youngsters got keepsake coins from Holloway with Eddie Eagle’s fourpoint message to youths on encountering a firearm while unsupervised: “Stop! Don’t Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult.” The tips are timely. On June 9, a 4-year-old boy in the Raleigh area of Memphis shot and killed himself with a gun he found in the bedroom of his home; several other children were watching television in the living room.
Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich said such cases can lead to charges of criminally negligent homicide against parents and guardians.
Outside the M.R. Davis Public Library in Southaven, Holloway was inspecting the costume components, including the fan-cooled, battery-operated headpiece.
Nearby is the Southaven Police headquarters at 8691 Northwest Drive, where Eddie Eagle will appear July 8-10, beginning at 9 a.m., at the annual Safety City program, said his wife, Sgt. Donna Holloway, a school resource officer for the department.
It’ll be the constable’s third year as Eddie Eagle at the event, aimed at children ages 4 to 11.
She said Eddie Eagle and her husband are a good fit: “They’re both strong, silent types.”
Since 1988, says the NRA, the Eddie Eagle program has reached more than 28 million children in all 50 states.
Bobby Holloway, 48, a Eudora resident elected to his state-constituted post in 2011 and facing no opponents for re-election this year, got the idea to fill Eddie Eagle’s size 20-something shoes from a packet he received at a firearms instructors class in 2013.
Constables serve civil summonses and arrest warrants from county courts and appear in Justice Court as bailiffs.
“I just have a heart for kids,” said Holloway.
“The innocent, open mind of a child is one of the most important things on earth. The earlier you can reach it, the better and easier a child can grasp your message and keep it.”
Holloway found there were only two official Eddie Eagles in Mississippi, one on the Gulf Coast and the other in Marshall County, just east of DeSoto.
For more than two years, Holloway has been borrowing Marshall County’s Eddie Eagle outfit.
His first foray, at the 2013 Safety City in Southaven, brought a testimonial: “A woman wrote a letter to Police Chief Tom Long, saying her two grandchildren found a gun and they did the right thing; they told an adult.”
But the suit now is looking worn, said Holloway. So late this spring he went to county grants administrator Melissa Zizmann about DeSoto obtaining a fresh costume for community outreach programs.
“We looked into it and found we could get one through the NRA Foundation,” said Zizmann.
An application was made, and approved last month. The suits cost about $2,800. For Holloway, there’s no price tag on the safety implications.
“I feel the Lord has called me to serve, and if the Eddie Eagle message can save a life here in DeSoto County, that’s a blessing beyond measure.”