Don’t let your kid learn about guns from just any gang, have them learn from one which is well established and has lots of street cred.
Cale Northey went to a Scouts Canada camp to learn about gun safety. He came back with a “licence to kill.”
That’s how his parents view the badge the 11-year-old brought home from a target shooting event in Oshawa last weekend.
The badge features an Agent 007-type figure pointing a gun with a red target over his heart.
“I think it’s terrible,” said Cale’s mother, Jane Northey. “We’ve got kids shooting up everyone these days. What kind of message are we sending them? This badge is a licence to kill sponsored by Scouts Canada.”
The event for Whitby Scouts involved a target-shooting competition using pellet guns and included instruction on safety.
“It was exciting because my mom never lets me use guns,” said Cale, who’s been a Cub for three years. “We learned you have to be really safe with them and not point them anywhere else besides the target, and that they’re very dangerous.”
Northey, a teacher, said she wrestled with the decision to let Cale attend but relented so he could learn “just how dangerous these weapons really are.” She was shocked when she saw the badge.
When she complained to Debra Yeomans, Whitby-area commissioner for Scouts Canada’s White Pine Council, she was told the badge was voted on by leaders who perceived it as something “cool” the youngsters would love.
The national office has asked for the badges to be returned, however, the gun training is still part of the program. The good news is they will have already received some training to go fight America’s wars!
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