Gun Safety Is Now a Required Subject in 3 States, More Looking To Follow

This school year, for the first time, firearm safety is a mandatory subject by law in public school classrooms across three states. Tennessee, Arkansas, and Utah all enacted laws requiring age-appropriate gun safety education for K-12 students, and all three are in effect right now. Students from kindergarten through twelfth grade in those states are currently receiving instruction on firearms that no generation of American schoolchildren has been required to receive before.

Lawmakers in at least five other states have introduced similar proposals.

How It Started: Tennessee Leads the Way

Tennessee's HB 2882 was signed by Governor Bill Lee on April 23, 2024, making Tennessee the first state in the country to require mandatory firearm safety education in public schools. The law took effect at the start of the current 2025-2026 school year.

The curriculum was developed by the Tennessee Departments of Education and Safety in consultation with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. It is structured by grade level, strictly focused on safety, and explicitly prohibited from including live ammunition, live firearms, or any discussion of gun rights, gun violence, or the Second Amendment. The law requires instruction to be viewpoint neutral on all political topics.

Here is what Tennessee students are actually learning, based on the state's official instructional guidance:

Kindergarten through second grade students learn to identify real firearms versus fake ones, understand basic parts of a gun, and memorize four steps to follow if they find a firearm: Stop. Don't Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult. Lesson materials can include stickers, games, quizzes, and videos with colorful illustrations designed for young children.

To be clear about what this looks like in practice: kindergartners are not handling firearms. No live guns, no ammunition, and no live-fire demonstrations are permitted under the law. The K-2 curriculum teaches a four-step safety response, the same way fire drills teach young children what to do in an emergency. The goal is a simple, repeatable rule that a five-year-old can remember if they find a gun at a friend's house or in a parent's nightstand.

Third through fifth grade expands to firearm identification and proper storage, with the goal of helping students demonstrate what the guidance describes as a mature attitude regarding firearms.

Sixth through twelfth grade covers more detailed identification of firearm types along with safe handling and safe storage practices.

In October 2025, the Associated Press visited Berclair Elementary School in Memphis, where a physical education teacher was already teaching students the basics of what to do if they encounter a firearm. This is not a future program. It is happening now.

Tennessee's law also settled one contested question directly. The state House rejected an amendment that would have allowed parents to opt their children out of the instruction by a vote of 74-16.

Arkansas and Utah Followed

Tennessee was first, but doesn't stand alone. Two more states enacted mandatory firearm safety education laws that also took effect this school year.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders signed H.B. 1117 on March 4, 2025, requiring public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to provide age and grade-appropriate firearm safety instruction beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed H.B. 104 on March 27, 2025. Utah's law took effect July 1, 2025. It requires school districts and charter schools to provide grade-level appropriate instruction, with K-6 students receiving it at least three times per year and middle and high school students at least once. Utah's law differs from Tennessee's in one key way: parents may opt their children out if they choose.

The Duke Center for Firearms Law, which has tracked this legislation closely, describes it as an emerging trend, noting that until recently, states had only succeeded in allowing elective firearm safety programs rather than mandating them.

Who Is Next

The movement is growing. NBC News reported that lawmakers in at least five other states have introduced similar proposals in the current legislative cycle.

Arizona passed a comparable law, but it was vetoed by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.

Georgia's HB 451 would allow public schools to offer hunter safety education courses in grades six through twelve, with the state Board of Education required to develop content standards for instruction in hunting safety.

Kansas introduced HB 2104, which would standardize firearm safety education programs in school districts, with the option to use the NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program for elementary students and additional programs for older grades.

The pattern emerging across these proposals is consistent: focus on practical safety, age-appropriate delivery, and local control over how instruction is implemented.

Why This Makes Sense

The argument against firearm safety education in schools tends to center on the idea that parents should handle this conversation at home or that teaching children about guns normalizes them in a harmful way.

Those arguments miss something important.

Roughly four in ten American adults either own a gun or live with someone who does, according to Pew Research Center data. Children in those households are already in proximity to firearms, whether they receive education about them or not. The question is not whether children will encounter firearms. For tens of millions of American kids, the question is whether they will know what to do when they do.

The Stop, Don't Touch, Leave the Area, Tell an Adult framework being taught in Tennessee kindergartens is not a political statement. It is a safety protocol in the same category as stop, drop, and roll. It exists because young children do not instinctively know how to respond when they find something dangerous. Teaching them a clear, repeatable response to that situation saves lives.

The curriculum is not advocacy. Tennessee's law explicitly prohibits discussing gun rights, gun violence statistics, or the Second Amendment in either direction. It is focused entirely on the practical: what is this object, how is it safely stored, and what do you do if you find one.

This is what responsible gun ownership looks like when it is applied at scale. Teaching the next generation that firearms require respect, careful handling, and proper storage is not an argument for or against anything. It is the baseline expectation the Second Amendment community has always held for itself, extended to every child regardless of whether their household owns a firearm.

A Growing Trend

Three states require it. Classrooms in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Utah are teaching it right now. At least five more states are considering it.

Despite what some may say, teaching children basic firearm safety is not a radical idea. Hunters have been doing it for generations through programs like the NRA's Eddie Eagle and state hunter education courses. What is new is the recognition that this education has a place in public schools, not as a political lesson, not as an endorsement of gun ownership, but as a practical safety measure for children growing up in a country where firearms are part of the landscape.

It is hard to make a serious argument against teaching a kindergartner to stop, not touch, leave the area, and tell an adult. That is not a partisan position. It is just safety.