Eddie Eagle
↓ Video Slideshow ↓
The program trains children to avoid causing harm when they encounter firearms, through an easily-remembered litany:
- Stop — to take time to remember the rest of the instructions.
- Don't touch — A firearm that is not touched or acted upon by an outside force is highly unlikely to fire, or endanger a person.
- Leave the area — By leaving the area the child removes himself/herself from temptation, as well as from the danger that another person might pick up the gun and negligently cause it to fire.
- Tell an adult — An adult, if not personally trained in handling firearms, should know enough to seek professional assistance.
The NRA, which also sponsors training for adults in safe gun-handling, developed this program in response to news stories about deaths and injuries of youths by negligent gunfire.
[edit] ABC setup
The ABC News program 20/20 did a hatchet job on Eddie Eagle which was designed to paint the program in the most negative possible light (as is their habit). This feature claimed that it does not work to simply "Tell [very young] kids what to do" and expect them to follow those instructions implicitly.
The producers had a group of schoolchildren (aged 3 to 10 years old) watch the Eddie Eagle video along with a presentation by a police officer on gun safety. While the children all appeared to understand the message that guns are not toys, when the children are left alone with prop guns (and a hidden camera capturing their reactions), they all proceeded to use them as if they were toys.
[edit] Response to the setup
In response, gun rights advocates claimed that the children in the segment may have been encouraged to play with the gun and knowing that they would be on television would act in a manner to get attention.
It is also pointed out that the Eddie Eagle program – like many child-education methods – depends on repeated contact with the message. Materials such as coloring books provide this necessary contact. Likewise, teachers and parents are encouraged to talk with their children about the subject. The children in the segment were exposed a single time to the message, as part of a series of lectures, and not given the follow-up materials or support. Rarely does such a method succeed in teaching young children anything.
NRA spokespersons have numerous accounts of "saves" made by the program in which children who were in live situations where a gun was found lying around did exactly as the program instructed them to.[1]
