Yearbook Gun Photos Are a 'Great' Idea, Expert Says
Baer Photography Rockstar Seniors/Facebook
Teens and guns. Uttered together, those two words are enough to set anyone on edge considering the more than 87 school shootings in America since the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut two years ago — including a tragedy Friday near Seattle. But for many, teens and guns are quite a common pairing, associated more with recreation than violence.
It’s certainly the case in Broken Bow, Nebraska, where the recent school board policy that seniors are allowed to pose with firearms for yearbook photos made national news. “We’re a rural community,” Superintendent Mark Sievering tells Yahoo Parenting of the 3,500 person community. “Hunting is popular, as is skeet shooting and target shooting. It’s something a number of people take part in. Students have been taking pictures with firearms or bows or whatever for a long time. This policy is just to give us guidance as to what is acceptable and what isn’t. It certainly doesn’t give them the OK to bring guns on school grounds.”
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What the policy states is that students are permitted to submit to the yearbook photos illustrating an interest in hunting, shooting and other outdoor sporting activities. “If a student’s interest artifact is an item that is ordinarily considered a weapon (rifle, shotgun, knife, etc), the student may not be brandishing the weapon or pointing it at the camera,” rules note, adding that “a student’s display of an interest artifact must be tasteful and appropriate…[Not] a photograph of game shot by the student if the animal is in obvious distress.”
Sievering acknowledges that for people not in the 50 percent of homes that the National Rifle Association reports contain guns, the idea of a smiling senior posing with a weapon may be unusual. “I know that with a topic such as this there are strong emotion and opinions all the way around that,” he explains. “But we have a lot of well-rounded kids doing lots of activities at our school, football, basketball, speech, drama, music, and they’re all welcome to pose with their equipment.” (The educator estimates only a few students in their typically 65-member graduating class will even pose with a gun.)
“The only message these pictures will send is that we’re providing the students who have this hobby the opportunity to be depicted with their hobby,” he declares.
Parenting expert and family physician Dr. Deborah Gilboa tells Yahoo Parenting that message is actually a wonderful one to send teens.
“Assuming other props demonstrating other interest are also allowed by the school, the idea that use of firearms by teens can be safe and educated and reasonable, like any other hobby, is great,” she says. “Letting a student with a weapon pose is no more or less about giving that student autonomy than a student who wants to pose for their photo cross-dressed because that’s who they are.”
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If the images are alarming to anyone, Gilboa continues, discuss it. “It can start a great conversation about the role for firearms in the family,” she explains. “If it spurs talk at home about what is safe, that’s fantastic critical discussion especially because Seniors are on the cusp of being voting adults.”
As of press time, discussion online in response to a Good Morning America news story about Broken Bow’s photo rules was overwhelmingly in support of the policy. Aside from one reader’s outrage over the prevalence of firearms in society – “This is barbaric,” vented a user called “Just Saying,” who continued, “only a barbaric people with a barbaric history would think this was normal” – legions wrote in to share how firearms are a part of their lives too.
“Richard” wrote: “Those people grew up with guns and it is as much a part of there culture as going to the theater is to urban people.”
“Traveler” shared: “I grew up in far northern Wisconsin…It was common place for students to go hunting for small game (ie rabbits, squirrel, grouse) prior to school in the morning. So we would show up in our cammo, shower in the locker room and change before class… I see nothing wrong with it, it is part of growing up rural.”
“rich” said seeing the photos actually changed his perspective. “I’m an anti-gun advocate, but I must admit, if there’s a compelling argument against gun legislation, it’s reflected in these kids. Though I personally would not chose to kill an animal in the wild, I understand that it’s a sport (and a necessary task to decrease the herd), and kids engage in this sport for fun. Kudos to the school district for standing up to anti-gun pressure and letting students use guns as props.”
And “Robert” offers a sum-up reflecting the views of many who weighed in on the issue: “Our country is so much more diverse in culture and attitudes than many people who live in traditionally liberal states would believe. While someone in Los Angeles may picture a teenager with a firearm as the next school-shooter, in much of the rest of the country, it represents time bonding with family and friends.”