In-person hunter education in Kansas should not be replaced | Commentary
In 1973, Kansas adopted a hunter education requirement for those who wish to purchase a hunting license. Prior to its adoption, the number of hunting incidents recorded between 1962 and 1973 was 446, with 53, or 11.9% of them, fatalities. Since 1974, the percentage of deaths has decreased to 4.4%. The reason for this dramatic decline is simple: More than 1,000 volunteer instructors who are passionate about teaching firearm and field safety.
From 2010 to 2019 there were 109 incidents in the state and four fatalities, for a total of 3.7%. There were 87,351 students certified in that same time frame, making the total number of incidents 0.12%, with 0.00458% being fatal.
Consider this same time frame for 15- to 20-year-old drivers in Kansas. In an Oct. 22 article on Kansas.com with the headline Kansas third in the U.S. for rate of fatal crashes involving teen drivers, it states, “According to the Kansas Department of Transportation, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for Kansans between the ages of 15 and 18.” And “Kansas has the third-highest rate of fatal crashes involving teen drivers in the U.S. since 2010, according to a new analysis of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations (NHTSA).” In this same time frame drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 accounted for 15.7% of all fatal crashes in Kansas. Are we willing to let new drivers get their licenses online only?
A report published by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearm industry — using data from the National Sporting Goods Association and the Consumer Products Safety Commission National Electronic Injury Surveillance System — showed that in 2018 the total number of injuries per 100,000 in hunting with firearms is a mere 27. Yet fishing reached 175 per 100,000.
In-person hunter education in Kansas has been a success.
Yet on Oct 1, Kansas implemented an online hunter education course. Unsurprisingly, the answers to this course are on Quizlet. As an educator, I can assure you students from elementary school through college are aware of these cheat websites. Students don’t have to watch the videos or read any of the content to get their hunter education certificate.
Do we honestly think that the people who do this will be safe with a firearm?
In addition, hunter education instructors are aware of others who take courses for their children. With the internet-assisted course for those who are 11 to 16 years old, students are required to take an online course and then take a pre-test at a field session. We have encountered students who failed the pre-test, with some admitting that others did the online portion for them. What guarantee do we have that these others aren’t the ones taking the online only portion for the student?
Serious questions are being raised about this online format in hunter education. With no hands-on training or experience in field and firearm safety can we expect to see Kansas return to the same numbers pre-1973? I suspect we can.
Rose Corby is a 20-year veteran Kansas hunter education instructor, secretary/editor for the Kansas Hunter Education Instructor Association, 2010 KS Hunter Ed Instructor of the Year, and was inducted into the KHEIA Hall of Fame in 2019.