Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Bloomberg Moms Claim Eddie Eagle Message as Their Own

Friday, July 1, 2016

Bloomberg Moms Claim Eddie Eagle Message as Their Own

Imitation, so they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.

But heaping condemnation on something you later steal and then try to portray as your own? Well, that’s just downright weird.

And if there’s any truth to a recent blog post appearing in the New York Times, that’s what Shannon Watts – head of the Bloomberg-backed gun control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America – has done in promoting a safety course that looks suspiciously like NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program.

The blog post in general discusses ways for parents to broach the subject of firearms in the homes of their children’s playmates. Predictably (considering the source) it cites the executive director of the American Public Health Association as opining, “When it comes to guns, the safest situation is not having firearms in the home at all.”

But one surprise to come out of the blog post is a paragraph discussing the supposed gun safety training efforts of the would-be matriarch of gun control herself. The article states:

Even if you do not own a gun, it's important to have a conversation with your children about what to do if they ever see a gun, said Shannon Watts, a gun safety advocate and founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. That group co-founded a gun safety program that works with PTAs around the country. Children should be taught to leave the area immediately, not touch the firearm, tell an adult right away and call a parent, Ms. Watts said.


In other words, Mrs. Watts was giving her own spin on NRA’s trademarked Eddie Eagle GunSafe® Program. Since 1988, this effort has had a simple but very important mission: “teach children four simple, easy to remember steps so they know what to do if they ever come across a gun.” Those steps are: “STOP! Don’t touch. Run away. Tell a grown-up.”

It is a mantra that some 26,000 school teachers and law enforcement officers have taught to over 28 million children.  In 2001, the Journal of Emergency Nursing Online found Eddie Eagle GunSafe® to be the best of 80 gun accident prevention programs evaluated. It has also been lauded by groups such as the National Sheriffs’ Association, the U.S. Department of Justice (through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), and the Association of American Educators. Meanwhile, over half the states have endorsed the use of the program in their schools.

Even gun control activist Mark Kelly once tweeted, “I don’t agree w/ the NRA on some big issues, but they deserve a lot of credit for teaching kids about gun safety [via] Eddie Eagle.”

Indeed, Eddie Eagle has never been about politics or promoting any particular view of guns. NRA does not derive any revenues from the program. It’s simply one way to help prevent accidents and protect kids.

And even as the number of firearms in American homes have grown exponentially, fatal firearms accidents in the Eddie Eagle age group have been reduced by more than 80 percent since the program’s national launch.

Nevertheless, less than a year ago, the deputy director of Moms Demand Action was publicly bashing the Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program in response to its use at a kindergarten in rural Pennsylvania, where guns are as common as pickup trucks and hunting dogs. “It’s atrocious to put the onus of gun safety onto children — this is an adult problem,” she huffed to Yahoo News. “Every gun that’s gotten into the hands of a child has first been under the control of an adult. A program that tries to dodge that is disingenuous.”

What’s really disingenuous, though is for Watts’s gun control group to pose as a “gun safety” organization, when their real mission is to lobby on behalf of Michael Bloomberg for restrictive gun control laws and to promote the idea that the Second Amendment endangers the life of children.

And what’s amazingly disingenuous is for Watts to claim Eddie Eagle’s advice as her own, while senior officials of her organization criticize its use under the NRA banner. To be clear, Eddie Eagle was spreading his life-saving message decades before Michael Bloomberg disingenuously rebranded public relations professional  as the “everymom” who finally put her foot down against America’s “epidemic” of “gun violence.”

Watts and her group have a lot of catching up to do in this area, because when it comes to teaching Americans about safe and responsible gun ownership, NRA has been the leading voice since 1871.


TRENDING NOW
California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

Monday, October 13, 2025

California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

For someone who has claimed to be"...deeply mindful and respectful of the Second Amendment and people’s Constitutional rights,” Governor Gavin Newsom has once again proven that actions speak louder than words.

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

Democrat Jay Jones, candidate for Virginia attorney general, still has not suspended his campaign, even as pressure mounts over disclosures that should disqualify, to put it mildly, any individual from serving as the chief law ...

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Monday, October 13, 2025

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons & Gear, and two NRA members—filed a lawsuit challenging California’s Glock ban.

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

Three years ago, Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), writing for RealClearInvestigations, described how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was vastly undercounting, “by an order of more than three the number of instances in ...

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with the American Suppressor Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Second Amendment Foundation—announced the filing of another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Today, the National Rifle Association announced the filing of a petition for rehearing en banc in Siegel v. Platkin, a challenge to New Jersey’s carry restrictions.

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Today, the National Rifle Association, along with the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and FPC Action Foundation, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the federal lifetime prohibition on ...

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.