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Source: Close Up -
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Children as young as four are making fake gun licences as part of kindy lessons on firearm safety.
Staff in day care centres say teaching them about gun safety at such an early age will lead to a greater sense of responsibility about firearms.
Children at one Wellington kindergarten told TV ONE's Close Up that they will lose their self-made gun licence if they break any rules.
One child said the licence rule was "not to shoot any people", while another said "you can't shoot balls".
Bruce Pilbrow, chief executive of the parental support organisation Parents Inc, said he did not have a problem about children "learning respect about weapons".
However, he questioned why children were making their own firearm licences.
"What's the driving issue here? Are they worried about kids having fun and playing? Boys are boys. They love rough and tumble, they run around, playing shooting games and things like that, that's what they do.
"If you have a child who's brought up in a house that has guns, like a farm or something like that, then I think it's the parents' responsibility to make their children very aware of weapons."
Pilbrow said the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council, which runs firearm safety training programmes, is the most appropriate to teach children.
Council chief executive Darryl Carpenter said he was unaware of any of the council's volunteers being approached to give advice to day care centres or kindergartens.
He said there was no such thing as being too young to learn about firearm safety.
"What is incredibly important is that any youngster that comes across a firearm in a domestic home knows what to do and what not to do," Carpenter said.
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