Firearm safety class may be required to obtain a hunting license, but those who volunteer to teach the classes believe anyone could benefit from taking the course.

The class is relevant to all because children can be exposed to firearms even if their parents do not own one, said Milan Hart, part owner of Hart Brothers Weaponry.

“Your children are going to start visiting other children almost immediately, and they’re going to want to stay overnight,” Hart said. “You may not have guns in your home. That’s your complete and total American right, but I do have guns in my home.”

Durlin Hensch became a volunteer firearms safety instructor about 35 years ago partly because his experience with hunting accidents, one including an accidental death, as a deputy sheriff, he said.

Firearms safety is serious, but Hensch said it should be fun and partly started teaching the class because he enjoyed taking it.

“I’ve had so much pleasure, I figured if I could give somebody else half of this much fun that I’ve had and do it safely without someone getting hurt, it’d be worth my time doing it,” Hensch said.

The ten commandments of firearms safety are a big part of what’s taught in the class, but Hensch said he focuses a lot on the first three: treat every weapon as loaded, always control muzzle and keep it pointed in safe direction, and be sure of your target and what is behind it. Following these three alone, Hensch said, reduces the chance of accidents.

Children have to be 12 to take the class, but anyone can take the class, Hensch said. Parents often pay the $7.50 charge to take the class with their child, or they sit in to refresh, Hensch said.

The classes, which are held in the back room of the Moose Lodge, will next be offered in April, but there are also classes in the fall and summer, Hensch said.

Classes usually go for 5 Wednesday nights from 6:30 p.m. to about 9 p.m. with a written test the last day, Hensch said. On a Saturday morning students need to fire 15 rounds with a .22-caliber rifle to prove they can handle the weapon safely to pass, Hensch said.

“Safety is a hundred percent of everything they’re teaching,” Hart said. “They’re teaching a little bit of marksmanship and a little bit of this, but mostly it’s gun handling: how to act around a loaded firearm, what to do.”

Firearms safety used to focus more exclusively on hunting, but Charlie Schmidt, firearms safety instructor, said they’ve adjusted the way they teach it because of changes in the world. Because of the availability of handguns, Schmidt said they have to teach on more things like how to safely store weapons, but they only briefly teach handgun safety.

Teaching safety includes more than teaching simply handling weapons, Schmidt said. It’s also important to teach being knowledgeable about the area you go hunting in.

Hensch said the class teaches the things the state requires, but he said he and his fellow instructors go beyond that to teach things like safety in hunting stands, a little first aid and other things.

The class lasts five weeks, but Schmidt said firearms safety takes a lifetime. Schmidt and his fellow instructors have to learn new laws and regulations often, and he said all hunters should do so.

Hunters and gun owners don’t only need to be constantly learning; they need to be constantly aware, Hart said.

“Gun safety training is a lifetime, ongoing thing,” Hart said. “As a hunter, I’ve caught myself a couple times walking around and found out my safety was off. I wouldn’t do that on purpose, but maybe I drew down on a deer and in my excitement forgot to put my safety back on. That should be an automatic thing. There have been deer I let go because I didn’t know what was behind those deer. That’s what I call ongoing safety. Being alert. Being very, very sure of what your target is and where your target it.”

Safety precautions are needed between hunting trips as well, because Hart said firearms should be stored unloaded and separate from ammunition. Not all gun owners use locked cases to store weapons, Hart said, so it’s important to store ammunition separately so the children don’t even have the chance to load the firearm.

All firearm accidents are tragedies, but Hensch said he tells the students the person they could injure in hunting accidents is often a relative or close friend. You hunt with those close to you, Hensch said.

“I hope I’ve prevented at least one accident because of what I do teaching,” Hensch said. “I’ll never know for sure if I have or not, so I’ll keep teaching for a while.”