Gun safety education will help prevent tragic shootings; Calling real guns "fake," "toys," "replicas," etc. will not

In the wake of a second shooting this year by police in Ohio of a person holding a gun that was not a firearm, the establishment media continue to struggle with even using the correct terminology to describe these guns correctly (e.g. the Toledo Blade's torturous headline, "What's Real, What's Not? Toys, deadly weapons difficult to distinguish"), and anti-gun legislators are proposing knee-jerk legislation that will only further muddy the waters for police officers.

Buckeye Firearms Association leaders, on the other hand, continues to work to educate both the media and the country on the fact that the guns held by these two persons at the time they were shot are not toys at all.

In addition to teaching children to treat these guns - even pellet or BB or airsoft guns - as it they were a firearm, every parent should also be teaching their children that they must immediately obey such instructions from police. And if we think it's a serious enough lesson, and if we believe that many parents won't teach it, then maybe our schools should be teaching it too.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.