re: Tennessee law now requires mandatory gun training for all grades in all public schools.

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Neat I guess. But I’d rather have mandatory combative classes like Karate, boxing and other forms of martial arts for all boy students from Kindergarten all the way through HS graduation.

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Why not both?

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Combative will teach everyone to defend themselves and also reinforce physical fitness.

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ASAP!
I think its a great idea. Train 100% of youths to use a firearm and personal self defense in public schools. Could be in conjunction with competitive events that promote the students who excel at shooting and martial arts.

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they will hold it correctly and hit.

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except they never actually load a gun or fire any live rounds. They might have a harmless water snake as a class pet, but they would never have a western diamondback rattlesnake. Children are curious, they need to know not to play with poisonous snakes, or touch a hot stove, or play in the street, or pick up a gun and pull the trigger. Responsible parents already teach these things. For all the other kids, I would much rather their first experience with a gun come from a school teacher than a gang member.

This shouldn't be necessary but it is.

Just drilling into their stupid little heads the 4 rules of firearm safety and showing them how to check if a firearm is loaded, how to unload it and break it down and put it back together would do wonders.

Mine shoot regularly with age-appropriate guns (or as much as they want to) starting about 5 years old. Before that they are out with us when we shoot so that they have a healthy fear. Teaching them the rules and being a hard arse about it (you don't break the rules even with toys) while allowing access to the guns goes a long way.

My kids get a $100 bill if they ever catch me with my finger on the trigger when I'm not ready to shoot or if I point a gun in an unsafe direction. That's how you keep it in the forefront of their minds.

I went to public school in Virginia. In eighth grade we had hunter safety week where we did hunter safety rather than our normal gym class.

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Neat I guess. But I’d rather have mandatory combative classes like Karate, boxing and other forms of martial arts for all boy students from Kindergarten all the way through HS graduation.

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People that bring Karate to a gunfight get shot

I've often said that kids brought up around and familiar with firearms and firearm safety were far less likely to accidentally kill themselves or others for the very reason you mentioned. When I was a kid I never felt like a gun was a great mystery to be explored. I was familiar with them, knew the hard and fast rules about them and also knew that if I was being curios and wanted to handle them I could just ask my dad and we would go shoot. I'm still not certain about how I feel about making that mandatory in school, but I do think that gun education should at least be available as an elective.

The first part of the 2A...

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"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State..."

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"well-regulated" in the vernacular of the day meant "well-trained"; implying that such training must be required and provided by the government.