Firearms Groups Form Youth Council

Representatives from two dozen sports, firearms and other organizations across the state have agreed to form the Idaho Youth Shooting Sports Council.

Proposed by Attorney General Al Lance, the council is intended to help curb the number of young people injured or killed each year in gun accidents.

“Each and every one of the accidents you read about in the newspaper is probably avoidable,” Lance told the representatives during the organizational meeting of the council on Monday.

“This is an opportunity to emphasize the appropriate use of firearms, the responsible use of firearms,” Lance said.

Since 1980, 77 Idahoans under the age of 20 have died in firearms accidents and it appears the number is on the rise rather than the decline, Lance said. The annual average was 4.5 deaths in the 1980s. It was 6.4 deaths a year from 1990 through 1994 and this year the number has already exceeded that average.