Biden’s Attack on Teaching Archery and Hunting Skills

(TotalConservative.com) – The Biden administration was previously criticized for withholding funds from schools that teach traditional hunting and archery skills to students. Critics said that as many as 100,000 students were impacted nationwide. The administration now plans to sign a bill that would reverse the hold.

Biden’s Department of Education interpreted a section of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BCSA) implemented in June 2022 following multiple mass shootings in New York and Texas such that funds were withheld from any school that offered the programs. Republicans noted that the interpretation disproportionately impacted states where they held majorities.

The White House confirmed that President Biden intends to sign the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act (PHEA) which will legally require the funding to be restored upon passage. The schools stopped receiving it earlier in the year.

Director of the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention Stefanie Feldman said Biden supports the PHEA. The BCSA had a provision that blocked funding for schools that offered students “training” for “a dangerous weapon.” The DOE believed that basic hunter safety and archery programs were included in that prohibition because they taught basic firearm and weapons handling and safety procedures to minors.

This put thousands of programs across the country in jeopardy that were dependent on federal funds. Executive director for Outdoors Tomorrow Foundation (OTF) Sean McLelland told Fox News Digital that those programs served over 100,000 students across the country.

He said that the programs teach kids basic safety for handling firearms. Essential basics like knowing where and how a safety works and never pointing a gun at another person or using it jokingly are essential for saving young lives. He further added that over a million kids were in archery programs every year.

He qualified the programs with excellent safety records and said the skills they teach are “lifelong outdoor skills.” The bill to ensure the funding continues passed the House in a dramatic 424-1 vote on the evening of September 26th.