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Tennessee will soon offer hunter education classes to students in 5th through 12th grades. (Photo by Bill Konway)

Tennessee students will soon have the opportunity to participate in hunter education classes.

According to WKRN, Gov. Bill Lee recently signed a bill into law that will allow students, from 5th through 12th grade, to take a hunter education course as part of their physical education and health and safety curriculum. Georgia and Tennessee are now the only states in the country to offer hunter education classes to students.

“We want folks to be encouraged to hunt, we want them to be exposed to it,” State Rep. Chris Todd (R-Madison County), a co-sponsor of the bill, said. “And many parents are just not in a position to do that. This is an opportunity for them to get exposed to hunter education, hunting in general, the responsibility we have to manage game.”

Todd said that over the years, fewer and fewer kids are hunting across America and in Tennessee. He says hunting is such an integral part of the state’s history that it should be passed down to future generations.

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“It’s such a tradition in the state and in our country that we want to make sure that this next generation sees that and knows that,” Todd said. “I think it’s a great thing to introduce them (to)… they get a lot of training on firearm safety, both from handling firearms and storing firearms, to then the education around hunting itself.”

This course will follow the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s guidelines for a hunting certification, which is applicable in all 50 states.

Since the course is not a mandatory elective, a school doesn’t have to offer it. Officials of schools that do decide to offer it will choose how it will look and when it will be taught.

Todd said that school systems can begin offering the classes at any time and can run the curriculum any time they want.

“The main thing, it gives them that framework that they know is tried and proven, and other states will recognize if those kids grow up and want to hunt in another state,” he said.

The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation was an active proponent of the bill, collecting the support of 16 other like-minded organizations to advocate for its passing.