I’ve got an 8 yr old nephew who since the age of two has been able to recite the basic gun safety rules – the number one rule being DO NOT TOUCH Daddy’d Gun unless he is there to supervise!” Education and training prevents accidents……

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“Stop, don’t touch, tell an adult” works for young San Jose hero

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/bayarea/stories/sjhero_20010615.htm

Quick-thinking student being hailed as a hero
By Stephen A. Crockett Jr.
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
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SAN JOSE — While riding a scooter in his South San Jose neighborhood last
month, Alberto Valenzuela, 10, noticed a shiny object lying in the grass.
After a closer look, he realized it was a gun.

Concerned for the safety of children playing nearby, he stood guard. With
both arms outstretched like a crossing guard, Alberto kept the children away
from the weapon until he was able to catch the attention of a police officer
on the corner.

Later he learned that the gun had been thrown out a car window by a
hit-and-run suspect. It was loaded.

“My dad taught me never to touch guns. So when I saw it, I said in my mind
that I am not going to touch this,” Alberto said Thursday after receiving a
Citizens’ Award for Outstanding Service from the Santa Clara County
Sheriff’s Department at a ceremony at Christopher Elementary School.

The shy fourth-grader did not say a word as he received a plaque from Capt.
Jerry Hall during an assembly for students who made the honor roll or had
perfect attendance. As he was being praised by Hall for his quick thinking
and decision making, Alberto couldn’t keep his hands out of his pockets or
his eyes off the tops of his new Helley shoes.

The sheriff’s office presents five or six such citizen awards every year,
and Hall said Alberto is one of the youngest to receive the commendation.

Principal Andy Garcia, who stood beaming as Alberto was handed the plaque,
would like to think that a new school program called PeaceBuilder, launched
last year, helped prompt Alberto’s thoughtfulness and quick thinking.

The program works to help students reduce violence at school and at home,
and teaches them to behave in more peaceful ways.

Christopher Elementary is the only school in the Oak Grove School District
that participates in the program. “We are an encouraging school,” said
Garcia. “Instead of putting down students, we put down put-downs.”

Some of Alberto’s buddies heeded that philosophy. Instead of teasing him as
he nervously waited to go on stage, they encouraged him with pats on the
back.

Later, Bobby Trejo, also 10, commented, “It is cool hanging out with someone
famous.” Bobby was referring not just to Alberto’s time onstage, but the
presence of the Mercury News, Channel 5 and Telemundo.

In the media spotlight, Alberto acknowledged that what he did was “cool.”
But he spent more time talking about his mastery of his cool new shoes,
which have a detachable wheel in the heels. When he runs and then leans back
on his heels, he said, he can skate almost two sidewalk squares.

Lynn Gordon, resource specialist at the school, said she was delighted by
the impact Alberto’s action is having on his classmates. Talking about the
standing ovation during the ceremony, she said, “It didn’t come from the
academic awards. It came when one of their own had done something right and
heroic that helped the community.”

After the ceremony and interviews were over, Alberto’s teacher Heather
Newton asked him, “Ready to go back to class, hero?”

Alberto took off running.