At Chaloner Middle School there is classroom talk of tree stands, trigger guards and responsibility.

It is a class about firearms safety sponsored by the Roanoke Rapids Police Department and taught by lieutenants Bruce Norton and Ozzie Morgan with help from longtime hunter safety instructor Johnny Pardue.

“We wanted to get a firearms safety class going,” Norton said Wednesday before the class began.

What they came up with is the North Carolina Hunter Safety course, which not only incorporates firearms safety, but hunting safety, a course that all hunters must take to get a license.

Both Norton and Morgan had to take the course and then the instructor course so they could teach the class.

From left, Norton, Pardue and Morgan prepare for the class.

The class is a sellout and there is a waiting list for the next session, which will begin in a few months when many of the fall athletes will finish their seasons.

The course not only covers firearms safety but basic survival skills and first aid, along with conservation and hunter ethics.

The legal aspects of hunting are covered by an enforcement officer from the state Wildlife Resources Commission.

“The number one thing is firearm safety,” Morgan said. “At least 75 percent of homes have firearms.”

Morgan said he enjoys teaching the class to the 20 students who stay after school to learn. “They have been excellent, in their attitude and they ask questions.”

Most are taking the class so they can get their hunting license.

Taking the test, in which all 20 passed.

Raven Williams, 11, is going to wait before getting her hunting license. “I want to learn how to use a gun and be safe.”

She now knows how to safely carry a gun and how to be careful in loading an unloading one. Plus, she learned other things. “I never knew you had to tag a deer. They teach you the things you need to know to get your hunting license.”

On Wednesday, Pardue was prepping the students for the test that would make them eligible to get their hunting license.

In preparing them for the test, in which all passed, he talked about some of the finer, more esoteric points of hunting. “Always leave the place better than you found it,” he said, discussing the public image of hunting.

While it will always be a temptation, he discouraged the youngsters from driving around with their quarry. “There's a group of people who want us to hunt, a group who doesn't want us to hunt at all and a group who could care less. If a grandmother and her granddaughter are walking and here comes a truck and the child says, 'Grandma, he killed Bambi,' if she sees the child upset, while she might not care, she might go the other way. Take a picture and show it to your friends. We can do things to help us. We can do things to hurt us.”

Pardue has been a hunting safety instructor for the past 11 years.

Pardue, an instructor for the past 11 years, has logged 500 hours in the classroom. “I wanted to give back to what I've I've been blessed with, the outdoors and hunting.”

His interest in teaching came from hard lessons suffered by friends, one a fatality and the other which ended in severe injury.

This is the first class he has taught with all children. “Normally, we have people from 7 to 65. They've done extremely well.”

For more information on the program, contact the police department at 252-533-2810.