Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Kids at the Campfire Can this be? The Boy Scouts are anti-carry????

If this is true I am deeply disappointment and saddened. Apparently it is true because it is posted on their website.

Apparently it is against the rules to carry at all boy and cub scout functions unless you are an LEO. "Just" being a citizen is not enough.

This really upsets me because it was through Scouting that I had my first contact with firearms. It was through scouting that I learned the motto "Be Prepared". It was through scouting that I learned citizenship.


Apparently those citizenship values are not what I thought they were, or perhaps they have changed. To have the boy scouts teaching by example that only the military and police should be allowed to carry a firearm, they make the normal citizen the equivalent to a serf.

Their position - that only the police should have guns - is little different than that of the anti-gun folks. What good is training kids to use a gun if their policy is against carrying of guns by adults? Teaching about firearms while sending the message that we should not carry them is akin to making the second amendment a hypothetical right.

I had been looking forward to my son entering the cub scouts in about a year and a half. I was also just about to write a big check to our local scouting organization. Apparently I am going to have to re-evaluate. If they are this PC on concealed carry, it makes me what other PC ideals they endorse.

Go to U Tube and look up Penn and Teller Boy Scouts and watch their half hour special. The biggest contributor to the Boy Scouts is the Mormon Church and a lot of things have changed as such. I was a Boy Scout too, and hate to see them get negative press, especially if it is accurate.

I'm not sure why the Mormons would be against concealed carry though. I personally know several members of the LDS church who carry on a daily basis.

Sounds more like the Brady campaign got to them - only allowing police to carry firearms is right up their alley.

I am involved as a scouting leader, and have been for quite a few years.. my son has gone thru Cub Scouts and is a Star Rank Scout now.. having been in Boy Scouts 3 yrs now.. He is also a Cub Scout Den Chief and an Order of the Arrow Lodge Secretary.. Scouting usually takes up at least 2 if not 3 nights a week for my family...( I am also a native Virginian there Skeptic)..
I am also a Merit Badge counselor for both Rifle and Shotgun Shooting Merit Badges.

I hope you don't let this influence you putting your son into scouting.. and I also hope you still donate and support scouting....

Political Correctness has made some major assaults on Scouting, for obvious reasons, if you know their agendas. Certain policies are the result of Scouting not having to burn up all their funds in courts fighting the left liberal ACLU ( Lets Screw UP America Crowds)....

Scouting has to walk a fine line, and does so to keep Scouting alive in this country.. many of these policies are not necessarily how scouting feels and actively supports...and promotes... but they have to have rules so that the programs can stay alive in this political environment we can thank the lefties for creating...

I was in scouting myself in the 1960s... I was a Scout Master when I was a Junior and Senior in college.. I have been a Committee Chairman in Cub Scouts and am active now in my son's troop...Scouting now is a whole new experience, compared to what it was when I was a scout myself, or as a Scout Master in 1974 and 1975...you wouldn't believe all the rules and all the classes we have to go thru under the guise of Youth Protection... just to pass scrutiny because of all the child molesters and abusers in today's world...2 Deep Leadership...

All of this drives me up a tree.... a Scout is Honest.. yet they treat us all like we are untrustworthy.. not because they don't trust adult leaders within scouting.. it is to try and cater to the hostile scrutiny of the liberal left from outside of Scouting, who are just like a pack of wolves that are just waiting for reasons to disassemble and destroy scouting...

Those of us involved, put up with these hassles for the sake of our own kids, but our youth of the future.. compare the average scout to the average head bangers on the street corner.. that is the reason we put up with all of this BS generated by the liberal left, from OUTSIDE scouting... but force us to live by it WITHIN scouting to promote the programs that benefit our youth....

I am not going to tell you that you won't find the liberal left within scouting also...

but I can tell you also, the weird and politically incorrect feelings I have had, carrying firearms in a duffle bag INTO a church, during scouting functions.. to teach a room full of boys who are working on their Rifle Shooting and Shotgun Shooting Merit Badges...fully supported by BSA...

so don't let all the poltically correct hype scare you away...

I had one lefty try to go after me for an incident he didn't like, to really cover his own ass from getting in trouble, and tried to use "firearms" as a subject to do it with... well he went to both the local council and to BSA National....

His stated goal was to have me banned from Scouting anywhere in the country, because I had a firearm available when he took the boys into a dangerous area at night, ( to 'toughen them up' )that had both bears and cougars known to be in the area.. and I am talking 11 and 12 yr old kids... I went and we were stalked by a cougar that night... but I was armed to defend if we were attacked... the night went bad, and he tried to sacrifice me to cover his ass, by making an issue of me having a firearm along.. and denying that I had told him that my son and several other of the boys would not go ( according to their parents) if I was not along with a firearm... the Scoutmaster tried to lie his way out of that knowledge...

although it had to be handled delicately, not to raise public scrutiny that the lefty scout master was trying to raise, both the local BSA council and BSA National backed me up all the way...as even the Forest service web site of the area warns about the high volume of bear and cougars in that area...( and this idiot wants the boys to take a night hike of 7 miles in this area, IN THE DARK!)

BSA needs all the support it can get, because in today's world, the politically correct crowd would love nothing more than to destroy scouting...out fund raising, I have had folks with beards, hair down to their asses, tye dyed Tshirts and sandles on.. accuse my son of being part of a para military organization 'to raise and train future baby killers' when he was a Cub Scout out selling raffle tickets to raise money for his cub scout troop..the guy did it right in front of me..
on the other end, it amazes me how quickly older folks will open up their wallets instantly and how generous they can be, strictly because the boys are scouts...

you can see those that approve of scouting and those that don't strictly by the way they dress most of the time.. either hippies who don't think the 60s are over, or else the silver spoon in their mouths yuppies, that can can't wait to have Hillary Clinton President.. so she can executive order Scouting to accept Gay Leaders, or she will ban Boy Scouts..

Scouting needs all the support of gun owners and those that defend the right and the foundations this country was founded on...

I know, as I am also a Merit Badge counselor for Citizenship in the Nation and Citizenship in the World, where we teach these values to our Scouts.. Merit Badges that are both required for those boys who are to become Eagle Scouts...

Good post Seafire. The BSA is on the frontline of the culture wars, on our side! They need all the support we can give them. The Gov. of Texas, Rick Perry, has a book out called "On My Honor" about the ACLU's plan to eliminate the Boy Scouts. I haven't read it but plan to.

My son just bridged over to Boy Scouts and I will be getting involved in the troop after I recover from my four year stint as Cubmaster. Being a merit badge counselor sounds much more fun. Keep up the good work.

Thanks SouthernTier!

Good luck to you and your son in scouting with your new troop...

Seafire Jr is Star Rank now...He has his sights set on going all the way to Eagle..

( I'll kick his ass if he doesn't! LoL...)

Having a son in scouting nowadays is a pleasure and joy that too few fathers get to enjoy... scouting really is worthwhile for the kids, especially in todays environment...

Scouting discourages handguns mainly because of so many laws, and the age of possession being 21 in most states.

Marksmanship merit badges exist for shotgun and rifle, and you can earn some in air rifle.

That said, leaders can offer marksmanship instruction in handguns. There is no point in carrying a handgun at the meeting, but it is okay go camping, take firearms and have safety instruction. We have taken shotguns and done a bunch of clays shooting. We have taken archery tackle and rifles and shot deer, turkey and small game to cook over a fire. The boys loved it. I have given handgun instruction, mostly from a safety standpoint, to every age, from 11 to 18, as well as the "Don't Touch - Leave the Area - Call an Adult" instructions to Cub Scouts.

In my youth, we could legally own handguns. I owned a Webley and a S&W .45 ACP military revolver at age 12. But we didn't take them camping. The idea is that if you are camping with children in an area where you feel the need for a firearm for protection, you are probably camping in the wrong place.

Often, the rules and regulations in Scouting have to do with liability issues, not "political correctness." They make rules so they can say in court, "We don't allow unregulated or unsupervised possession of firearms...." in case of an accident or, God forbid, a crazy person. I disagree, though, with their policy regarding those with CCW permits. I am a board member of my local council, and I have a CCW. We also have had bear attacks at our Scout camp in the mountains. Fortunately, not recently. I carry my Commander concealed most of the time when I am up there.

I'm a former boy scout who fired his first firearm while on a scouting trip. I must have been like 12 - I still remember the recoil of that M1 Garand!

Don't know about the LDS connection, but I'm guessing liability (insurance companies and zealous attorneys) is the real culprit here.

When my son first went into Boy Scouts from Cub Scouts, in his new troop, the 'Macho' Scout Master had the boys take a night hike to a camp along the Rogue River Trail. I went along, despite my protests that their were several safer routes to their camp... this was 5 miles along a trail that was on mountain sides at 45 degree inclines.. with the trail moving along the side of them.. not up them..

of course the scout master didn't go along, he just drove into the camp, after a half mile down hill walk..

the boys were skirted and stalked by a cougar along the trail for several miles.. I caught glimpses of him multiple times in the headlamp I was wearing...

I had the boys stay together, and had a 45 Long Colt ready to go if need be...

We changed troops within about 45 days with this A HOle as scout master..

I was glad I didn't have to use the firearm that night, but it sure was minor comfort knowing it was there if needed..