Derek LeBlanc of Kids S.A.F.E. on Teaching Kids Gun Safety

Derek LeBlanc is the president and founder of the Kids S.A.F.E. Foundation, an Oregon nonprofit that teaches children and families how to be safe around firearms. In this March 2024 conversation on the Daily Gun Show, he explains why reaching the next generation is the most important long-term work in the Second Amendment movement, and how an inflatable BB gun range can change minds faster than any talking point.

Safety Around Firearms Education

Kids S.A.F.E. stands for Safety Around Firearms Education. According to the video description, Derek and the foundation have trained more than 29,000 kids in five states since 2016. The interview was recorded shortly after the foundation passed that 29,000 mark during a weekend of outreach in San Diego, an event the team reached by driving roughly a thousand miles each way from Oregon.

The centerpiece of that outreach is a Daisy inflatable shooting education range. Children get a short safety brief, put on safety glasses, step into a fully enclosed two-lane range and press the trigger on a BB gun for the first time. Derek estimates that more than 21,000 of the kids the foundation has reached came through these BB gun ranges. Parents watch, families celebrate, and everyone sees firsthand that shooting is normal, fun and safe when done properly.

To reach the youngest shooters, Derek modified Daisy Red Ryder rifles with help from a machinist friend, adding a custom trunnion, a buffer tube and Magpul adjustable stocks. The result lets children as young as three, as well as full-size adults, shoot comfortably on the same equipment.

An Origin Story That Started Without a Gun

Derek’s path into advocacy began with a confrontation. Eleven years before this interview, he caught a man inside his vehicle while his own handgun sat on the kitchen counter. Unarmed, he wrestled the intruder to the ground and held him for about ten minutes until his girlfriend came out with a pistol grip shotgun, controlled the muzzle and called 911. Police arrived about eight minutes later. That night pushed him to become a firearms instructor and an advocate for his civil liberties.

The idea for Kids S.A.F.E. came to him in the middle of the night in 2014, a strong sense that he needed to protect children. His own background shaped the mission: growing up in Oregon, his father gave him his first BB gun at age three, and by six he had shot the barrel out of it. Kids S.A.F.E. is his way of passing that same gift, and the responsibility that comes with it, to other families.

“I want to protect every kid, but I also want to make sure that they understand the rights and responsibilities that come with owning a gun.”

Derek LeBlanc

A Curriculum Built for Kids, by Kids

When the host asked why a new program was needed when Eddie Eagle and Project ChildSafe already existed, Derek pointed to geography. Eugene, Oregon, leans left of center, and a program tied to the NRA would have been a hard sell there. He did not want to reach five kids; he wanted to reach 500, then 5,000 and beyond.

He built the program the hard way. Starting with an outline and a PowerPoint, he tested lessons on friends’ children, kept what resonated and cut what did not. That trial and error took about two years, which is why he calls it a gun safety program made for the kids by the kids. The curriculum was trademarked and copyrighted in 2020, and one of the children from the first public class was graduating high school at the time of this interview. Beyond the BB gun range, the foundation offers a Kids Firearm Safety 2 course on the range with rimfire rifles and a teen rifle class that adds civics and how young people can preserve their civil liberties.

Derek also planted a clear flag on one point: cable locks are not gun safety. In his view, real safety comes from education, fundamentals, discipline and respect, not from a giveaway lock that most owners never use.

Why Restrictive Laws Make Kids Less Safe

For two years, Kids S.A.F.E. could not bring its outreach to California because a state law barred marketing firearms to minors, and the foundation’s promotional material for free safety education fell under it. That law was later struck down, and the team returned to San Diego.

What Derek found there is a lesson for every advocate. In a typical community, he says, about 60 to 70 percent of the kids who visit the range have already had some gun safety education. In California, the figure drops to roughly 30 to 40 percent. Parents who own firearms that later became restricted are reluctant to teach their kids, worried a child might mention it at school. Restrictive laws, he argues, end up working against the very children they claim to protect.

Winning the Room With Positive Engagement

Derek described a scene that plays out at public events. Gun control volunteers set up quiet tables with prepared talking points. Then the Kids S.A.F.E. team backs up a truck and trailer, rolls out the range, and it inflates in about ten to fifteen seconds. Attention shifts immediately. Families line up, kids learn the safety rules, sometimes there are snow cones, and the other booth often packs up early.

The approach works because it offers something tangible. Where the other side offers vague answers about common sense, Kids S.A.F.E. hands families real education and a real experience. Derek frames shooting as a family bonding activity, encourages parents to consider a BB gun for a child who listened well, and points families toward youth shooting sports and the scholarship opportunities that come with them. He also stressed tone online: think about how a comment reads to someone outside the conversation, because the goal is to educate, not to bully.

“We’re not about doom and gloom. We’re about positive engagement.”

Derek LeBlanc

Getting Off the Couch

Derek’s first speech, given on the Oregon Capitol steps in 2014 as a brand-new instructor, drew applause from only 10 or 20 people in a crowd of about 500. Rather than quit, he invested in himself through Toastmasters and speechwriting, and he has since spoken in many parts of the country. His message to listeners is simple: if he can do it, so can they.

He urged gun owners to stop assuming someone else will do the fighting. He wrote legislation in Oregon in 2019 and has worked to bring it to other states, and he encouraged others to write bills in their own areas of expertise, run for local office and get involved at the state and local level. He also challenged the firearms industry to fund the organizations working with the next generation, noting that the future customer base is today’s young people. Looking ahead five to ten years, he hopes to take the curriculum nationwide with trained instructors and local chapters, with one already in the works in Hawaii. Families and supporters can learn more and donate through the Kids S.A.F.E. Foundation website.

Watch the full interview

Video: LIVE with Derek LeBlanc of Kids SAFE Foundation on the Gun Websites YouTube channel.