FAIRMONT - Guns are tools, not weapons. That is the message Brad Wells drove home during the first session of Fairmont's Firearm Safety Training course.

"There is one word you will not hear me use and you will not hear my instructors use about those tools up on the front counter," Wells said. " You will not hear us use the word weapon. Definition of a weapon is something you pick up to use against another human being. It might be a firearm, it might be a knife, it might be a hammer, it might be a fist. ... Guns need not be a weapon - guns should never be weapons."

Ten men and one woman, all certified by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as firearm safety instructors, spoke Monday night of how important firearm safety was to them. Eighteen kids and their parents sat in near silence as the instructors made their point, emphasizing safety above all.

"Firearms are different than anything else," said Wells, "once you pull that trigger, you can never call it back."

Two of the instructors present - Lowell Spee and Bryan Boltjes - are police officers, and both expressed never wanting to respond to a call involving a child and a gun accident. Some of the instructors spoke of their love of hunting and their desire to share it with children.

Roy Boucher had other motivation.

"I am selfish; I do this for a real selfish reason," he told the class. "I want to ensure when you step into the field you are just as responsible a hunter, and safe a hunter, as I am. The last thing I want to have happen is to become shot and become a victim or you becoming a victim."

The variety of answers the instructors gave showed students how varied shooting sports can be.

"As you can see," Wells told the class, "some of us just like to shoot, some just like to be outdoors, and some of us like to hunt."

For Spee, hunting isn't even about shooting anything; it is about the experience of spending time outdoors.

"You get to see the time of day not many people see," he said. "You are out first thing in the morning, or coming out of the field at a time of night when all the critters are going to bed. You get to listen to nature at its best. You get to listen to the loons crying and the geese as they are flying overhead talking to each other, praising each other and sending each other on.

"You can't buy that type of experience. You are out where God intended you to be - you aren't out there in a huge crowd. It is the solitude, the serenity of being out there and not be concerned about worldly affairs."

Boucher describes hunting as a quiet, peaceful time to spend with family and friends.

"We are up there at the crack of dawn," he said. "I can sit in a duck blind with my daughter and watch a spider build a web on the cattails in front of the blind and not even pay attention to the ducks that are coming in. We won't even be shooting the ducks. (Shooting) is an anti-climax in hunting."

The class, designed to instruct kids and adults alike in the proper use of firearms of all types, takes place twice a week over the course of six weeks at Five Lakes Elementary School in Fairmont. Successful students will earn a firearm safety certificate upon completion of their homework, written tests, field test, and 100 percent attendance to the class.

A firearm safety certificate is required for anyone born after Jan. 1, 1980, to purchase a hunting license. Anyone born before that date can buy a hunting license in Minnesota, but does need to complete the class to hunt in another state.

This is the first year the class, offered twice per year by the DNR, has been held at a school. The armory has hosted classes in the past, but with the current renovations going on had to pass this time around.

" ... Last spring we were in a bind," Wells said. "We have to have a facility. So we talked to the superintendent and school board and CER. We got the school board to abandon firearm policy for our class."

Ordinarily, absolutely no guns are allowed on school property.

And while schools have had to make rules about allowing guns on school property, the number of students interested in gun safety seems to have dropped.

This session has relatively few students compared to the usual number, which ranges from 20 to 50 kids.

"Our largest class was 54 students," Wells said.

Wells attributes this drop to the general busyness of students, something he sees first hand as a teacher at Five Lakes Elementary.

The DNR has also noticed a lack of students enrolling in firearm safety classes, and has countered the trend with online classes offered to students over 16 years of age. Those students are required to print off and hand in tests and homework, and join the in-classroom students for the field test exam.

Instructors hope that offering the class online will help increase the number of young people eligible to take up shooting sports.

For more information about the class, contact the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources at (888) 646-6367 or online at www.dnr.state.mn.us