Faces of the Valley: Pair of Burrell Girl Scouts teach public about gun safety

A pair of soon-to-be freshmen at Burrell High School, decided to get serious about gun safety for a public presentation July 16 at the Upper Burrell Volunteer Fire Department.

The freshmen’s Girl Scout project sought to increase public awareness of gun safety to prevent accidental shootings by children. The event also focused on how adults should secure firearms safely at home.

“A lot of parents don’t teach children about gun safety,” said Emma Spiering, 15, of Upper Burrell, one of the Girl Scouts who gave the presentation. She hunts, plays the tuba for Burrell’s marching band and is a brown belt in taekwondo at TKD-Ameris.

“If I could stop one kid from not having an accidental shooting, that would be worth it,” Emma said.

Emma asked her friend and fellow Girl Scout, Zoie Pike, 14, of Lower Burrell, who plays trombone in Burrell’s marching band and plays soccer, to work on the special project that counted toward their Girl Scout Silver Award.

Zoie has been around guns her whole life, and her grandfather, Dave Pike, is a gunsmith in Smock, Pa., said her mother, Cindy Pike.

“She knows not to touch guns. She’s learned a lot from her grandfather,” Cindy Pike said.

Pike said the girls’ presentation was wonderful and held the attention of the kids in the audience.

The girls got busy researching gun safety and contacting organizations with the help of Emma’s uncle and Upper Burrell supervisor, Ross Walker, who is an NRA certified gun instructor, serving as a mentor.

The girls worked with a gun safety video from the NRA’s Eddie the Eagle campaign to “Stop. Don’t touch. Run away. Tell a grownup.”

They put together a presentation featuring their information on gun safety with additional talks by Upper Burrell police Chief Ken Pate and Pennsylvania Game Commission Game Warden Michael Papinchak.

“It was so nice to see Emma and Zoie put so much work into their Girl Scout project and to see the great community response to it,” Pate said.

For the presentation, Emma’s research revealed the prevalence of guns in homes and that a high percentage of firearm deaths of children occur in the home.

“That’s why it’s important to know about guns and to lock them,” she said.

“I wish more kids and parents knew more about gun safety,” Zoie said.

During the gun safety event, Pate and the game warden showed the audience how to use a gun lock properly. The Girl Scouts secured 60 gun locks from National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Project ChildSafe to distribute to audience members.

Emma’s mother, Kate, wasn’t surprised her daughter would focus on gun safety because her daughter started hunting several years ago.

“I think it took a lot of thoughtfulness and courage for them to do this program given the current state and climate of the world, where there are so many victims of mass shootings,” Kate Spiering said.

“Their intent was not to promote or discourage guns. Their overarching focus was to educate kids and parents,” she said.

Emma bagged her first buck last year in the township and has been squirrel and raccoon hunting. She has been raising a redtick coonhound, named Molly, for raccoon hunting.

Emma said sometime in the future, she would like to revisit the importance of gun safety.