Baltimore Ravens tight end Benjamin Watson spent enough time working with the NFL this year on its message to players about conduct that he wasn't expecting to be so personally engaged by it. Yet there he was, after the Ravens' mandatory training hour last week, discussing children's safety -- and guns.

This is the third year the NFL has had social responsibility training, but it's the first time the league added a discussion about gun ownership and the importance of safe storage of weapons.

"We hear these horror stories all the time about a child that finds a firearm and who shoots and hurts themselves, or kills someone else," Watson said. "And you'd hate for that to happen because it's so preventable. I'm glad they added that myself, as a father of five."

This season, the training was pared down and changed as the league shifts from responding to the Ray Rice situation and domestic violence to a more interactive format. Players viewed videos (one, for example, showed a drunken driver swerving a car all over the road) and were asked to discuss.

"We've never presented the issue from a social responsibility perspective before," said Anna Isaacson, the NFL's vice president of social responsibility. "These were crucial societal issues that people just didn't know enough about, and we felt that it was our duty, and it was the right thing to do, to make sure that everyone in the NFL family had the same knowledge, so that we were all on an even playing field and we all had the same information."

This year in the offseason, Denver's Aqib Talib suffered a gunshot wound in Dallas, and former Saints defensive end Will Smith was shot and killed during a traffic altercation in New Orleans.

Ever since Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg when he was a wide receiver for the Giants, NFL teams have hosted presentations by law enforcement officials about local laws on owning and carrying weapons. Burress, who was not licensed to carry a concealed weapon in New York, served 20 months in jail.

The NFL has recommended that players stay away from gun ownership, but Sean Taylor's 2007 death during a robbery at home still lingers, and NFL players know they can be targeted for their wealth.

"Because of the Second Amendment," Watson said, "the NFL can't tell you [that] you can't have a gun, because you're a citizen of this country."

So the league is discussing gun safety through the prism of child shooting tragedies.

About a third of teams have completed the sessions. Parts of the presentations still focus on domestic violence. Watson is featured in one of the videos, discussing a moment when he saw a woman in a convenience store. She appeared to be hurt and was lingering inside, apparently to avoid returning to a car and its driver.

The discussion follows. Could he really assume violence had occurred? Should he have called anyone? What was his obligation to that woman? What would he risk for intervening?

"He spoke from the heart and it's a real situation. People can imagine being in that situation and not knowing what to do," Isaacson said. "What I've heard from the feedback is, that's really hard. The point of that video is to spark that ongoing dialogue because there's no solution, there's no easy answer. ... It's important that we think through them."

Of the sessions Watson said, "Having a conversation is a way to engage in a nonthreatening manner."

The NFL's previous training on domestic violence emphasized do's and don't's. Players were presented with statistics and a discussion of the definition of consent in sexual situations.

But there was some negative feedback from players who felt it was a bit patronizing and targeted them for an issue they might never intersect with.

Watson discussed it with his wife, Kirsten.

"My wife, in her wisdom, told me, 'No matter the reason they're doing it, if it changes one man's mind as he's about to hurt his wife or girlfriend, then it's worth it,'" Watson said.

Watson, who is entering his 13th NFL season, said he has seen change since the league began frankly discussing violence -- not just among players, but as a whole in the culture. And he emphasized that continuing the training is important, given how often new players come into the league.

"We were moving at lightning speed," Isaacson said of that first year. "We've spent a full year planning for this year's education."