Tennessee Legislators Join Movement Permitting Teachers to Carry Guns in Schools

[Jake]

This is similar to my recent topic where the Iowa senate approved a bill that would allow teachers and school staff to conceal carry firearms in schools. You can find that post below if you're interested in checking it out:

Iowa Senate approves bill allowing teachers and school staff to carry guns

Well I don't think I saw this coming, but it's now legal in Iowa for teachers and school staff to carry guns on school property. The Iowa Senate recently approved a bill with a vote of 30-14, allowing exactly that. School employees would of course need to obtain a permit to carry, but that seems...

www.permittingtalk.com

Now onto the topic at hand. Tennessee legislators are looking to do exactly what Iowa has done recently, in that they want to make it possible for some teachers to bring guns onto school grounds as long as they obtain a conceal carry permit. Thing is, they do not intend to inform parents or colleagues about said teachers who do have permits to do so. The new bill passed with a vote of 26-5. Those in support of the new bill, believe that armed teachers could also help as resource officers, especially in the cases where they are in a more rural location that also has less resources.

But there are people opposed to the new bill, especially the families who suffered losses during last year’s Covenant School shooting in Nashville. They argue that more guns in schools doesn't in turn result in a safer school. As well, they do not believe the 40 hours of training will not be enough for teachers to learn the proper use of guns.

So, what is your view on this. Do you think more schools around the US will adopt these rulings for their schools? Or do you think we might find alternative safety measures that could protect us better going forward? I personally am not for this, I don't trust that all teachers are going to be safe with a gun. What do you think though?

You can read more on this article/news here: GVWire

 

[Winny]

Yeah I'm under the impression that this could be a potentially bad idea. We don't know how these teachers will react when things go down. Like a school shooting for example. I can see some teachers getting all excited to defend against a school shooting. We all know there are people like that out there who want to play a cowboy and want to save the day. So that's a worry of mine. Of course not all teachers will be this way, but I know not all teachers will be safe with these measures.

Personally I am against it, but I think with the rate gun violence has gone in the past 20+ years, this might be a temporary fix that cuts down on it. But for how long?

And with the training, I would rather they have more than 40 hours of training, because I doubt they're going to train you on everything and I doubt most people retain that knowledge in such a small amount of time.

 

[Farmaholic]

I'm not surprised, though I don't think it will help. I firmly believe that there are two key ways to stop mass shootings in our schools. The first is to lock the school down, so that all parties must enter through a single door and after being buzzed in. The second is to ban automatic weapons, and the very idea of doing so upsets some people more than the body count.

 

[Nomad]

You cannot control violence with violence, to let's say you cannot control guns with guns. History has proved this. Providing guns to the teachers is not a solution to the gun firing incidents in the school. Instead of arming teachers with guns, you will have to introduce strict body checking of the students at the school premises