A group of Republican politicians in Tennessee want to pass a law that would let some teachers bring guns to school.
The Senate Bill 1325 was supported by a vote of 26 to 5. This bill would let school staff carry a gun as long as they meet certain conditions. So, the teachers need to get a carry permit, get written permission from the director and the police in their area, and then take forty hours of handgun training.
The bill was passed after three children and three teachers were killed in a shooting at Nashville, Tennessee’s The Covenant School, a secular elementary school.
The bill doesn’t say that teachers have to carry guns, and it also doesn’t say who among them does. Only the leaders and police would know who had a gun. There were people who backed the bill and said that it could make teachers more available in case of a killing.
“It’s time to look at the facts of the bill,” said Republican Sen. Ken Yager in support of the bill. “We are not trying to shoot a student; we are trying to protect a student from an active shooter whose only goal is to get into that school and kill people.”
People who were against the bill said it could make things worse and be harmful. Some people said that teachers didn’t ask for this and that this isn’t always what they meant when they said they wanted to keep the kids safer.
That being said, teachers who carry guns are not supposed to ever use them, not even against a killer. This is at least for safety reasons. This goes along with changes in state rules that allow longer guns and make it possible for people of different ages to carry handguns.
