Students around the U.S. have been calling for tougher gun control laws in the wake of last week’s shooting in a Florida high school, which left 17 dead, but one school shooting survivor favours the opposite approach.
Patrick Neville was a student at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colo., at the time of the April 1999 mass shooting that left 15 dead and inspired Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning documentary, Bowling For Columbine.
Now the minority leader of the Colorado House of Representatives, Republican Rep. Neville has been trying relentlessly to pass a bill which would allow concealed carry permit owners to carry their handguns in schools.
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Neville has been sponsoring the bill for four years now, and it has been killed three years in a row. It’s set to be heard by the House military committee again on Wednesday.
“With certain exceptions, current law limits the authority of a person who holds a valid permit to carry a concealed handgun by prohibiting a permit holder from carrying a concealed handgun on public elementary, middle, junior high, or high school grounds,” reads a summary of bill HB18-1037. “The bill removes this limitation.”
Neville, whose website states that he’s a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, told NBC affiliate 9News that he believes students would be better protected if teachers were allowed to carry weapons.
“I decided to run this [bill] the day I decided to run for office because as a former Columbine student, I feel passionately that this should be an issue that we should take up, and that we should actually do to protect our kids,” Neville said.
“Last Thursday, dropping my kids off at school was absolutely freaking me, knowing that I just had to hope on blind faith that they would return home safely with nothing more than a flashy sign on the front door protecting them.”
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In Alabama, Republican Rep. Will Ainsworth is set to introduce a bill Tuesday that would allow teachers to carry firearms if they undergo 40 hours of training, paid for by the state, and a mental health evaluation.
“Our kids do not need to be sitting ducks. Our teachers do not need to be defending themselves with a number two pencil,” Ainsworth said in a press conference in Guntersville Elementary School, which his three children attend, ABC affiliate WAAY 31 reported.
Alabama’s Democratic Gov. Doug Jones told News 5 on Monday that he thinks arming teachers is “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”
But Ainsworth was undeterred, saying his bill was a direct response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
“This started out the day of the shooting, with coaches, with teachers reaching out to me saying ‘Will, we need help,'” said Ainsworth, flanked by supporters including the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy and Marshall County Sheriff.
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One Ohio sheriff has also expressed his support for similar measures. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones announced over the weekend that he would be offering free concealed carry classes to teachers.
He was interviewed about the initiative by the National Rifle Association‘s 24-hour network NRA TV on Saturday. On Tuesday, he announced the classes were sold out.
“I believe that school teachers should be taught how to deal with guns, when guns come to the classroom,” Sheriff Jones told Fox 19.
Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich also backed concealed carry for teachers, telling Fox & Friends that at least six to eight teachers in every school should carry guns and be trained in how to use them.
“I think we have to be realistic. We’re not going confiscate guns in a scale to make us a disarmed country,” Gingrich said. “And the truth is, sooner or later, somebody’s going to slip through the net.”
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