WEB EXTRA: Allowing guns in Iowa schools: Cure or confusion?

Thanks for checking out this web extra. We didn’t have time to fit in all of our panel discussion into this week’s broadcast of f”4 the Record.”

Host Jim Niedelman and returning panelists – former Rock Island County Republican Party Chair Drue Mielke and former Rock Island Mayor Mark Schwiebert, a Democrat – pick up the conversation with the direction Iowa is taking to allow school employees to have guns on campus. That’s after a proposal cleared the state legislature and made it to the governor.

They will need a permit and different training. That training involves a one-time in-person session that will go over communication, emergency medical training and the rules for qualified immunity. They will have qualified immunity like police.

There’s also a requirement for firearm training every quarter, and live situational training every year.

The legislation is supported by Republicans, and opposed by Democrats as you’d expect.

“I think putting more guns in the schools is a little bit like carrying gasoline to put out a fire,” Schwiebert said.

“This would allow teachers to have guns for protection if they so choose,” Mielke said.

To hear the rest of their conversation, click on the video.

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