Parents, experts urge TN lawmakers not to pass bill allowing teachers to carry guns
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s a race against time for some Tennessee parents. With this year’s legislative session rapidly drawing to a close, Republican lawmakers could take the final vote on a bill to arm teachers any day now.
On top of background checks and other requirements, teachers would have to go through 40 hours of training in school policing. Based on state code, that’s the same training for school resource officers (SROS), but is it enough?
News 2 spoke with a parent and a security expert about the push to put more guns in schools.
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“It’s been really hard,” Mary Joyce, a Covenant School mother, said. “It’s been a hard year.”
Today, Joyce’s daughter is 10 years old, but three of her classmates never got the chance to celebrate their 10th birthdays.
“She looked at me that week and said, ‘I’m never gonna see them again,’ and she’s right,” Joyce recalled.
Joyce is a member of an ever-expanding club.
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“We didn’t know if she was dead or alive that day,” Joyce said, referring to March 27, 2023.
Numerous parents are bonded by a snapshot in time that forever changed the course of their lives.
“From the very beginning, mothers like myself and other mothers at our school and around Tennessee have been advocating for something very clear,” Joyce said.
Since the deadly Covenant School shooting, Covenant parents have stepped up and gone to the State Capitol on a regular basis, but now their mission feels more urgent than ever.
Republican state lawmakers are one vote away from passing a bill that would arm Tennessee teachers.
“It is my desire and expectation to lift it from the desk and have a vote on it before we adjourn sine die,” said state Rep. Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville), the sponsor of the House bill.
Because of a legislative procedure, Williams can pull the bill up for a vote anytime before session ends. In fact, it’s already passed the Senate.
“I really believe this bill could save lives and also prevent threats of mass violence or any kind of active shooter situation in our schools,” he said.
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According to parents, that’s just not true.
“Adding additional weapons and access to those people in the school is just gonna increase the risk of something bad happening with that weapon on school grounds,” Joyce said.
The bill would allow faculty or staff members of a school to carry a concealed handgun on school grounds under certain conditions. It stipulates that any teacher who wants to carry has to have a handgun carry permit, receive written authorization from the local police chief, and complete the same 40 hours of training required for SROs.
However, is that enough?
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Moose Moore, founder of the Vigilance Group, a security consulting company, helps train school staff to respond to dangerous situations. According to him, 40 hours barely scratches the surface.
“Your normal Metro police officer that’s an SRO goes through 480 hours of training. They go through it with the mindset, ‘I’m a warrior,'” Moore explained. “Don’t tell me that the 40 hours, that the 40 hours that a Metro police officer gets to become an SRO, it’s not all about how to defend. It’s more about how to interact with the kids and the teachers.”
It’s unclear when Tennessee lawmakers will call the bill up for a vote. However, while waiting for that vote, Joyce and the other parents have one message for lawmakers: “Listen to what Tennesseans are asking for. We are asking for safer gun laws, not bringing more weapons into scenarios.”
Sixteen other states across the country already let teachers legally carry guns at school in some capacity, according to Everytown.
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