US state will allow teachers to carry guns in schools
Tennessee has passed a law allowing teachers to carry guns in schools – despite fierce opposition from families affected by a mass shooting in Nashville that killed three children.
Amid angry scenes in the state’s senate chamber, about 200 sign-waving protesters chanted “Kill the bill, not the kids!” before lawmakers voted in favour of permitting teachers to carry concealed handguns on school grounds.
The move comes a year after three nine-year-olds, two teachers and a caretaker were killed by a gunman at the Covenant School in Nashville.
A group of mothers from the Christian primary school were among the gun-reform advocates watching from the public gallery during Tuesday’s debate at the statehouse in Nashville.
The mothers were permitted to stay when Randy McNally, Tennessee’s lieutenant governor, called in state troopers to clear the gallery after repeated disruptions from protesters.
Beth Gebhard, whose son and daughter were at the Covenant School during the shooting, said that she could not imagine how a teacher would confront a gunman, especially one armed with an assault-style rifle.
“A handgun will do nothing against that,” she told The Tennessean. “If what had happened on March 27 had gone down the way that it did with a teacher armed with a handgun attempting to put the perpetrator out, my children would likely be dead.”
Tennessee Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that it was “irresponsible” because guns in the classroom could put students at risk.
Despite raising fears about the weapons being stolen or misused in a crisis situation, they were overwhelmed 26-5 in the vote by the state’s Republican majority.
Ken Yager, a Tennessee state senator and a Republican supporter of the bill, said that it was designed to protect students “from an active shooter whose sole purpose is to get in that school and kill people”.
He added: “In rural counties, where they may only have two deputies on a shift, it might take 20 or 30 minutes to get to that school. What havoc can be wreaked in that 30-minute period? This bill tries to fix that problem and protect children.”
South Dakota became the US first state to allow teachers to carry guns on school grounds in 2013, following the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut in which 26 people were killed. Several other states have since followed their lead.
However, according to data from the campaign group Everytown for Gun Safety, there are still 34 states that ban teachers from carrying guns in schools.
