Some public school teachers in Tennessee could be given new powers to carry concealed weapons into the classroom, a year after a deadly shooting at a school in the state’s capital sparked a passionate debate over the best ways to combat such violence. curb.
Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature gave final approval to the legislation Tuesday, just days after Republican governors in Iowa and Nebraska signed legislation that also increases the potential for armed personnel in schools.
Tennessee lawmakers followed that up Wednesday with more action on gun rights, giving final approval to bills that would allow retired law officers to bring guns into schools and ban local extreme risk protection ordinances that allow guns to be removed of people who are considered a threat to themselves. or others.
Both bills come alongside Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who last year unsuccessfully pushed for a statewide measure that would allow some version of extreme risk protection orders.
The legislative action highlights a national divide on public safety and gun policy that emerged as Democratic-led legislatures in Colorado, Maine and Vermont all took steps toward imposing greater gun restrictions.
Legislatures in about two dozen states have already passed measures this year to expand gun rights or restrict access to firearms. Dozens of proposals are still being considered. The measures continue a trend from last year, when more than half of states passed gun laws, with Democrats generally in favor of more restrictions and Republicans in favor of more freedoms for gun owners.
GUNS IN TENNESSEE
Just over a year ago, a gunman opened fire at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, killing three children and three adults before police killed him.
Tensions ran high as lawmakers debated a response, peaking when the Republican majority expelled two Black Democratic House members last year for their role in a protest in support of gun control. Both lawmakers were subsequently reinstated.
Protests also broke out Tuesday after lawmakers passed the latest school gun legislation.
An earlier law in Tennessee already allowed some private school teachers and staff to carry guns.
The new measure would extend that to public schools under various conditions. Teachers and staff would first have to get a permit to carry a gun, which would require them to pass a background check, get a mental health clearance and complete 40 hours of training in elementary school policing. They would also need written permission from the school principal and local law enforcement authorities. And they wouldn’t be able to bring weapons to school events in stadiums, gymnasiums or auditoriums.
The legislation was one of several pro-gun bills passed in Tennessee this year.
On Monday, Lee signed a bill to expand gun provisions from private schools to kindergartens. On Tuesday, Lee signed a law requiring schools to provide age-appropriate instruction on firearm safety. And he signed a law Tuesday banning financial institutions from requiring special tracking codes for firearms retail sales.
GUNS IN SCHOOLS
About half of U.S. states allow teachers and other school employees with concealed carry permits to bring guns onto school grounds, according to the Giffords Law Center, a gun control advocacy group.
About a half-dozen states have passed measures this year that could increase some people’s ability to bring guns to schools.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed legislation last Friday that provides new protections for teachers who carry guns in schools. A 2021 state law already allowed schools to allow individuals to carry firearms, but some districts have been reluctant to embrace that due to insurance coverage concerns.
Iowa’s new law allows teachers and staff who complete gun safety training to obtain a professional license to carry weapons in schools. Doing so protects them from criminal and civil liability for the use of reasonable force. The law comes three months after a 17-year-old student opened fire at a school in Perry, Iowa, killing a principal and a sixth-grade student and injuring several other people.
Nebraska’s Republican governor, Jim Pillen, signed a law last Thursday allowing security personnel in the state’s smallest school districts to carry guns. The law was withdrawn from an initial proposal that would have applied to all schools.
Republican-led legislatures in Kentucky, South Dakota and Utah also passed measures this year that could increase some people’s ability to bring guns to schools. A bill passed in Wyoming allocates $480,000 to reimburse schools for the costs of training employees to carry weapons on school grounds.
GUN CONTROL MEASURES
In contrast to the Republican-backed measures, lawmakers in several Democratic-led states have moved forward this year with measures to impose greater restrictions on guns.
After an Army reservist killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston last year, Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, called for a variety of new laws aimed at preventing dangerous people from owning guns.
The Democratic-led Legislature last week approved measures that would impose a 72-hour waiting period on gun purchases and expand background checks on private gun sales. It has also passed legislation to ban devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into rapid-fire weapons such as machine guns, and to strengthen an existing law that allows judges to temporarily take guns away from people during a mental health crisis.
The Vermont House on Wednesday approved a bill that would restrict the possession and transfer of so-called ghost guns, hard-to-trace firearms and their parts without serial numbers that are increasingly being used in crimes. The amended legislation now goes back to the Senate for consideration.
Advocates say it is critical that Vermont require background checks and serial numbers on these often privately made firearms to prevent guns from getting into the hands of people who are not allowed to own them, and as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the legal fight over ghost guns.
Colorado’s Democratic-led legislature is considering numerous gun control proposals. Of several recently passed by the House of Representatives, one would require gun dealers to obtain state licenses, and another would ask voters to impose a 9% tax on gun and ammunition sales.
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Associated Press writers Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, and Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont, contributed to this report.
