Wednesday, April 1, 2015

States Look to Throw Open School Doors to Concealed Weapons

neaToday

State lawmakers in nearly 20 states this spring are considering, or have recently considered, bills that would allow guns in k12 schools or on college campuses — including Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Florida, and Georgia. 

“There’s definitely a lot of activity this year. In terms of higher ed, we had eight states with bills last year, and now we have 15 — and even one would be absolutely unacceptable,” said Andy Pelosi, executive director of The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus.

Among the state legislation under current consideration is a bill in Colorado that would allow any individual with a concealed-weapon permit the right to carry guns into K12 schools. One of its chief proponents is a lawmaker who was a sophomore at Columbine High School during the 1999 shooting. But among its opponents is Colorado third-grade teacher Katie Lyles, an NEA member and also a Columbine survivor, who was spurred by the Sandy Hook in school shootings in 2012 to speak up for gun safety.

“I think [the CO bill] a really short-sighted, reactive solution,” Lyles told National Public Radio. “I feel like we need to be looking at a different conversation. And that conversation is, how do we prevent violence from even entering that school.”

Moreover, how do guns and kids safely mix, she asked. “”If I had a gun, kids are around me all of the time. They’re giving me hugs. So where do I keep that gun?”

According to the California-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the vast majority of states (all except Hawaii and New Hampshire) generally prohibit guns from K12 schools, but there are exceptions. For example, concealed-carry permit holders can carry their firearms into K12 schools in 11 states — including Utah, where an elementary school teacher accidentally shot herself in the leg in a teachers’ bathroom in September.

8 comments:

  1. What's the complaint? Would they prefer open carry?

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  2. Interesting how they combine two different issues into one to make it seem larger and more ominous. Permit holders having the same rights on public property called colleges as they do everywhere else is quite a different issue than carrying in a K-12 school.

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  3. Just because they can doesn't mean they should, or it's a good idea. Gun rights people seem to think because it is legal, it is the best thing to do. Wrong.

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    1. Jack, if legislation is passed by elected representitives that doesn't follow the wishes of the voters, then they will find out the hard way when they're voted out of office. In some states they don't even have to wait for the normal election cycle to do it, as was well demonstrated recently in Colorado.

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    2. You totally missed my point SS, but thanks for the reply.

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  4. Then perhaps you can clarify your point so we can better discuss it. We live in a country where if it isn't restricted, it's legal. Not the other way around. Which means that it's the decision of each individual. It works that way for everything, not just gun issues.

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    1. Not sure how I can make it clearer.

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  5. We'll have more and more incidents like the toilet shooter. Some of them will result in dead kids and teachers, and all this will transpire long before any school massacre is thwarted. That's my prediction.

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