According to a post, by Madeline Leesman at Townhall.com, Tennessee has now past a law allowing staff at schools to carry guns. It remains to be signed into law by the Governor. The post can be found at Lawmakers in One State Pass Legislation to Allow Teachers to Carry Guns in Schools. The bill also calls for strict privacy of carriers from parents, other teachers and school staff, and students. Only the administrators would know.
If the Governor signs the bill, Tennessee will join Texas, Florida and a few other states in allowing this common sense way to protect students. Does that mean we will never have another school shooting? Of course not. But as with all deterrents, those who would target students will have to factor in the possibility of being stopped before they can get started by a teacher with a gun. These shooters hope to gain fame, though not fortune, by having the highest body count before they are killed. Sick, I know. But we are not dealing with rational actors here.
Note too that this is an entirely voluntary program. People who want to carry at school will go through extensive training. They will have to be very responsible with their weapon. Carrying every day is both physically and mentally draining. It requires a person to be on alert at all times. No one who doesn't feel like carrying a gun will be required to do so, and no one will be made to feel less than if they don't.
Further, all of the angst about students feeling "threatened and unsafe" with guns around is pure hogwash, a talking point. I suspect that not one in a hundred students will care on whit. They are too wrapped up in themselves, their relative status, what the kool kids are doing, what's in and what's out, to worry about their teachers. They are kids after all, not little adults.
I applaud Tennessee legislators for their guts and forsight. Would that all states had similar laws.
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