Tensions rose during Wednesday morning’s House Education Administration Committee meeting as members debated letting public school teachers carry a gun to school.
Spectators watching the committee began yelling out protests following the 12 to 6 vote to advance the legislation. Committee Chairman Mark White was unable to gavel down the protest and called for an immediate recess.
Cookeville Representative Ryan Williams is sponsoring the legislation to allow school faculty or staff members to carry a concealed firearm on school grounds.
Staff would be subject to certain conditions including 40 hours of training with local law enforcement annually, a mental health evaluation, a background check with the FBI, and the leader of the school would be notified of the person’s desire to carry. Local Law enforcement would also be informed of the staff member carrying a gun.
“There would be no difference between a local law enforcement agent in your community and this person because they’d have exactly the same training and requirements,” said Representative Williams. “One of the biggest challenges that we have and that I’m asked in my district every day is, not just before last week but every week, have we done everything that we can do. Have you done everything that you can do and the answer to this question there is more that we can do, and this bill is one of those things that we can do.”
Williams says the bill, and its original idea came from research he did on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018. The topic of gun legislation has taken on heightened significance this year in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville last week.
Committee members supporting the bill argue that giving teachers and faculty the means to defend students before law enforcement arrives, is a needed step to improve school safety.
“I just recently in the last three months have had several educators approach and each one of these ladies had asked for us to take this on. And each one of them presented to me a need to further harden our school against evil people and they talked about a deterrence. They mentioned, like an ADT sign outside their home, and it’s been proven that just knowing there was an alarm in the home prevented some crimes upon that home,” said Kingston Representative Monty Fritts.
The legislation faced bi-partisan opposition with three Republicans including Chairman White voting against it along with every Democrat on the committee.
Knoxville Representative Sam McKenzie was among those voting no. He worries about children in a classroom with a teacher carrying a gun, along with concerns about potential interference with local enforcement.
“These teachers, to the eyes of what I call ‘real law enforcement’, are just subjects. And this person has a gun and he or she is in the hallway with this weapon maybe trying to help out law enforcement, they’re going from classroom to classroom while everyone else is running toward (them). That’s not a good look if I’m law enforcement and I’m going into this area,” said Representative Sam McKenzie.
This bill also saw opposition from activist group Moms Demand Action and a Hillwood High School student Keirnan Reed.
Both told committee members that adding more guns to the equation won’t make for safer schools.
“If more guns in more places made us safer, we’d be the safest state in the country and we’re not,” said Moms Demand Action representative Jason Sparks.
“It’s terrifying to know that I could go to school and not know who has a firearm. I could go to school and the people I trust, the people I put my faith into, the people who teach me could have a lethal weapon on them—I have friends who might act up in the class and they might be put in harm of getting shot and messing or being loud is not worthy of the death penalty or getting shot. It’s not okay. It’s terrifying,” said Reed.
The legislation now moves to the House Calendar and Rules Committee.
