Nashville was home to a terrible school shooting. It was in a private school, but schools throughout the area are likely concerned about someone doing that again.
Luckily for them, Tennessee has passed a measure that would do something that might have stopped the shooting at The Covenant School. The law would allow school teachers and staff to go through a process to carry a firearm.
Whether people like to hear it or not, a good guy with a gun is typically the only thing that stops a mass murder in progress. The sooner you can put an armed good gun where he needs to be to do something about the killer, the sooner it ends and the more lives potentially saved.
Or you can go the route that the school system in Nashville has gone and just put your head in the sand.
In order to carry a handgun on school grounds, staff will need permission from the school’s principal, district superintendent and local law enforcement. Several school districts, including Metro Nashville Public Schools, have already stated that they do not intend to allow teachers to carry firearms.
“We have a strong relationship with the Metro Nashville Police Department and agree that it is safest for only approved active-duty law enforcement officers to carry weapons on campus,” says an MNPS spokesperson. “This has been our consistent practice at MNPS, and we have no intention of changing it.”
Williamson County Schools Superintendent Jason Golden has also said he “will not authorize teachers or staff being armed at WCS schools.”
For the record, Williamson County is right outside of Nashville.
Now, note that only “approved” police officers can carry firearms, meaning they don’t even want your average cop coming into the school with a firearm on his hip, even to pick up his kid after work.
That tells you a lot, if you ask me.
See, the problem is that these dipstick “educators” seem to have bought the propaganda that says the mere presence of a firearm makes everyone less safe. This is something that has long been pushed by anti-gunners, and they’ve clearly bought into it.
Yet let’s look at one of the reasons the bill was passed in the first place.
Proponents of the legislation, including House sponsor Rep. Ryan Williams (R-Cookeville), see arming teachers as a way to deter threats. They also point to the fact that it’s permissive, meaning teachers don’t have to carry handguns if they don’t want to. On the House floor, Williams referenced a similar 2016 law that allows teachers in the state’s most economically distressed counties to carry firearms — though it hasn’t really been utilized. Williams also noted that other states have passed similar legislation.
“One of the biggest questions that people ask me all the time [is] ‘Have you done everything you can possibly do to make our schools safe across the state?’” said Williams. “I believe that this is a method by which we can do that.”
Let’s remember that the killer at The Covenant School chose her target based on a lack of security. Would-be mass murderers aren’t usually picky about a specific target. They want a target that will let them murder as many people as possible.
What these superintendents basically did was tell ever would-be mass killer in the area that schools in their districts are perfectly safe for them to choose as targets. They’ve broadcast to the entire world that there won’t be armed resistance from teachers and staff.
While trying to proclaim their schools as safe, they’ve made them anything but.
Williams wanted to deter threats. Armed school staff–particularly if they’re carrying voluntarily–can provide that deterrence.
Announcements about how you refuse to trust your teachers isn’t.
