Who Is the Most Serious about Stopping School Shootings?

              The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the Second Amendment and the strident calls for more gun control. The Democrats use every opportunity possible to call for more gun control, and the tragedy at Uvalde, Texas, provided such an occasion. On the other hand, Republicans realize that taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens is not the answer, and some Republicans are taking other action.

             The State of Ohio is serious about preventing any incidents like the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. This is shown by the fact that the state legislature passed a bill allowing school districts to arm employees, and Republican Governor Mike DeWine will soon sign it.          

            President Joe Biden opposes hardening schools to avoid school shooting, and the Democrats in Ohio opposed the legislation even though it is optional for the school districts. Democrats claim that signing the bill into law will send the wrong message because of the Uvalde shooting. However, “the Republican majority in the state’s legislature insisted that the measure could prevent future tragedies like the one in Uvalde.” 

            Under the new legislation school personnel will need 24 hours of training before being allowed to arm themselves on campus. “The firearm training that school employees will now receive will be specific to respective schools and school systems and will include ‘significant’ scenario-based training.”

            According to Governor DeWine, “Ultimately, each school will make its own decision. So we’re not telling any school district – we have over 600 school districts in the state – the school board of that school will decide whether they want to arm teachers or not.” He continued, “We will also be giving schools the choice of providing additional training, that we will stake out [and] provide for if they decide that they want more than 24 hours for a teacher.” The legislation also calls for “eight hours of requalification training annually to recertify [school employees] ability to carry while on school grounds.”

            The legislature is not the only public body that is divided over the legislation. “Reportedly, major law enforcement groups, gun control advocates, and the state’s teachers’ unions oppose the legislation,” but “Notably, local police departments and certain school districts within the state expressed support for the legislation.”

            In addition to giving school districts the choice to arm school employees, the state is going further in its efforts to harden schools. Governor DeWine “recently announced that the state’s construction budget will provide $100 million for school security upgrades and $5 million for security upgrades at colleges across the state.”

            Hanging a “Gun Free Zone” sign outside each school has not prevented school shooting. School shooters have obviously not paid attention to the signs. It is time to do more to protect innocent people. While deluded people claim that more gun control will solve the problem, people living in reality can see that disarming law-abiding citizens will not disarm those with the intent to kill.

The best way to prevent more school shootings is to make the experience more difficult. Arming school employees and training them to use guns safely is one way to deter would-be shooters from coming to the school. If schools are also locked down with one way to enter the school and an armed guard at the entrance, want-a-be shooters may think twice about going there. The old way is not working, so it is time to try something new.