At least 40 School Districts in Ohio allow Teachers to Carry Permitted Concealed Handguns

WKRC-TV Channel 12 in Cincinnati reports:

. . . In Ohio, around 40 school districts now allow teachers with concealed carry licenses to carry their weapons in class. In upstate Ohio there is top level, extraordinary teacher training.
The teachers and administrators train side by side with local law enforcement and paramedics at John Benner’s Tactical Defense Institute. They're training for a nightmare, when classrooms and hallways become killing fields. . . .
Parents in a district asked that their staff be armed. The board OK'd the training and the carrying of weapons on campus by trained staff. . . . .
The instructors are from John Benner's Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County, Ohio . . . .  Benner himself is a former SWAT commander.
He said, “We've believed in this for a long time, but never thought we'd be able to pull it off until Sandy Hook. And then everything changed. Now people realize if you don't have somebody in the school that's armed willing and capable you're gonna lose a lot of people.”
The cost of training is entirely covered by the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a pro-gun organization.
Joe Eaton of Buckeye said, “There are teachers who are willing to die for the children we leave with them every day. When they come to us and say we need a solution, we need something that will happen. When we have experts that can provide the training to provide these solutions our foundation is obligated to make this happen for the schools.” . . .

Some interesting information from Utah, where teachers across the entire state are allowed to carry at school.  Utah definitely does this right as Utah law prevents districts from asking the teachers that have guns.

Nevada one step closer to getting rid of gun-free zones in colleges and government buildings

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

A controversial bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry their guns on Nevada college campuses won approval in the Assembly on Monday and now goes to the Senate. 

The so called “campus carry” measure, Assembly Bill 148, is sponsored by Assemblywoman and gun rights advocate Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, along with many of her colleagues. 

The vote for passage was 24 to 15 with all but one Democrat, James Ohrenshall of Las Vegas, opposed. Three members were absent. . . . 

Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen is supporting the bill. 

Gov. Brian Sandoval has said he won’t take a position until and if a bill lands on his desk. 

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures in information dated from February 2015, 23 states let universities make the call on carrying concealed weapons, 20 ban weapons and seven, including Utah, Colorado and Idaho, allow firearms to be carried with some limitations. . . .

Will Florida pass a law that would allow people with permits to carry a concealed handgun on college campuses?

After a mass public shooting at Florida State University left students defenseless last month, one area state legislator is trying to fix the problem.

. . . The proposal (SB 176), filed Thursday Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker,  is identical to a bill (HB 4005) filed earlier this week by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota. The bill would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns on campus. It comes after an incident last month at Florida State University in which a gunman shot three people at the campus library before he was killed by police. 

The bills will be considered during the 2015 legislative session. 

Steube said he already planned to sponsor the measure before a shooting incident last month at Florida State University —- but that the attack, which left three people injured and the gunman dead, helps to make his point. The bill would apply to people who are licensed to carry concealed weapons. 

“I think it (the attack) brings it closer to home for people who think these events don’t occur in Florida, or that law enforcement can prevent them from happening,” Steube told The News Service of Florida. . . . 

Other relevant past posts
Police rule that student who retrieved his gun from his car at Eastern Florida State College acted in self defense against two attackers

Arizona and Florida considering bill to let law-abiding citizens carry concealed on college campuses

"Controversial"?: University of Rhode Island finally becomes the last public university in the country to allow campus police to carry guns

This past April when the University of Rhode Island System trustees voted 8-to-1 to let campus police carry guns, you would see stories such as this:

University of Rhode Island campus police will soon carry guns under a policy announced Monday, ending the school’s status as the only public university in the country where campus police do not carry firearms. . . .

This is where we stand now:

The University of Rhode Island has begun training campus police officers to carry guns after a controversial decision in April to arm the campus police force. 

Public Safety Stephen Baker says the goal is to have all 27 campus officers carrying guns by the start of the Spring semester.  

"State police have completed 17 of the background checks and they’ve been delivered to us. The next step in that process is to have those officers go through psychological examinations," Baker said. "Then we’ll begin the actual firearms training, and that’s planned for the month of October." 

The officers participated in preliminary firearms training in August. URI has ordered and started receiving the semi-automatic handguns they will carry, which are similar to those carried by State Police. 

In addition to the gun training, URI police and some other staff have received special training to recognize and handle mental health issues. The university is also finalizing plans for an addition to its public safety facility, which will house the firearms. . . .

 If this is so controversial, why is it that every other public university system in the country has armed campus police and that none of them are reconsidering that decision?  The police here are very important, but they still have limitations.  Since the police are in uniform, they will actually be the first ones to be attacked if terrorists were ever to strike.  That is one of the benefits of permitted concealed handguns.

Many (but apparently not all) St. Louis-area school superintendents say won't let designated teachers to carry guns in school

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch article lists school superintendents who are against guns in school, but notice that it doesn't say that all the St. Louis-area school superintendents are against let people protect the children.  From the article:

Many St. Louis-area school superintendents say they don’t want guns in their schools regardless of a new state law that allows designated teachers to carry them. 

The law lets school districts appoint teachers or administrators as “school safety officers” who would be allowed to carry concealed weapons after training. 

Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed this bill in July. But on Wednesday, the Legislature overrode his veto of gun rights expansion legislation that also allows residents with concealed weapons permits to openly carry guns in public. 

Parents contacted the Clayton School District late last week concerned that teachers could soon be carrying weapons through the hallways. 

“There’s the perception that school districts are required to do this, rather than allowed to do this,” district spokesman Chris Tennill said. 

The district’s position was posted on its website Friday afternoon. “There are few, if any, situations that would require the District to consider appointing ‘school protection officers’ given the level of and proximity to law enforcement resources already in place,” it stated. . . . .

Bakersfield, California Vice Principal shows that concealed carry permit holders can legally carry guns on school property

This story won't be a surprise for those who have followed the CPRC (or here).  In California, concealed carry permit holders are allowed to carry on school property if they have approval of the school superintendent, which it would be too surprising for Vice Principal to obtain.  From KBAK/KBFX in Bakersfield, California:

A Tevis Junior High School administrator who was arrested and subsequently released last month after bringing a gun to school has filed a claim against the city of Bakersfield and its police department, according to his attorney Daniel Rodriguez.

Kent Williams, 51, vice principal at the school since 2010, said he was falsely arrested by BPD officers for bringing the handgun to school, because he has a valid concealed-weapons permit and showed it to them before the arrest was made.

"Me, being a law abiding citizen, that was the first time I had ever been exposed to handcuffs," Williams said. "I was frightened and scared out of my mind."

Rodriguez said his client brought the gun to school for safety reasons.

He said several laws were violated by the arrest on behalf of the department, which later released Williams from custody.

Police said it was initially believed that Williams may have violated the California Gun Free Zone Act but said the vice principal likely did not break any laws because of his valid concealed-carry firearms permit, which was issued by Kern County. . . .

Dickinson High School near Wilmington, DE student had loaded gun

Given that Bloomberg is collecting also sorts of data on guns at school, I have collected some cases.  Is it likely that this 17-year-old has had gang connected activity?  From the Delaware News Journal:

The boy, who lives in Wilmington, "was never any threat to students or faculty during the incident," Delaware State Police spokesman Sgt. Paul G. Shavack said. Investigators found "no indication" that he planned to shoot anyone or had made any type of threat, he said.

But following the boy's arrest, Shavack said, the investigation revealed that he already had a past felony conviction and was prohibited from possessing a firearm. Details of his past offense were not disclosed.

The gun seized from his backpack was "a fully loaded Kel-Tec 9mm Luger semiautomatic handgun with the serial number obliterated," Shavack said. . . .

Colorado State Senator who supported allowing staff to have guns at school feels even more strongly about bill after shooting as his child's high school

Could you imagine what a big story it would be if a Democrat state Senator who had a gun bill that he claimed would have stopped these attacks with more gun control had this happen at his child's school, it would have been big news.  State Sen. Ted Harvey's bill is available here.  Fortunately, there were people with guns who were able to very quickly stop the attack.  From an article by my son Maxim at Fox News:

The 18-year-old student who stormed into his Colorado school last month with a shotgun and a bandolier of bullets across his chest, fatally shooting a classmate and setting fire to the library, provided fresh ammunition for one lawmaker's bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools. 

The Dec. 13 incident struck a chord with Republican state Sen. Ted Harvey, whose own son attends the school, in Centennial. Harvey, whose wife is a schoolteacher, said armed teachers at Arapahoe High School might have been able to act even more quickly than the two staff members being hailed as heroes after running toward the library, where James Pierson, 18, had gunned down Claire Davis and ignited a Molotov cocktail.
“I don't want my wife and kids to be sitting ducks,” Harvey told FoxNews.com. . . .

Colorado state Sen. whose son was at high school with recent shooting speaks out about need to arm teachers and staff

It tells you a lot that the various gun control groups were unwilling to comment on this story.  I have been on multiple shows with representatives of these groups where they attack the NRA for not going on talk shows immediately after an attack.  Why won't these guys discuss some news that might be somewhat uncomfortable for them?  From Fox News:

The 18-year-old student who stormed into his Colorado school last month with a shotgun and a bandolier of bullets across his chest, fatally shooting a classmate and setting fire to the library, provided fresh ammunition for one lawmaker's bill that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools.
The Dec. 13 incident struck a chord with Republican state Sen. Ted Harvey, whose own son attends the school, in Centennial. Harvey, whose wife is a schoolteacher, said armed teachers at Arapahoe High School might have been able to act even more quickly than the two staff members . . . .
Harvey has introduced a bill to allow school districts in Colorado to let teachers carry guns. He sponsored the bill prior to the shooting, but says that the tragedy cements the measure's importance.
“It validated why I think an armed person in the school is a good thing,”  Harvey told FoxNews.com.
Pierson's 80-second attack started after he asked to see the school’s librarian and debate coach, whom he was angry with. He did not find the coach, and instead ended up shooting Davis, a student he didn’t know and who died after clinging to life for more than a week. Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said the sight of an armed official  likely prevented further casualties and was a “critical element to the shooter’s decision” to commit suicide. . . .
Many schools in Colorado do not have armed guards, noted Harvey.
“Not every school in Colorado has an armed guard roaming the halls," Harvey said. "I think the situation that resulted at Arapahoe high school is not what we would have seen at other schools.”
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and the Violence Policy Center – all groups that support more gun control – declined to comment or did not answer questions from FoxNews.com about the bill. . . .

If Students for Concealed Carry ever have another national convention, this is one person they might want to invite. 

NBC report on states allowing adults to carry guns onto school grounds

This list misses out on Michigan, which allows open carry by a permit holder on school property.  Ohio also has at least one school district that is allowing staff and teachers to carry concealed handguns.  Whether these restrictions are "minor" seems at least debatable.  Also note that this list is somewhat outdated.  From NBC News earlier this year:

The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 prohibits anyone from having a firearm in a school zone. But that law includes the same exception recognized by the states identified in NBC News' survey: It doesn't apply if the weapons are "approved by a school in the school zone."
And in any event, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Steve Stockman, R-Texas, have introduced measures in the new Congress that would repeal the federal law altogether.
Here are the 18 states that allow adults to carry loaded weapons onto school grounds with few or minor conditions:


• Alabama (which bans possessing a weapon on school grounds only if the carrier has "intent to do bodily harm")

• California (with approval of the superintendent)

• Connecticut (with approval of "school officials")

• Hawaii (no specific law)

• Idaho (with school trustees' approval)

• Iowa (with "authorization")

• Kentucky (with school board approval)

• Massachusetts (with approval of the school board or principal)

• Mississippi (with school board approval)

• Montana (with school trustees' permission)

• New Hampshire (ban applies only to pupils, not adults)

• New Jersey (with approval from the school's "governing officer")

• New York (with the school's approval)

• Oregon (with school board approval)

• Rhode Island (with a state concealed weapons permit)

• Texas (with the school's permission)

• Utah (with approval of the "responsible school administrator")

• Wyoming (as long as it's not concealed)

Woman, who served in the Army, barred from her disabled child's school simply for having a concealed handgun permit

Gun phobia for public school officials seems to know no bounds.  Here we have someone who served in the Army with a concealed handgun permit.  It seems that we should be thankful that this woman with her training is willing to carry a gun to protect others.  But instead she is banned from her disabled child's school?  There is no evidence that this woman carried the concealed handgun on school property, though if it were me, I would encourage someone with her training to do so.  From WRDW-TV Channel 12 in Augusta, Georgia:

Tanya Mount says she is being targeted by the administrator at her daughter's school after a meeting between the two several week ago. 

"I feel like a criminal. I want I want to be heard. I want a public apology," says Mount. On Wednesday, Mount says she was handed a notice from Richmond County Board of Education police. 

"He tells me that were going to issue you a criminal trespass warning," says Mount. The notice banned her from McBean Elementary School where her disabled daughter attends.
She asked what she did wrong. "The principal is scared of you and she doesn't want you on the grounds. I ask for what? And he asks were you in the Army and I said yes. He's like do you have a concealed weapons permit? I said yes," says Mount. 

Mount who is a parent volunteer says she is banned from the school for posting a picture of her new concealed weapons permit on her Facebook page. 

She says she has never had any problems with Principal Janina Dallas but says she was blind-sided weeks earlier during a meeting with Dallas. 

"She told me that instead of volunteering at the school and playing on the play ground with my daughter I need to be at home doing grown up things," says Dallas. . . . .

The expanding list of schools that allow teachers and staff to carry guns at K-12 schools

Slowly but surely things are changing.  I have been posting on individual school districts, but it is nice to see a major news story on this point that keeps track of all the different school districts.  While the list below is useful, it misses out on Michigan which allows people to carry guns at school as long as someone has a permit and the gun is carried openly (whether teachers or staff could do that would depend on their employment contract, but that is unlikely any time soon).

From USA Today:

The state of Utah allows teachers to carry concealed guns if they pass a background check and undergo training, a policy that has been in place since 2000. Hawaii does not regulate guns in schools, and New Hampshire bans only students from possessing a firearm on school grounds, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit advocacy group.

This year, legislators in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas passed laws that authorize at least one school employee to carry a weapon on campus, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some of the statutes revised existing laws.

Across the country, several schools allow or will be allowing their teachers to carry concealed weapons:

• St. Helens School District, about 25 miles north of Portland, Ore., voted earlier this month to allow teachers at its two elementary, one middle, one high and three alternative schools to carry weapons with a permit on campus, reversing a March decision to prohibit firearms.

• Clarksville School District about 100 miles northwest of Little Rock, Ark., became the first in the state this school year to arm selected teachers with handguns.

• Newcomerstown Exempted Village School District in northeast Ohio voted to allow authorized staff to carry guns on school property starting this school year.

• In Texas, at least 20 school systems — including the Brookesmith, Canadian, Cayuga, Chapel, Christoval, Ganado, Harmony, Hunt, Huntington, Jonesboro, Levelland, Lingleville, Louise, Palmer, Quanah, Shamrock, Union Grove, Van and West Hardin independent school districts — allow teachers to be armed, according to media reports. Harrold Independent School District began its policy in 2008 in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. . . .

There is also the Briggsdale school district in Colorado.

"Rural Colorado school allows teachers to carry concealed weapons"

Slowly more and more places are letting teachers carry guns.  From the Daily Caller:

School administrators in the tiny Colorado town of Briggsdale will allow an unspecified number of teachers to carry concealed handguns in the classroom as long as they agree to participate in ongoing training. 

Participants must commit to hitting the firing range for a minimum of 100 rounds per month. 

Briggsdale, located in northeastern Colorado, is too small to have it’s own police department and it’s at least 20 minutes away from the nearest emergency response.
It’s the isolation that makes arming teachers important, superintendent Rick Mondt told the Greeley Tribune. 

“I don’t have a two-minute or minute-and-30 response time,” he said. “That would be the only reason that I would think this would be somewhat of a necessity.” . . .

Public School Principal asks Police Officer not to wear his uniform when he drops off his daughter at her elementary school

How can anyone feel threatened by a police officer wearing his gun?  Do they really believe that a police officer will start attacking people?  Presumably this type of reaction is just an extremely rare event (after all there are a lot of public schools in the US), but it would be nice if the government applied zero tolerance to these events.  It seems that parents should be thankful that a police officer is taking the time to be around the school.  The only criticism that I can offer is that it would be better if the officer didn't wear his uniform but still had his gun with him.  From Fox News:

A police officer who dropped off his daughter at her Phoenix elementary school was asked by the school’s principal not to wear his uniform to the school because other parents were concerned that he was carrying a gun, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported. 

Scott Urkov is a police officer for the Coolidge Police Department. The department told him not to comment to media inquiries, but immediately after he received the no-uniform request, he posted on Facebook. 

"Nothing like your kids school calling and asking if I could not come to pick up my daughter in uniform cause parents were concerned when their kids came home telling them there was a man at school with a gun, “ he posted. “Are you freaking kidding me?" 

His daughter attends Entz Elementary School, which is in the Mesa Unified School District. . . .

13 School Districts in Arkansas had been using to employ teachers, administrators and staff as armed security guards

The Arkansas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies will hopefully receive some feedback from the citizens of Arkansas regarding their meeting today (501-618-8600).  From Fox News:

 A state board is to consider whether to permanently revoke licenses that some Arkansas school districts had been using to employ teachers, administrators and staff as armed security guards. 

The Arkansas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies on Wednesday is scheduled to review the licenses that had been issued to 13 school districts classifying them as private security firms.  

The panel in August had suspended the licenses after a legal opinion was issued by the state's attorney general that the schools could not use the licensing law to arm staff. . . .

Atlanta area school shooting in Georgia

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the attack by this 20-year-old.  Not too surprisingly this was another case where the attacker "was willing to die."  From Fox News:

. . . No one was injured in the shooting and all students and teachers were accounted for and safe. The suspect, later identified as Michael Brandon Hill, fired at least a half-dozen shots with an assault rifle from inside the school and officers returned fire, DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric L. Alexander said at a news conference. . . .
School clerk Antoinette Tuff in an interview on ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer" said she worked to convince the gunman to put down his weapons and ammunition.
"He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die," Tuff told ABC.
She told him her life story, about how her marriage fell apart after 33 years and the "roller coaster" of opening her own business. . . .

University of Maryland supplies professors with "bulletproof" 18 by 20 inch whiteboards to stop shootings

Do the proponents of these bulletproof whiteboards know how hard it will be to hold this board when it gets hit by a bullet?  Do the proponents realize how small these boards are?  Do you think that you will be able to hide behind a 18 by 20 inches board?  It helps that they have the board being held by a woman who is probably pretty physically small.

From the Baltimore Sun:

Calling "campus violence a reality" to prepare for, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore announced plans Thursday to spend $60,000 on the Clark Kent of teacher supplies: an innocuous-looking white board that can stop bullets.   

The high-tech tablet — which hangs on a hook, measures 18 by 20 inches and comes in pink, blue and green — can be used as a personal shield for professors under attack, according to the company that makes it, and a portable writing pad in quieter times. . . . .

There are so many problems with this policy.  For example, if you are holding one of these boards when it gets hit by a bullet, it is extremely likely that the board will be dropped or at least significantly moved.  If you are holding this board, your hands will also be significantly bruised.  People wearing bullet resistant vests will usually get knocked down when a bullet hits their vest when you are dealing with a larger caliber bullet (something larger than a .22).  The size of the board also produces fairly limited benefits.  If the board were larger, the torque from the board getting hit by a bullet would make it even more impossible to hold.

Is insurance a problem for schools that allow staff and teachers to have guns to protect against mass shootings?

From the Arkansas Times:

An item yesterday about the Clarksville School District's plan to have more than 20 teaches and staff members carry concealed weapons next school year as a security measure prompted a lot of discussion yesterday, including on the topic of insurance. 

In Kansas, a major insurance company has said it will not insure schools that allow district employees to carry weapons. It prefers that people with guns be uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers. Clarksville has provided security guard training and additional weapons training for its staff members, but they will be carrying concealed weapons and they will continue normal duties, not work solely on security. 

I asked Superintendent David Hopkins about insurance and he sent this repsonse by e-mail:

"I have spoke with them and as of now there is not an issue. I don't expect one either."

Other schools have allowed teachers to carry guns (such as the Harrold Independent School District in Texas that has had it since 2008) and presumably since they have continued to operate, insurance has presumably not been a problem.   

Newest op-ed piece: Gun toting teachers' names must remain private

My newest Fox News piece starts this way:

Are people safer if criminals know who is carrying concealed handguns? Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel seems to think so. 
With school starting soon, he claims that if the Clarksville, Arkansas School District lets employees carry concealed handguns at school,their names must be made public. This is his second attempt to derail the school district’s proposal.
McDaniel’s demand to publicize the names will greatly limit the protection these employees can offer.
School shooters have a strategic advantage in that they determine when and where to attack.
The alternative of hiring uniformed armed guards is not only costly, with one armed guard costing more than the cost of training and equipping over 20 employees, but also relatively ineffective as they are usually the first victims shot (e.g., see . . . .

Arkansas town arms teachers and staff at public schools

Finally, slowly, things are beginning to change over banning guns at school.  But as more places switch it will gradually get harder and harder for opponents to falsely claim about the risks of this policy.  From Fox News:

. . . Dougan is among more than 20 teachers, administrators and other school employees in this town who will carry concealed weapons throughout the school day, making use of a little-known Arkansas law that allows licensed, armed security guards on campus. After undergoing 53 hours of training, Dougan and other teachers at the school will be considered guards. 

"The plan we've been given in the past is `Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best,"' Superintendent David Hopkins said. But as deadly incidents continued to happen in schools, he explained, the district decided, "That's not a plan." . . . 

In strongly conservative Arkansas, where gun ownership is common and gun laws are permissive, no school district had ever used the law to arm teachers on the job, according to the state Department of Education. The closest was the Lake Hamilton School District in Garland County, which for years has kept several guns locked up in case of emergency. Only a handful of trained administrators -- not teachers -- have access to the weapons. 

Clarksville, a community of 9,200 people about 100 miles northwest of Little Rock, is going further. . . .