By Analiese Wensmann
Bill #17 from Committee #4 proposed to allow teachers to carry concealed handguns at school to help prevent school shootings. There were many points to this bill and also many questions to help in deciding this bill’s fate, but in the end this bill was not passed, those for this bill were severely outvoted five to one.
There were multiple questions asked during the time that this bill was being debated, but there were only a couple that particularly stuck out. The main one that got the legislation to talk was “What stops a student from taking the ‘handgun’?” The legislation got to talking about this and it led to that the student would not know where the handgun would be due to it being concealed, this question did pass but it never left anyones minds about there being a chance the student could find it. Another question was “What prevents a teacher from acting out?” There were multiple answers to this question, the main answer was that they would put the teachers through more tests then a normal permit would need. The last main point that was brought up was, “How would this affect a students mental health?” They could not come to a definitive point, but the two that they argued about was that the students would not feel comfortable knowing that the staff of the school would be carrying around a handgun while they were defenseless, and the other was that not every staff member would be carrying this handgun only the teachers would be, this would be so that the students could feel comfortable around their counselors.
Yes, there were many points for this bill, and yes there were many people considering passing this bill. At the end of the day though, the bill ended up in the trash and at the back of everyone’s heads as they moved on to the next bill to discuss.