Stockard on the Stump: Push to arm teachers will rise again

Published by the Tennessee Lookout, Reporter Sam Stockard – June 9, 2023

The Aug. 21 special session to react to shooting deaths at The Covenant School is pressing closer, but some lawmakers are quietly making plans for 2024 to arm school teachers.

Extreme risk protection orders aren’t being given much chance to pass later this summer, even to take guns away from unstable people.

Thus, state Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta, is planning to revive a bill allowing public school teachers and staff to carry concealed weapons after completing 40 hours of law enforcement training on school policing, plus a mental evaluation and TBI background check. It sounds like what most people should go through to carry a gun period.

“This measure would create very high standards for teachers and employees to be eligible to carry a concealed weapon, with approval from the district. Carrying a concealed weapon at school is a heavy responsibility,” Bailey says in a statement.