{"id":83844,"date":"2022-07-26T21:01:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T02:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=83844"},"modified":"2022-07-26T21:01:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T02:01:33","slug":"83844","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=83844","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Mississippi board of education votes to let schools set their own gun policies<\/a><\/p>\n

The move by the state board of education isn\u2019t likely to lead to armed staff members protecting kids in Mississippi\u2019s few Democratic bastions like Jackson, but now that the board has said individual school districts can set their own policies when it comes to guns on campus many smaller and more rural schools may very well decide that having a few trained and vetted volunteer staffers carrying to protect the students in their care is a good idea.<\/p>\n

Late last week the state board of education updated a 1990 policy that barred anyone other than law enforcement from carrying on school grounds, arguing that the old policy conflicts with the state\u2019s \u201cenhanced concealed carry\u201d law. That law specifically allows those with the enhanced carry license to lawfully carry in some \u201csensitive places\u201d deemed off-limits to those carrying with a regular license or under the state\u2019s Constitutional Carry law, and as of now the board says that districts can choose to permit or forbid employees with enhanced permits from\u00a0carrying on school grounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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At the boarding meeting, Erin Meyer, the education department\u2019s general counsel, said state law provides \u201clocal school districts with the authority and discretion to determine\u201d its weapons policies. School districts can decide for themselves whether or not employees who hold enhanced carry licenses can bring guns onto school property.<\/p>\n

School districts must also adopt policies that apply to non-employees. A 2013 state attorney general\u2019s opinion argued teachers or administrators can refuse to meet with armed people in a \u201cnon-public\u201d school area. Mississippi K-12 schools are closed to the public, but a school concert, play or sporting event is open to the public, Cook said.<\/p>\n

Patricia Ice, a volunteer with the Mississippi chapter of Moms Demand Action, a gun reform organization, urged school districts to adopt policies that limit firearms on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing teachers and members of the public to carry guns in our K-12 schools is a dangerous idea that will further jeopardize the safety of students and staff alike,\u201d Ice said. \u201cWe need the adults in the room to make evidence-based policy decisions that will actually keep our children safe, rather than making decisions that will put more guns in their classrooms and put our kids at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ice can\u2019t point to any issue in states where teachers and staff are authorized to legally carry a firearm on campus as a deterrent to a targeted attack against students, but Moms Demand Action has long opposed the idea anyway. In fact, Moms Demand Action and their parent group Everytown for Gun Safety helped sue to overturn Ohio\u2019s armed school staff statutes, forcing lawmakers in the Buckeye State to\u00a0craft new legislation<\/a>\u00a0this year ensuring that districts have the flexibility to adopt the practice if they choose.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before the original armed school staff program was undone by the state Supreme Court, thousands of educators from dozens of school districts across the state had undergone training through the\u00a0FASTER Saves Lives<\/a>\u00a0program; each and every one of them volunteers. The effort was especially popular in rural districts and smaller schools that either couldn\u2019t afford to have a school resource officer in place or wanted an extra layer of security in case of a targeted attack on schools, but anti-gun activists from groups like Everytown and Moms Demand Action have criticized the program for \u201cputting guns in the classroom,\u201d and hours after DeWine signed the bill on Monday the Ohio chapter of Moms Demand Action released\u00a0a statement<\/a>\u00a0calling the new measure a \u201cslap in the face\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Governor DeWine signed this bill to let barely trained, armed teachers in our classrooms just weeks after a horrific mass shooting at an elementary school is a slap in the face to gun violence survivors everywhere,\u201d said\u00a0Sara Salsbury, a volunteer with the Ohio chapter of Moms Demand Action.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cTime and time again, Governor DeWine has made it clear that he would rather appease the gun lobby and extremists than do what\u2019s right for Ohioans and our kids. And to make it even worse, this news comes the same day permitless carry officially goes into effect. We don\u2019t need more guns in our classrooms \u2013 by signing this bill into law, Governor DeWine is choosing to put our kids\u2019 lives on the line.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We already have plenty of evidence that the most important thing that can be done to save lives if a cowardly killer enters a school intent on slaughtering students is to\u00a0act<\/em>, and having an armed presence on campus increases the chances of an immediate response. That\u2019s what saves lives, not bloviating about \u201cguns in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve mentioned several times here at Bearing Arms, studies from Purdue University\u2019s Homeland Security Institute have shown that having both a school resource officer who can engage the attacker and armed school staff who can shelter in place with their students if escape is not an option is the\u00a0most effective way<\/a>\u00a0to stop an active shooter in a school setting. It\u2019s sad that Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety are so blinded by their hatred of gun ownership that they\u2019re arguing to keep students defenseless, but thankfully they won\u2019t be getting their way in Mississippi schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mississippi board of education votes to let schools set their own gun policies The move by the state board of education isn\u2019t likely to lead to armed staff members protecting kids in Mississippi\u2019s few Democratic bastions like Jackson, but now that the board has said individual school districts can set their own policies when it … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-schools","category-rkba","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83845,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83844\/revisions\/83845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}