{"id":92246,"date":"2023-04-27T10:02:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T15:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=92246"},"modified":"2023-04-27T10:49:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T15:49:10","slug":"92246","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=92246","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Maine legislators consider expanding adult access to guns on school grounds for school safety<\/a><\/p>\n

AUGUSTA, Maine \u2014
\nWith more than one mass shooting a day in America so far this year, including many in schools and on college campuses, Maine legislators are taking a closer look at improving school safety by potentially expanding adult access to guns on school grounds for self-defense.<\/p>\n

One bill that underwent a public hearing before the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee on Wednesday, LD 52, would let teachers and other school staff be armed at school following police-style training to use their guns.<\/p>\n

Since there\u2019s never been a school shooting in Maine, the bill\u2019s sponsor sees lessons learned in mass school shootings in other states.<\/p>\n

“In all of them, a quick response time would have saved lives, if we had the right person there that knew what they were doing for an active shooter situation was willing, obviously, to be that person and did so,” Rep. Steve Foster, (R) Dexter, said in an interview. \u201cMy district has one school resource officer with four buildings. So, this whole bill is about an immediate or almost immediate response in a building, and if you look at some of these past incidents around the country, the response time was a big key issue, and that’s what this is hoping to address.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the Maine Education Association, the union representing 24,000 educators, objects to the proposal.<\/p>\n

MEA President Grace Leavitt told the committee, “Having guns in schools is simply not the answer. Arming school employees, as called for in LD 52, would likely lead to something like this as a headline: ‘In Confusion And Chaos Following A Pulled Alarm, Student Is Shot In Error By Armed Educator.’ Or ‘Student Manages To Obtain Educators Gun And Kills Two Classmates.’ I hope we never see a headline like that, but if this passes, we might.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired teacher Cathy Harris testified, “Teachers do not want to be armed. I would have left the profession if one of my colleagues were wearing a loaded weapon to work, and I know many others who feel the same way.”<\/p>\n

Harris, married to a police officer, said it would be wrong to assign law enforcement duties to educators.<\/p>\n

Harris said: \u201cWhen an officer in Maine uses deadly force, they are placed on administrative leave. While the incident is investigated by the attorney general’s office to determine if that force is justified. What kind of policies would be in place for teachers? Would they be or their districts liable for shooting the wrong person or for misinterpreting a threat? What if a school shooting occurred and the armed teacher failed to stop that shooting? Would they be held liable?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another bill would allow school districts to hire private armed security guards, especially where there aren’t any or enough school resource officers.<\/p>\n

The sponsor, Rep. John Andrews, (R) Paris, said in an interview, “So, there\u2019d always be an armed person on at that school who kind of speaks the same language as law enforcement and can coordinate a response rapidly. If the wolf shows up at your door, you’d have somebody there to respond instantaneously while they are communicating with, you know, the good guys coming to help.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that’s up to different school boards and school districts to decide. That’s why this bill is not a mandate,\u201d Andrews said, \u201cWe live in a dangerous world, and I think it’s always good to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one high school junior, from Portland said, rejected the concept.<\/p>\n

“Having access to guns in schools is a ticking time bomb. It only takes one person and one gun to cause chaos,\u201d Henry Cossaboom, 16, a student at Casco Bay High School, told the committee. \u201cIf these bills pass, I would really consider dropping out, to be honest, and I know many others would do the same. It wouldn’t be school anymore; it would be a battleground.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third Republican-sponsored bill would allow adults with concealed carry permits to bring their guns onto school property, effectively ending \u201cgun-free zones\u201d within 1,000 feet of schools.<\/p>\n

“Putting a simple sign on the door and saying, \u2018Don’t hurt me\u2019 is not working,’ firearms instructor and Army veteran Bruce Ashmore said in an interview. He testified in favor of that bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would allow adults on campus whether it be parents, staff, administrators, teachers already trained, already licensed. It would cost the state absolutely nothing,\u201d Ashmore said. \u201cIt’s a deterrent factor. Response time, especially here in Maine, is a huge factor. Mass killings normally take place in eight minutes or less. We have many school campuses here in the state of Maine that law enforcement can’t even get there in eight minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob Hershfield, a North Yarmouth parent, testified against the bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we truly believe the answer to gun violence is more guns?\u201d Hershfield asked the committee. \u201cMore guns in schools will not save children, but in turn, turn a playground and classroom into a perilous possibility of accidental and unforeseen casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maine legislators consider expanding adult access to guns on school grounds for school safety AUGUSTA, Maine \u2014 With more than one mass shooting a day in America so far this year, including many in schools and on college campuses, Maine legislators are taking a closer look at improving school safety by potentially expanding adult access … 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":[14,8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-o-the-day","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92246","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=92246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92247,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92246\/revisions\/92247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}