Tallahassee, Florida — On Wednesday, April 2, 2014, a bill which would allow Florida teachers to carry loaded guns in classrooms took a huge step forward.
The new bill will allow trained school teachers, principals or volunteers to carry weapons.
According to reports, there have been 44 school shootings in the U.S since the Sandy Hook massacre. Since December of 2012, not including Sandy Hook, 28 people have died, 37 seriously injured, and many others emotionally scarred.
Many Democrats oppose the bill.
Eric Holder and President Obama issued a warning in January, to all U.S schools, citing that they (the Obama administration) want teachers to go easy when disciplining out-of-control children, namely blacks and Hispanics. (click to read this full story)
So here is the question everyone is asking: Would armed teachers in schools really make a difference?
Statistically, the answer proves to be yes.
For instance, Arkansas, where teachers are now known as guards and are permitted to carry 9mm handguns, has had zero incidents since the policy was enacted. While there is strong opposition from the left, Florida teachers say that teachers in Utah have been carrying concealed weapons in schools for more than a decade now. The state has never had a mass shooting in its schools and has never had an accidental shooting or problems with students getting their hands on a teacher’s gun.
“Their schools are the safest and the kids are more behaved than that of students in Florida Schools,” said one Florida school official.
School officials in Utah said that budget cuts do not always permit school resource officers and that, they cannot always count on a reasonable police response time. Therefore, school officials felt it was necessary to require teachers to carry weapons.
Many states feel that “Open Carry” for teachers is the best policy.
The Department Of Justice conducted a massive survey among convicted felons. The survey asked: What deterred criminals more, armed victims or the police? The results were stunning. More than 57 percent of felons polled that criminals are more worried about confronting an armed victim than they are about the police.
Researcher Gary Kleck proved that 92 percent of criminal attacks are deterred when a gun is presented by the victim or in plain sight to criminals, without a shot ever having to be fired. Open carry has been proven time and time again to deter crime. States that have open carry such as Alaska, have an extremely low crime rate.
The gun debate is not anything new. It has been in the spotlight since the early ’80s. In 1982, Atlanta suburb Kennesaw passed an ordinance that required all households to have a gun. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89 percent in Kennesaw, compared to the modest 10.4 percent drop in Georgia as a whole.
Thirty years later, the residential burglary rate in Kennesaw is still 72 percent lower than before the ordinance was passed. Proving that when criminals know a citizen is armed, they will not proceed. It mirrors that old joke, “criminals will never rob a doughnut shop because that’s where all the cops are.”
HB 753 would give school districts the option to appoint one or more people to carry a concealed weapon.
The bill doesn’t just give guns to teachers. Each district would appoint one or more person per school. Any person appointed would need to obtain a concealed weapons permit, pass a federal background check, and complete training classes.
While the bill is not for open carry, many residents say it is a start.
With many parents today not disciplining their children, leaving everything up to a teacher and allowing the Xbox to act as a babysitter, responsible parents say that change is definitely needed.
Experts say that a lack of parenting is a huge factor in the way children act today, but parents fail to see to correlation. School officials said that if more parents would take an active role in their children’s lives instead of leaving everything, including parenting roles up to teachers, then our society would be a much better place.
The next step for this bill is another committee hearing before the bill reaches the House floor.
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