NC: Petition to Allow Trained Teachers to Protect Children

ABC11 is running a poll to gauge whether people think teachers should be allowed to protect students.  They have framed the question as an all or nothing choice between all teachers being armed and none.   The people voting on the poll are not buying it, and are voting for armed teachers almost 2-1.

Here is a link to the poll.  It is a down on the bottom of the article.

The article is about a North Carolina father petitioning the local school to allow select and trained teachers to protect children. 

From ABC11.com:

Wrenn's proposal says "any administrator or teacher that has met all certifications and background checks will be allowed to have a board approved handgun that will be stored in a mounted and hardened cabinet. The cabinet can only be accessed with a fingerprint reader that will only work for that person."

From wncn.com:

ROXBORO, N.C. (WNCN) – A Person County man has started circulating a petition aimed at building support to allow trained teachers to have a gun in their classrooms.

Bruce Wrenn says safety in schools is something he’s been concerned about for a long time, but the recent mass shooting at a community college in Oregon compelled him to act.

The local school board has not been interested, so far.

Quite a few schools are already doing it. Many teachers have police and military experience. There is no reason qualified teachers should be prevented from protecting children. It is much easier to have the teacher carry the gun on them than all the complications of a lock box.  In schools where people with concealed carry permits are allowed to carry firearms, there have not been any problems.

Numerous States have laws to permit such programs.  The Federal Gun Free School Zone Act specifically allows people with state approved permits to carry in schools.  Many states allow local school boards or school administrators to make such decisions.

A training program that has proved extremely popular is the FASTER (Faculty / Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response) approach. The training is provided for free.  The program has trained over 350 people from 100 school districts.  From Jim Irvine at fastersaveslives.org:

We have graduated over 350 people from more than 100 districts, with over two dozen districts sending people through our Level 2 training. We have partnered with experts and school staff to keep our children safe. None of the bad things that detractors said “could happen” have occurred. One of our schools was the target of an active killer, but we saw the greatest success – the killing that didn’t happen. Another school’s relationship with law enforcement led to quickly solving a murder that reached across state lines.

The program is excellent. It works. We have real success stories and not one school that has authorized has terminated its program. The recent killings prove that our country has a long way to go, and we are ready to lead the way.

The programs are there.  They are well accepted, and they work.

 link to the poll

 ©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.     Link to Gun Watch

Update: 13 October, AM, 76% Yes, 24% No, about 2,150 votes.