Following the tragic school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut, guns in schools have become quite the controversial issue. Some claim that allowing teachers to carry concealed firearms could be a crime deterrent while others believe that guns should be kept away from schools entirely. Arkansas is now joining a number of states that have tried in recent years to pass legislation allowing some school staff members to carry firearms.
Senate Bill 164, introduced by Republican Senator Jeremy Hutchinson, would allow certain school staff members to receive training from Arkansas State Police, giving them security credentials which would in turn allow them to carry firearms. The bill comes as Hutchinson and other voice their concerns that police may not be able to respond to certain situations in a timely manor. Low funding, they claim, leads to police response time in many rural areas being 40 minutes or longer. Hutchinson says it’s “unacceptable to allow an active shooter in a school have 40 minutes to execute as many kids and teachers as the shooter can.”
Arkansas is not the only state that has been pushing this type of legislation in recent years. Earlier this month, the Wyoming House approved a bill that would allow anyone with a concealed weapons permit to carry a firearm on school property. Another bill that would allow teachers to carry firearms on school property passed in Missouri last summer, but it was eventually vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon.
