After a deadly school shooting tragedy in Nashville in March of 2023 that took six lives, the Tennessee House is looking at passing a bill that would let teachers carry a concealed gun this week.
Staff members in both private and public schools would be allowed carry if they take part in a 40-hour training session and then get a stamp of approval by authorities.
But surprisingly, some teachers and mothers want to stop this bill. One specific teacher’s arguments against the bill are going viral for being utter nonsense.
Watch:
School Mothers Against Teachers Using Concealed Carry
Tennessee’s WSMV 4 reports, “On Monday, Melissa Alexander came to the Cordell Hull Building with her son, a Covenant School student, for a press conference about the bill. ‘My son is sitting right here because he was protected by his teacher that day,’ she pointed out. She, along with Mary Joyce, was there to advocate not only as parents but also for educators.”
They read a statement from a Covenant School teacher to try and stop the bill.
“I simply cannot imagine how I could have pulled out a gun with 10 children underfoot and in my arms,” Alexander read from the statement.
The words are from a preschool teacher who watched over 13 students in a small closet the day of the shooting.
“As we heard shots over and over, we worked to comfort the frightened children,” read Alexander.
According to the moms, they believe teachers should stay with the students to help calm them down in the event of such an emergency.
“It is only because of their teacher that the students remained quiet and watched the shooter’s feet walk right past the door,” said Alexander.
Bogus Argument?
“What if she hadn’t been there to help the children and went after the shooter?” she added.
Joyce worried that the legislation did not address if parents and most staff would even know if a teacher was armed until an emergency happened.
“With no time to prepare they would watch their teacher run off down the hallway while they had to lock their door, pull down the shade, take shelter in the hard corner of the classroom and stay quiet and calm without any supervision,” said Joyce.
The arguments seem to claim that armed teachers must all “run off after” a gunman, which seems like a strawman. An armed teacher would stay put where they are, in the event a shooter entered their classroom. As exactly what happened during the Covenant shooting.
No one is calling for teachers to stack up and go on search and destroy missions. They’re just calling for a teacher to have a firearm in the event a shooter is at the door.
What “terrible things” would have gone wrong if that teacher was holding a pistol while calming her students?
The horrible, honest question is, “What would have happened if the shooter entered her classroom and she was unarmed, as happened in other classrooms?”
Sadly, we have too many examples to list to know the answer to that question.
John Hanson
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