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Evers Files Bill To Allow Designees To Carry Guns On Local School Grounds
December 13, 2014
Sen. Greg Evers filed a proposal Friday that could lead to county school superintendents allowing “designees” to carry concealed weapons on school grounds.
The bill to be considered in the 2015 legislative session is similar to a House bill (HB 19) filed last week by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota. The House during the 2014 session passed a version of the bill, but the proposal died in the Senate.
Under Evers’ bill, school superintendents, with the approval of local school boards, could authorize designated employees or volunteers to carry guns on school property. A designee could be an honorably discharged military veteran, an active-duty member of the military, National Guard or reserves or an active-duty or former law-enforcement officer. The designee would have to meet other criteria, such as completing a school-safety program and undergoing background checks
Supporters of the bills contend that gun-carrying designees could help ensure schools safety.
“It is the intent of the Legislature to prevent violent crimes from occurring on school grounds,” Evers’ bill said. “The Legislature acknowledges that the safekeeping of our students, teachers, and campuses is imperative.”
Thursday, Evers filed a bill that ould allow people to carry concealed weapons on the campuses of state colleges and universities. Click here for more on that proposal.
Comments
19 Responses to “Evers Files Bill To Allow Designees To Carry Guns On Local School Grounds”
Why did we wait so very long to place armed faculty in schools, when we could have done this fifty years ago and already have a system in place?
your not going to stop the crazy’s from getting in the schools with metal detectors or locked doors… im with derek , return fire… Quit parading these worthless scumbags on tv… After their trial kill them , instead we feed em for 25 years then someone wants to marry them and we allow it…
It’s funny how people think this is a good idea. Just like criminals don’t obey the laws put in place for other things you will have some criminals in the schools carrying weapons on school property. It would be concealed and most people wouldn’t know they had it unless they decided to use it.
Also I’m with Charlie on the fact that a large kid could overpower the trained weapon holder. Kids figure things out. Adults talk a lot and it would get out who had possession of a weapon.
To Bob C., a lot has changed over the years. I remember kids having rifles in their trucks and nothing happened. This world is MUCH different than that time. Kids don’t have any respect and they want everything handed to them. When they can’t get it they want to do stupid things like shoot up a school or their friends.
This is a bad idea. Why not just have more officers on school grounds? Or if you do arm certain teachers install metal detectors to check the kids as they enter the school. This world is crazy!
@melodies4us
Have you looked up the response time for local law enforcement? By the time they arrived and got set up, an active shooter could have killed countless victims!
Take Sandy Hook for instance. You have a bunch of scared kids that are frozen with fear which allows an active shooter plenty of easy targets. Now, have a couple of trained teachers carrying concealed weapons, and by the time the police arrive, they could have subdued the shooter and prevented the loss of further life.
However, like “most” people, you would only consider this if it was YOUR family member having the gun pointed at them right? If it was YOUR child that was going to take the first bullet, you would be GRATEFUL for the fact that a teacher was carrying, rather than waiting 5-10 minutes for the police to arrive and then bring you in to identify the body.
Don’t like it. We have a designated person: the police. I wouldn’t want anyone else allowed to bring a gun to our schools. Terrible idea. Has Mr. Evers actually met with the staff of our schools during this millinium?
I have to wonder if Evers has given any consideration as to how this conflicts with two federal laws. One was passed in 1990, the other in 1994. One the “gun free work place zone” and the other “gun free school zone law”. It would appear that under one or both his bill would appear to place the person in violation of federal law. Like a lot of “bills” that are proposed play for the press and public and have little chance of going any where.
THere are still some people out there that don’t seem to understand they are only talking about concealed carry. Which means totally covered or disquiesed as something else. It would only be to stop a rampage from happening or when it does at least a little quicker with less lives lost. . It is also proposing that each superintendent and school board will have final say about it. My opinion is that my children would be safer if mr. Thomas had the right to nominate a person or persons to carry concealed whether or not they did it could be a possibility so at least bad people know that it could be a possibility. I know if I heard on the news one of my 3 children’s schools had a mad man on the loose I would feel some small comfort in knowing that maybe someone good at that school had a firearm!!
This is a great idea and a great deterrent to someone shooting up a school. Of course, I am assuming that those that carry would be properly trained, and required to keep up their proficiency. Properly concealed, no one knows who is carrying, which makes an even better deterrent to a possible shooter.
Oh, and Charlie, if you carry a weapon “all the time” that pretty much makes you “pro gun”. However, carrying it without a permit, you are basically a criminal and would probably be at fault if you ever pulled it out, and sued by the family of anyone you shot with it as you are carrying illegally. Good luck to you if you ever get caught with it!
I don’t think this is a good idea.. We have enough of a problem with teachers molesting students.. We don’t need to arm them too..
First, for those of you talking about someone wrestling the firearm away from a Teacher…those “Teachers” that may be authorized to carry would be carrying concealed, not openly. If they do their job, nobody would know the firearm was being carried.
Besides, the Criminals that decide to do these shootings are not looking for a School or Theater where they will face Armed Resistance. They are looking for a “Gun Free Zone” where the face nobody until minutes later when Law Enforcement finally shows up. This is no knock on Law Enforcement, but they can’t be everywhere at once.
If someone takes a look at “Mass Shootings” since Columbine, 99% have all been in areas that were either known to be or marked “No Guns” by signs. The Aurora Theater Shooter bypassed multiple theaters showing his chosen movie, Batman, for the Aurora Theater that had a “No Guns” sign prominently posted. Plus, if you do a little research, you will see that most of these shooters take there own lives as soon as Armed Resistance arrives.
It is a very good chance that just by knowing an area is a “Gun Zone”, that most Thugs will look for a place of less resistance. So basically, I am all for arming those that are adequately trained, to protect our schools and kids.
No, Dodge City would be indicative of both sides shooting at each other at random. Not having a way to stop an active shooter is more like a slaughterhouse (as seen already at no less than half a dozen school shootings). How did those finally end? Someone who was authorized and trained to carry a weapon showed up and ended it, or the shooters ran out of ammunition. If “the good guys” had been there from the start lives WOULD have been saved in every instance.
If you look at the requirements they set forth, the only ones that would be able to carry a weapon would be both vetted and well trained. That is no different than a school resource officer carrying their weapon while on duty (which by the way are usually only in high schools, not in elementary or middle schools where many of these shootings have occurred). And according to the article, it would be more than one person authorized to carry a weapon. So if an assailant somehow incapacities one carrying a gun, there would still be others to eliminate the danger.
As a parent, I want this bill to pass. I support it, and I support the idea of my children being protected while at school. If I could, I would stand in the corner of my kid’s classroom armed and ready to stop a maniac trying to hurt them and others. That is not an option, and apparently it is too expensive to post two or three law enforcement officers at every school all of the time. This bill would help address these issues, and give parents reassurance that our kids can learn while being protected as they should be.
I’m not anti gun or pro gun. I carry a gun at all times with no permit, but to allow a “teacher” to carry a gun in school is just plain wrong. So 300 pound kid like the one in Ferguson, Mo. would take it and shoot every one they could. This is another one of the politician vote getter and a poor idea. This ain,t Dodge City.
Wrestle a gun away from someone trained in it’s use….is that some new kind of “extreme sport”?
Way back when I was a student in school us kids carried our rifles and shotguns in the trunk of the car or back window rack of the trucks. We went target shooting at the range or went hunting to add something to supper.
Far as I know nobody ever thought of shooting or harming another human.
Never even heard that possibility discussed.
Gun in car or truck, going hunting or shooting.
So, my question is what happened to cause a very minor number of people decide to go shooting other people in schools?
I firmly believe we each have a right to defend ourselves and protect others when and where we can.
Danger comes nowadays from every direction and can be totally without warning so perhaps if the marginal people knew they could be shot it would help prevent mass and planned attacks.
But really, where and when did things change so much?
But if a student wanted a gun at school they could just wrestle it away from the teacher. And now there is a gun in the school and the person trained to stop them is now defenseless.
You’re right, c.c. How could anyone ever think an armed psycho intending to harm others could be stopped by another armed person willing to put themselves between the crazies and our children?
If the idea had any merit at all, soon they’d start protecting our country with people carrying guns. Maybe they could all wear similar clothes so we could identify them and show our appreciation for their service. If that works out we could move on to protecting our businesses and homes with armed individuals, too. I have an idea. We could give them badges for identification so we know who the good guys are, what do you think?
Finally, to protect our selves and our families; we could arm our person. Yeah, carry a gun for protection. Isn’t that a radical idea?
That sounds like a pro-gun rant and I guess it is, but I really don’t care to try talking a lunatic into not shooting anymore babies. Rabid dogs are put down for a reason! It’s time for us to protect the innocent by punishing the guilty, not the other way around!
And if you think outlawing guns will solve the problem, remember that cocaine, bath salts, heroin, crack, meth, rape, murder, burglary and a lot of other things have been outlawed andthey are ALL still here.
At first, my knee jerk reaction was no, but upon further reading, I believe it is a good idea as now any shooter who thinks they can blast away with impunity at school children would have to worry about return fire. This would make them think twice, since most school shootings are planned attacks.
This is a common sense approach to a nation wide problem. ” gun free” zones serve as magnet to those who would do our children harm. I support this bill.
The bill by evers to allow guns at school is not a good idea. That’s giving the fox the key to the hen house. Evers has introduced another turkey in my opinion.