As reported by CNN, a newly introduced bill in the Kansas House would not just encourage school districts to arm certain teachers, but it would hold them accountable if a school came under attack and the district had failed to do so.
To be sure, not everyone is thrilled by the bill.
House Bill 2789 reads, “In any action against a unified school district arising out of acts or omissions regarding the possession or use of firearms on the premises of such school district, there shall be a rebuttable presumption of negligence on the part of such school district when it is shown by evidence that such school district did not authorize any employee of such school district, other than school security officers, to carry concealed handguns…”
Said Rep. Blake Carpenter, during a House Insurance Committee hearing on Tuesday, “It’s not if our kids will be killed; it is when they will be killed and what we are doing to prevent it.”
Existing Kansas law allows teachers with a permit to carry on campus provided they meet school-based conditions. Insurance companies have made this proposition difficult by refusing to insure such school or by charging exorbitant fees.
HB 2789 addresses that as well. It would forbid insurance companies from charging discriminatory rates against schools in which a teacher was armed.
Pushback to the bill came with impressive speed. Rep. Brett Parker, a Democrat, showed a photo of stacks of papers, claiming that these were written testimonies opposing the bill. Said Parker in a tweet with this photo, “Over 5,000 petition signatures and hundreds of citizens submitting written testimony against HB2789. Kansas do not want guns in their classrooms!”
The flaw in this logic is painfully apparent. Parents in Parkland, Sandy Hook, and Columbine did not want guns in their school either, but they got them anyhow. Pious pronouncements did no more to prevent the mayhem that followed than did the “gun free zone” signs that all but welcomed the killers in.
As far as solutions go, a bill to arm teachers has much more potential of success than endless marches and calls to repeal the Second Amendment.
