Tennessee GOP lawmakers pass bill to allow armed teachers, a year after deadly Nashville shooting

[entremet]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Protesters chanted "Blood on your hands" at Tennessee House Republicans on Tuesday after they passed a bill that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school grounds, and bar parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed.

The 68-28 vote in favor of the bill sent it to Republican Gov. Bill Lee for consideration. If he signs it into law, it would be the biggest expansion of gun access in the state since last year's deadly shooting at a private elementary school in Nashville.

Members of the public who oppose the bill harangued Republican lawmakers after the vote, leading House Speaker Cameron Sexton to order the galleries cleared.

Four House Republicans and all Democrats opposed the bill, which the state Senate previously passed. The measure would bar disclosing which employees are carrying guns beyond school administrators and police, including to students' parents and even other teachers. A principal, school district and law enforcement agency would have to agree to let staff carry guns.

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Tennessee lawmakers pass bill to allow armed teachers, a year after deadly Nashville shooting

Tennessee Republican lawmakers have passed a bill that would let some teachers and staff carry concealed handguns on public school grounds.

apnews.com

The bill has seen a lot of pushback, rightfully so. Especially from Parent groups who hate the confidentially requirement.

Republicans rejected a series of Democratic amendments, including parental consent requirements, notification when someone is armed, and the school district assuming civil liability for any injury, damage or death due to staff carrying guns.

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I'm not a parent, but I'd absolutely remove my kids from a school that had teachers or staff packing.

So basically, if this bill is passed as is, parents wouldn't know which teachers or staff are armed and couldn't sue if something goes wrong too! This is qualified immunity BS for K12 employees. It's dystopian.

 

[Coyote Starrk]

So there was a school shooting and the answer they came up with was to put more guns in the schools. Not only that, they're going to put the guns in the hands of untrained civilians who are paid like crap and treated like crap.


What could go wrong right?

 

[Dest]

Yup more guns has always fixed the problem I'm sure this will help.

 

[entremet]

So there was a school shooting and the answer they came up with was to put more guns in the schools. Not only that, they're going to put the guns in the hands of untrained civilians who are paid like crap and treated like crap.


What could go wrong right?

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Parents won't even be able know which teachers and staff choose to carry. Insane. At least parents know all cops carry. It's so crazy.

 

[Slappy White]

Worst idea ever.

 

[Mandos]

So there was a school shooting and the answer they came up with was to put more guns in the schools. Not only that, they're going to put the guns in the hands of untrained civilians who are paid like crap and treated like crap.


What could go wrong right?

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A kid stealing it and shooting half the class them themselves

 

[Strike]

How many of these guys are up for reelection this year?

 

[entremet]

How many of these guys are up for reelection this year?

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It's TN. Deep red. Kinda in stasis at this point.

 

[Red Liquorice]

What a fucking world.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

Countdown to when a stressed out teacher snaps and uses their gun on a student.

 

[Lobster Roll]

Gun ownership is disgusting. This is one of those shocking but not shocking headlines because it's par for the course for those with guns on the brain. Just throw more guns at the problem. That'll fix it.

 

[Bossking]

Pass a bill allowing guns in congressional buildings, then. What's the worst that could happen.

 

[Tfritz]

Man, I remember when I was young here in the Deep Red South the idea of letting teachers carry guns around was considered fucking insane.

 

[Jedi2016]

Inb4 a kid gets shot...

 

[Zaphod]

I had a teacher absolutely rage out on me for 30 minutes all because I was joking around after class with a girl I'd known since kindergarten. He threw everything off his desk while yelling at me then tossed a chair at me. He screamed at me that I'll be dead in a year if my attitude didn't change. If he had a gun I'd be dead.

I was generally a respectable student who stayed out of trouble.

 

[Strike]

It's TN. Deep red. Kinda in stasis at this point.

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You would think after that whole fiasco with them trying to expel those house members last year, there's at least some hope that they can make some inroads there.

 

[Firewithin]

i believe they also added something that let rapists decide what to do with the baby if they get somebody pregnant. they are just firing on all cylinders.

 

[MadMod]

TikToks the problem tho /s

 

[entremet]

TikToks the problem tho /s

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Lots of HS kids protested this law. So good for them

 

[PleaseBeKind]

How the fuck is this the largest and most influential country in the world? A word leading hot mess.

 

[Shadybiz]

Countdown to when a stressed out teacher snaps and uses their gun on a student.

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Yep, it is not at all farfetched, in fact it's fairly likely. Clearly none of these lawmakers have done any classroom teaching.

 

[Hale-XF11]

Yup, someone's going to die because of this law. Just a matter of time.

 

[Mr Swine]

So Billy gets in a heated argument with a teacher and throws a punch at him/her. The teacher can kill him and claim that they were afraid of said student stealing the weapon?

Also

America the land of the PTSD, where guns and killings flood the streets

 

[MazeHaze]

Damn we bout to have hella cases of castle doctrine type shit when obviously a teacher was fearing for their life because a black kid yelled at them.

 

[EYEL1NER]

Parents won't even be able know which teachers and staff choose to carry. Insane. At least parents know all cops carry. It's so crazy.

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From the people who cry about "pArEnTaL rIgHtS" and whine about how parents aren't allowed to have a day in their children's education. But they're fine with keeping the identities of who is carrying a firearm secret from parents. Absolutely ridiculous.

Spoiler

Yeah, I know that "parent rights" and all of that is actually just code for "You shouldn't be able to enforce mask mandates," "Don't talk to my kid about anything related to the LGBT," and "Let's funnel education money into segregation academies that we have financial ties to."

 

[Davidion]

Fucking failures.

I'm sorry for the folks in TN who aren't rabid fucking idiots like some of these people

 

[Titantodd]

If you're a teacher, and you're OK with the idea that one day you may be asked to shoot and kill one of your students, and can follow through with that, you absolutely need to be in another profession.

I'm almost definitely thinking in an ideal world here, but I'd hope an adult wouldn't be capable of killing a child who they most likely see and interact with multiple times per week. Especially in the role as an educator, with all the qualities that job needs. Speaking as someone who isn't a teacher, but works in higher education, here.

 

[W1ckedEvoX]

Jesus Christ….cant wait for all the "teacher shoots student", " teacher kills themselves", "student steals teachers gun and shoots/kills x amount of people" news lines that'll eventually come up….sigh

 

[I am a Bird]

There's a reason I left that state.

Ask them to allow conceal and carry into government buildings

 

[Surakian]

Just a full shootout in the classroom. Trigger happy teachers. Gonna be great. Students stealing their teacher's guns will also be a thing. If there is one thing I remember when I was in school, it was that the shitty students would find ways to pick on teachers and fuck with their shit if the class didn't like them.

 

[greekwolf]

I had a teacher absolutely rage out on me for 30 minutes all because I was joking around after class with a girl I'd known since kindergarten. He threw everything off his desk while yelling at me then tossed a chair at me. He screamed at me that I'll be dead in a year if my attitude didn't change. If he had a gun I'd be dead.

I was generally a respectable student who stayed out of trouble.

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Yep, and you'd better believe he'd be sobbing in the corner when police arrived, claiming it was self defense when you leaped over his desk and tried to grab his gun. Think of all those students you would have killed? Why, he's practically a hero!

This story is coming soon.

 

[SolidSnakex]

So now a child doesn't even need to bring a gun from home to murder their classmates and teachers.

 

[_ifigured]

The republican super majority in this state's legislature incessantly whines about the indoctrination of students in public schools and the woke teachers destroying the fabric of society. Their solution is to inject guns into every classroom. Dead kids, dead liberals, dead women, is all part of the elevation of Guns Over Everything. Its a shithole state one step below the taliban.

 

[LegendofJoe]

If more guns made us safer we'd live in the safest country in the world, but we don't (far from it in fact). The gun culture freaks in this country are fucked in the head.

 

[Socivol]

This bill terrifies me. I am a former educator that worked in Nashville and was pretty savagely assaulted by a student ( had to go to the hospital, was on injured on duty leave for a week, had multiple fractured ribs)my 2nd year teaching. At no point did I fear for my life but I can definitely see other teachers having no qualms with pulling out a gun and shooting a student in that situation. It was not great, but I wasn't going to DIE in that situation. I talked to one of my friends who is an EL coach and she is mortified at the prospect. It's crazy that they think THIS is the solution versus common sense gun laws.

This is also stupid because we have multiple examples of armed adults on sight when things go left at a school and they still are ineffective.

 

[Violence Jack]

TikToks the problem tho /s

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First it was the LGBTQ community
Then it was drag queens in libraries reading books to children
Next was "woke" culture
Now it's TikTok

Same old shit with the GOP. I'm surprised they didn't also advocate for removing cameras from the classrooms too.

 

[Gwarm]

A kid stealing it and shooting half the class them themselves

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I'm guessing asshole football coach/history teacher pulls a gun on an unruly student to "teach them a lesson" by end of the year.

 

[NosgothNihilist]

Will schools who participate in this 'safety' program be held accountable if a teacher misplaces the gun and it's found by a student and things happen ? What if a teacher is overpowered and the gun is taken from them? Or if they get careless and discharge it?

 

[Mandos]

I'm guessing asshole football coach/history teacher pulls a gun on an unruly student to "teach them a lesson" by end of the year.

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Oh god, my freshman pre-algebra teacher was a football couch and threatened violence with a pipe, I didn't get it but told my folks and other kids did too and the guy got fired so hard. I was kinda unaware of that stuff at that time. Was in Cali tho.

 

[Tater]

Stand and Deliver a warning shot before opening fire.

This is the worst idea ever. It's far more likely that students are going to find these guns in the back of a classroom, or forgotten in a bathroom. But I guess it makes sense if you're a Republican that thinks education is bad, and kids are better off in the factories.

 

[Seneset]

Stand and Deliver a warning shot before opening fire.

This is the worst idea ever. It's far more likely that students are going to find these guns in the back of a classroom, or forgotten in a bathroom. But I guess it makes sense if you're a Republican that thinks education is bad, and kids are better off in the factories.

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The Republican idea is that it'll be on their hip 24-7 and hidden by their shirt and ready to be pulled out at a moments notice.

 

[APOEERA]

So rather than eliminating guns, the TN Republicans would rather let a workplace that is tremendously underpaid and overstressed be allowed to bring guns on campus.

This will go from school shootings to workplace shootings when an armed teacher reaches their breaking point and shoots students and their fellow teachers like many in this thread have said. This will not prevent a mass shooting from occurring. The whole "good guy with a gun" myth propagated by the NRA has been disproven time and time again. Of course the Tennessee House is bought and paid for by the NRA.

If I lived in Tennessee and had children in Tennessee, I'd pull them out of public schools or move to another state.

 

[Sobriquet]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWSezpEmDR0

 

[Shadybiz]

Stand and Deliver a warning shot before opening fire.

This is the worst idea ever. It's far more likely that students are going to find these guns in the back of a classroom, or forgotten in a bathroom. But I guess it makes sense if you're a Republican that thinks education is bad, and kids are better off in the factories.

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I hadn't thought about this, but this could definitely happen. I work for a bank. I was told that we had an incident with one of our armored carriers several years ago. During a pickup at a branch, one of the guards had to use the restroom. Hey, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go. So, he went in, and did his business.

....It wasn't until he got back in the truck that he realized he left his gun in the bathroom.

It was probably unattended in there for about a minute at most. But, quite a lot could have happened in that 1 minute, especially in a crowded school.

 

[Blackpuppy]

What was the name of that movie where Samuel L Jackson played an inner city teacher who gets a gun to kill the gang member students causing trouble…?

 

[Tater]

The Republican idea is that it'll be on their hip 24-7 and hidden by their shirt and ready to be pulled out at a moments notice.

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Not good enough! Teachers need to be armed at ALL TIMES:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIT00RBjb7U

 

[Tagyhag]

It's 99.9% guaranteed that a teacher or a kid will use this gun one day to kill someone else.

 

[Lkr]

I just recently watched Deadwood

they might as well get Jane and Ms Stubbs to stand watch

 

[PaulieWalnutsASMR]

So rather than eliminating guns, the TN Republicans would rather let a workplace that is tremendously underpaid and overstressed be allowed to bring guns on campus.

This will go from school shootings to workplace shootings when an armed teacher reaches their breaking point and shoots students and their fellow teachers like many in this thread have said.

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Part of me thinks this is intentional to further sow distrust in public education when this inevitably happens.

 

[entremet]

What's crazy is that shooting happened at a private school. But it was used to erode confidence in public schools, which is the GOP playbook.