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I taught Math at a local High School for 14 years. Having "officially sanctioned carry status" would inevitably lead to some byzantine "code of armed emergency conduct" which no mere mortal would be able to navigate unscathed. I may or may not have carried during my career but I'm the only one who knows for sure. Joe
 
That is a tough one. My guess is that most teachers are not shooters and many likely never shot a firearm. CCW courses, in my mind, do not qualify people how to handle an emergency such as an active shooter in a classroom. Combine that with those teachers who never held a firearm before CCW training and what do you have?
 
West Virginia house passes bill to allow teachers with training to carry.
I see this as a good thing, what would the pros and cons be?

I got involved in some cross training with the local schools when we were setting up our active shooter doctrine. And know that I'm painting with a broad brush a bit here, because there are certainly a few exceptions, but bear with me. Most of the teachers I dealt with are not much better than the kids they are teaching. In fact, some of the kids I know are more mature. There is no way that they could manage a gun in a real active shooter situation. When we did our walk through s with SRT, Some of them were visibly petrified. And this was just walk through so that everyone could get a feel for the buildings. No long guns or simunitions or any kind of scenario training. Just a bunch of cops walking around the building. Some of them had tears in their eyes they were so upset. There were no kids around when we did these. Now this in no way means that I think that this shouldn't be done. In fact, there are some teachers I know, ex military or LE, who would be excellent for it. But if they are going to do it, it has to come with a lot of training and they need to be sure who they are letting carry. Having said that, I absolutely believe that every school should have some type of armed response available at all times.
 
The WV Senate also passed a bill allowing military veterans and retired LEO's to carry within the schools. Neither bill may end up passing the other chamber. Even if one does, education is extremely liberal in general and individual county board of educations may not allow teachers to carry firearms. I'm not a huge fan of the Senate bill because my understanding it that while military veteran who might know very little about firearms could carry, someone with vast training and firearms experience couldn't because they weren't a veteran or retired LEO. I know a number of people who served in the military that know practically nothing about firearms.

As a former WV school employee, I know our Board was generally anti firearms. We had a great deal of debate on allowing school air gun teams in our county. I was actually asked to find a legal reason why we could prevent the air guns. Luckily I wasn't able to find a legal reason to say no, so the board and superintendent had to agree under pressure from the community.
 
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Neighboring Ohio has an excellent training program for arming teachers that has had input from TDI Ohio on curriculum and qualifications.

It is not a rubber stamp for whoever comes along and they have failures.

Most people would be surprised that not every policeman is some shootist like in the movies

Proper standards, selection and training and it can work. Has been for a few years in Ohio.
 
Speaking from experience in Iowa, 2 school districts local to me voted to allow armed school personnel. Not necessarily teachers, might be the principal or the lunch lady, whoever volunteered. They went through the same training as a LE officer. But they had to drop the program or lose the district's insurance. Some kind of state insurance regulation will need to be changed to allow it.
 
Motivated school teachers can learn to shoot handguns at least as accurately as LEO's. Letting them have the ability to defend themselves and their students is a much better option than having them slaughtered by some maniac. The biggest problem I see is the ability of LEO's to identify armed teachers as friendlies in an active shooter scenario.
 
So from the responses to this I would say it is in agreement this would be a good thing with proper training.
The funny thing is a lot of people think teachers should have extensive training but constitutional carry is a good thing for the general public. Go figure..
 
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What would the Pro’s and Con’s be, you say?

I would say the CON is that it’s ridiculous to need State-level legislation for a free American to exercise their God given rights that also happen to be enumerated in the first Ten Amendments of the Constitution.

Mark that down as a “Con.”
 
You cannot compare any training offered by the "Education Department" of a city or county to come even close to police training. You cannot be certain that monthly, or even yearly refreshers will conducted, as this it not a teacher's job! Police take their training to the field immediately and are immersed in law enforcement and emergency situations each and every day. Teachers, on the other hand hopefully will never have to use a weapon for their entire career, but if it happens 10 years from now, how much can anyone remember. I also fear that adding weapons to the school could end up with them being taken by force and used against the teacher and students. Schools today are nothing like many of us remember from schools decades ago.

Trained law enforcement from departments on a rotating basis, or off duty, may be the best option for schools.
 
Always thought they should just let CHL holding teachers carry without restriction and be responsible for their own actions.

Buying a license absolutely does not certify you to be the protector of a classroom of students. There needs to be a lot of training and close coordination with local police and your school resource officer. SRO presence has been demanded by parents instead of blanket coverage by teachers. A SRO will have training, equipment, knowledge of the building layout and communication with dispatch for emergency assistance.
 
That is a tough one. My guess is that most teachers are not shooters and many likely never shot a firearm. CCW courses, in my mind, do not qualify people how to handle an emergency such as an active shooter in a classroom. Combine that with those teachers who never held a firearm before CCW training and what do you have?

Someone far better suited to handle an active shooter situation than the same individual without a gun.
 
Buying a license absolutely does not certify you to be the protector of a classroom of students.
How about we dial this down a notch.

This teacher has every right to protect THEMSELVES from a nutjob armed attacker regardless of whether their work day is loaded with dogs/cats, babies, students, produce, floor tile, automotive parts, smartphones and watches, burgers & fries, priceless works of art or pea gravel.
 
Buying a license absolutely does not certify you to be the protector of a classroom of students. There needs to be a lot of training and close coordination with local police and your school resource officer. SRO presence has been demanded by parents instead of blanket coverage by teachers. A SRO will have training, equipment, knowledge of the building layout and communication with dispatch for emergency assistance.

Yea, sure. How’d that work out in FL and TX?
 
I am a lifelong West Virginian, gun owner, and retired museum employee. I have a lot of friends who are or were teachers, and they have very mixed feelings on this, mostly negative. I'm not sure this bill is a good thing. Seems a bill funding a trained LEO or other qualified security person is a better idea.
 
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