Dr. John Lott has a new piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer on a bill before the Pennsylvania state Senate on allowing permitted concealed handguns in public schools.
…Gov. Wolf wants to protect schools from mass public shootings by hiring “trained security professionals like school resource or police officers.” But a bill passed last week by the Senate Education Committee would allow school boards to let staff carry on school property as long as they have a concealed handgun permit and have gone through police-related firearms training.
This paper by the Bloomberg School of Public Health (copy available here, henceforth referred to as the Bloomberg Report) doesn’t even try to address the existing arguments that have been made on campus carry. Below is a very rough, very quick response to their claims. For those who are interested, here is a video of recently invited testimony that Dr.…
From KSAT ABC 12 in San Antonio, Texas:
…The Medina Independent School District is home to 303 students, and according to a sign placed by an entrance Wednesday, possibly, a few firearm-toting faculty members.
“Attention,” reads the new sign. “Please be aware that the staff at Medina ISD may be armed and will use whatever force is necessary to protect our students.”
The school consists of students from pre-kindergarten all the way through high school.
Campus aerial of Liberty University taken January 28, 2015 Photo by David Duncan
We will very soon be having a lot of information on whether college dorms are a dangerous place for permit holders to have guns. On August 1st this year, public universities in Texas are required to allow permitted concealed handguns on campus, but schools are given some discretion on where the guns are allowed. …
By overwhelming votes, the Tennessee legislature passed three bills that get rid of gun-free zones at public universities and provides immunity to businesses if they don’t post ban. CPRC’s John Lott testified on all three bills when they started in the state Senate Judiciary Committee.
The gun-free zones at public universities allows “full-time employees of state public colleges or universities to carry a handgun while on property owned, operated, or used by the employing college or university if the employee has a valid Tennessee handgun carry permit.” This bill passed by a 28 to 5 vote in the state Senate and 69 to 24 in the state House. …
There is only one deputy sheriff in the town. According to the news reports shown above, several other school districts in Oklahoma are apparently moving to adopt a similar policy.
From the Muskogee Phoenix in Muskogee, OK:
…New signs posted on the grounds of Okay Public Schools announce an “Armed School Employees” policy in place.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued an opinion on Texas’ new law that allows carrying concealed handguns on college campuses. Some public universities, in particular the University of Texas at Austin, have already made initial recommendations. The most important parts of the opinion are:
“. . . attending or teaching class is the primary reason most individuals are on campus.
With over 40 school districts in neighboring Ohio (as well as school districts in states from Texas and Utah) allowing teachers to carry permitted concealed handguns, the West Clark School District in Indiana will hold a meeting on Thursday to consider the issue.
…Although it is for the most part against the law for individuals to carry a weapon on school grounds, Indiana code allows school boards to authorize individuals to do so.
The panel recommending the rules for concealed carry on campus may not have had ideal recommendations, but they are at least a lot better than it might have been. Some of the restrictions include that the gun must be carried in “a holster that completely covers the trigger; semiautomatic handguns must be carried without a chambered round of ammunition.” Bans from UT athletic events and dorms are disappointing, as there is no evidence that there is a problem with either type of place. …
Liberty University has 14,500 residential students and 2,500 full-time and part-time faculty. This past week the university’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., urged students and faculty during Friday’s convocation to carry concealed weapons on campus in the wake of Wednesday’s massacre in San Bernardino, California. The university has a four-hour permit class that is offered by the campus police department.…
