Rolling Stone continues its anti-gun scaremongering with news that the Oklahoma legislature is considering removing the requirement that teachers also have a security guard or peace officer license to carry a gun on campus.
A bill currently making its way through the Oklahoma legislature known as the “Teacher Carry Bill” would allow educators to carry weapons in the classroom even if they have not received additional weapons training.
Currently in Oklahoma, only teachers who have valid armed security guard license or a valid reserve peace officer certification can bring a weapon into the classroom. Both of those certifications require 240 hours of training, but the new bill, which was voted out of committee this past week, would lower that requirement to zero hours.
What Rolling Stone fails to note is that while the bill would remove the requirements for 240 hours of law-enforcement related training, it also says that for a teacher to carry, in addition to possessing a valid handgun license, they would have to "meet other requirements authorized by the board of education." It is unlikely that any school boards would allow teachers to carry with only the valid handgun license.
Instead, teachers would likely have to receive additional training focused only on potential active shooter scenarios, like Colorado's FASTER program. (You can listen to an interview I did with Laura Carno of the Independence Institute about the FASTER program here.)
The FASTER program is three days of training. It's unclear why teachers should need to go through six, 40-hour weeks of police officer or security guard training, much of which has zero to do with active shooter training, to carry a firearm to protect themselves and their students.
Rolling Stone also gets both sides of the story by quoting an Oklahoma Moms Demand Action statement, a state Sen. Carrie Hicks who is opposed to the bill and two school superintendents who oppose the bill. There is no quote from any of the bill's supporters, who must exist, since the news hook was the bill being passed out of committee.
