Lawmakers in Ohio and Louisiana are looking to make it easier to get weapons into the hands of school teachers, even though educators and experts desperately oppose the idea.
The state legislatures are working to get ease the legal requirements to arm teachers in the wake of the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in which 31 people were shot. Twenty-one of them died, including 19 children and two teachers.
Teachers' groups and school security experts say putting guns in educators' hands is the not solution to prevent similar tragedies.
But the idea to arm teachers is not new. After the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, multiple GOP-controlled state legislatures moved to equip teachers with guns.
And, right now in the US at least 28 states —— including Texas —— allow teachers or school staff to be armed under certain circumstances, according to a 2020 Rand Corporation Study. In Texas, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican no doubt, said lawmakers need to do more to get school employees armed with guns.
"We can't stop bad people from doing bad things," the embattled attorney general said. "We can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly because the reality is that we don't have the resources to have law enforcement at every school."
Gun safety advocates disagree.
"If you were to introduce guns into schools, not only is it ineffective, but you're introducing more risk," Everytown for Gun Safety Federal Legal Director Rob Wilcox told NBC News. "How will guns be stored? How will folks be trained? When will guns be used? How do you ensure kids won't get access to them? How do you ensure a gun isn't used in a tense situation at school?"
Teachers' advocates have long said that putting guns into the hands of educators only opens them up to the risk of more legal liability.
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