Tennessee Lawmakers Pass Bill Allowing School Staff to Carry Guns
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.
A Different Response to School Shootings
The proposal presents a starkly different response to The Covenant School shooting than Lee proposed last year. Republican legislators quickly cast aside his push to keep guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.
Potential Veto and Override
A veto by Lee appears unlikely, since it would be a first for him and lawmakers would only need a simple majority of each chamber’s members to override it.
Creating a Deterrent
“What you’re doing is you’re creating a deterrent,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Ryan Williams, said before the vote. “Across our state, we have had challenges as it relates to shootings.”
Rejection of Amendments
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.
Political Tensions
“My Republican colleagues continue to hold our state hostage, hold our state at gunpoint to appeal to their donors in the gun industry,” Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones said. “It is morally insane.”
Uncertain Implementation
It’s unclear if any school districts would take advantage if the bill becomes law. For example, a Metro Nashville Public Schools spokesperson, Sean Braisted, said the district believes “it is best and safest for only approved active-duty law enforcement to carry weapons on campus.”
National Comparison
About half of the U.S. states in some form allow teachers or other employees with concealed carry permits to carry guns on school property, according to the Giffords Law Center, a gun control advocacy group. Iowa’s governor signed a bill that the Legislature passed last week creating a professional permit for trained school employees to carry at schools that protects them from criminal or civil liability for use of reasonable force.
The Covenant School Tragedy
In Tennessee, a shooter indiscriminately opened fire in March 2023 at The Covenant School — a Christian school in Nashville — and killed three children and three adults before being killed by police.
Resistance to Gun Control Measures
Despite subsequent coordinated campaigns urging significant gun control measures, lawmakers have largely refused. They dismissed gun control proposals by Democrats and even by Lee during regular annual sessions and a special session, even as parents of Covenant students shared accounts of the shooting and its lasting effects.
Requirements for Carrying Guns
Under the bill passed Tuesday, a worker who wants to carry a handgun would need to have a handgun carry permit and written authorization from the school’s principal and local law enforcement. They would also need to clear a background check and undergo 40 hours of handgun training. They couldn’t carry guns at school events at stadiums, gymnasiums, or auditoriums.
Previous Legislation and Gun Laws
Tennessee passed a 2016 law allowing armed school workers in two rural counties, but it wasn’t implemented, according to WPLN-FM. Tennessee Republicans have regularly loosened gun laws, including a 2021 permit-less carry law for handguns backed by Lee.
Recent Legislative Actions
Meanwhile, shortly after the shooting last year, Tennessee Republicans passed a law bolstering protections against lawsuits involving gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers, and sellers. Lawmakers and the governor this year have signed off on allowing private schools with pre-kindergarten classes to have guns on campus. Private schools without pre-K already were allowed to decide whether to let people bring guns on their grounds.
Current and Pending Legislation
They have advanced some narrow gun limitations. One awaiting the governor’s signature would involuntarily commit certain criminal defendants for inpatient treatment and temporarily remove their gun rights if they are ruled incompetent for trial due to intellectual disability or mental illness. Another bill that still needs Senate approval would remove the gun rights of juveniles deemed delinquent due to certain offenses, ranging from aggravated assault to threats of mass violence, until the age of 25.
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“Infodemic”? WHO says too much information is harmful
The term alone is treacherous. In the fight against unpleasant news and opinions, the World Health Organization (WHO) speaks of an “infodemic”. This doesn’t just mean fake news. It’s more about controlling the narrative and the flow of information. They want the upper hand in the discourse, especially in relation to the WHO pandemic treaty.
[Nehmen Sie an der Petition gegen den WHO-Pandemievertrag auf Civil Petition HIER teil]
An “infodemic” is said to be a flood of information on the Internet, which also includes false reports or fake news.
Therefore, in the course of and in preparation for the next “pandemics” the WHO wants to combat the so-called “infodemic”.. So there are plans, workshops, indoctrinations and publications, to advance the fight against the infodemic.
The problem: Many of critics’ suspicions, which were initially branded as conspiracy theories and fake news, have subsequently turned out to be true. Doctors, authorities and politicians had to admit that the corona vaccination does not protect against infecting others.
Many citizens noticed early on that there was definitely debate and dissension within doctors, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, virologists and other experts and scientists. This is normal in science, especially when it comes to completely new viruses. Nevertheless, respected scientists who had formulated different theories were treated like lepers. Some lost their positions, their professorships or at least their public reputation. This is unworthy of science and dishonest to the public.
The WHO now wants to tighten censorship and control the dissemination of relevant information more closely and combat divergent theses and views as an infodemic.
For example, the WHO treaty states:
»Article 17. Strengthening pandemic and health literacy
1. The Parties undertake to improve science, public health and pandemic literacy among the population, as well as access to information on pandemics and their impacts, and to address false, misleading, false or disinforming information, including by promoting international cooperation. In this regard, each Party is encouraged to:
(a) to promote and facilitate, at all appropriate levels, in accordance with national laws and regulations, the development and implementation of programs to educate and raise public awareness about pandemics and their effects by informing the public, educating them about risks and combating infodemics about effective ones Channels, including social media, are controlled;
(b) regular monitoring and analysis of social networks to determine the spread and profiles of misinformation, helping to develop communication and messaging strategies for the public to counter misinformation, disinformation and fake news, thereby increasing trust
to strengthen the public; and
(c) Promote communication on scientific, technical and technological advances relevant to the development and implementation of international rules and guidelines for pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery of health systems based on scientific evidence.
2. The Parties will contribute to research into the factors affecting compliance with public health and social measures, trust in and acceptance of vaccines, use of appropriate therapeutics and trust in science and government Facilities hinder and they will inform politicians about it.
3. Parties shall promote scientifically sound, effective and timely risk assessment, including the uncertainty of data and evidence, when informing the public about those risks.”
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