A pro-gun group called Grass Roots North Carolina plans to ask state lawmakers to allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom.
The call comes in the wake of the recent Newtown, Conn., school shooting massacre, in which 26 people were shot and killed, including 20 children.
“When the General Assembly convenes on January 9, 2013, Grass Roots North Carolina will immediately push for legislation enabling teachers and other concealed handgun permit-holders to protect students from violent predators on the state’s campuses,” the group stated in a news release.
It’s president, Paul Valone, argued in an op-ed published this week in the Charlotte Observer that “St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch advocates arming school personnel as we do airline pilots. Israel started arming teachers in the 1970s. Thailand followed suit in 2004. Indeed, armed intervention by citizens – not police – stopped school rampages in Pearl, Miss.; Edinboro, Pa.; and Virginia’s Appalachian School of Law.
Reaction to the suggest this week has been subdued.
“It’s too early to talk about these things,” state Sen. Tom Apodaca told WRAL.com. He said lawmakers would discuss gun policy proposals next year, the North Carolina website reports.
The News & Observer, in reporting the development, cited several statistics that showed “no link between right-to-carry laws and changes in crime can be determined.”
“It appears such laws have not increased the crime rate, as opponents had feared, but it is equally a stretch to say such laws are a slam-dunk reason for why crimes have decreased,” the paper quotes Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler as saying.
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