Citing shooting, legislator pushes for guns in schools
Fatal high school attack adds fuel to weapons debate.
Hours after FRANKFORT, KY. — authorities say a 15-year-old student shot and killed two classmates at a western Kentucky high school, a Republican senator in the state’s Capitol rushed to file a bill intended to prevent future tragedies by putting more guns in schools.
The legislation from state Sen. Steve West would let local districts hire armed marshals to patrol public schools, make citizen’s arrests and protect people from “imminent death or serious physical injury.” Marshals wouldn’t have to be police officers, but school district employees in good standing who have a license to carry concealed weapons.
“I’m going to be beating the drum again. We had this shooting this week. If we do what we did last time and nothing is done, this will come back again,” West said of Tuesday’s violence.
As school shootings become more commonplace, debates are raging in Kentucky and state legislatures nationwide about how to prevent them. Some pursue laws that would make it harder for teenagers and others to buy guns and bring them onto school grounds.
Others, including some Democrats, want to increase the number of people allowed to carry guns in schools, believing that will deter shootings from starting and quickly stop the ones that do.
In Kentucky, West’s bill is one of at least two that would allow more guns into Kentucky’s public schools and on college campuses. They reflect sentiments that have found bipartisan support in a conservative state whose politicians routinely pose in ads with guns, and where the National Rifle Association held its 2016 national convention.
“You know, we’re in Kentucky,” said Ralph Alvarado, a Republican state senator and medical doctor who co-sponsored West’s legislation. “This debate always comes up, restricting gun use in the state. I’m just adamantly opposed to it. It’s a constitutional right that we have. It’s one of those things that it’s going to be tough to ever get that kind of a concept through.”
Some Democrats think the GOP push for more guns in schools is misplaced. State Rep. Attica Scott from Louisville said she is “definitely an advocate for gun safety and to me more guns is not the answer to gun violence.” Scott has filed legislation that would ban those convicted of hate crimes from carrying a gun and let local governments pass laws requiring gun sellers to use “responsible business practices.”
The shooting Tuesday at Marshall County High School left two students dead, 14 wounded by gunfire and others injured in the rush to escape the violence.
Some say armed school offers are needed.
“We need armed officers in every school in Kentucky. That is a small price to pay if it saves one child’s life,” Kentucky Democratic state Sen. Ray Jones said.