Bill advances for teachers to have guns without training

COLUMBUS — Legislation to allow Ohio teachers and other school personnel to carry firearms on school grounds without prior peace-officer training or experience shot past a state House committee on Wednesday.

House Bill 99, which may soon be headed to a final House vote, comes in response to an Ohio Supreme Court ruling in

June overturning a Butler County school district policy allowing employees to voluntarily carry concealed firearms in school so long as they have a conceal-carry permit and undergo active shooter training. The policy change came after a 14-yearold student opened fire at Madison Junior-Senior High School in 2016, injuring four.

HB99, introduced by Republican state Rep. Thomas Hall of Butler County, would require that school employees could carry guns at school only if they complete firearms training that meets or exceeds the training requirements to receive a state concealed handgun license. As the Supreme Court ruled, current state law only permits educational workers who have peace-officer training or experience to carry firearms on school grounds.

Obtaining a conceal-carry permit in Ohio requires eight hours of training, including at least two hours of in-person range time and live-fire training. Police officers in Ohio receive more than 700 hours of training, including at least 60 hours of firearms-associated training.

The legislation was voted out of the House Criminal Justice Committee on a party-line vote. The bill is co-sponsored by four other House Republicans, whose caucus holds a commanding majority in the House.

Hall previously testified that his father, the only armed school resource officer at Madison Junior-Senior High School, chased the shooter out of the building.

“What could have been an even more tragic event, was ended by my father being there,” Hall testified, adding later: “Educators should have the ability to carry firearms in the classroom to protect students and staff.”

But several parents of Madison Junior-Senior High School students disagreed with Hall’s position, filing the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

HB99 is also opposed by teachers’ unions, the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio and gun-control groups.

Michael Weinman of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, in committee testimony last April, expressed concern that, under the bill, hundreds of school board members around the state, most of whom have no firearms training, would be put in charge of setting their individual district’s training and qualification standards.