Republican gubernatorial candidate Ohio Attorney General Mike Devine stands on stage with one of his grandchildren after pitching late to supporters during a campaign event at the Boat House in Confluence Park on November 2, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio.
Kirk Irwin | Getty Images
Ohio Gov. Mike Devin said on Monday that he has signed One bill In law that makes it much easier for teachers to legally carry guns in schools.
This measure significantly reduces the number of training teachers and other staff have to go through before a firearm can be placed on school grounds. Teachers will be able to complete the training in less than 24 hours instead of 700 hours.
“Our goal is to continue to help our public and private schools get the tools they need to protect our children,” Devin said. “We have an obligation to do everything possible every single day to protect and protect our children.”
Devin, a Republican, said Statement on 1 june The bill would allow “local school districts, if they so choose, to designate armed staff for school safety and security,” adding that it was more practical than the state’s previous standard.
He said, “My office worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure that training requirements were specific to the school environment and included significant scenario-based training.” was,” he said.
The new law, which comes just weeks after the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, calls for eight hours of pre-qualification training each year as well as training to stop an active shooter, de-escalation techniques and first aid care. demands.
The measure was opposed by teacher unions, the state’s fraternity order police and gun safety groups.
“The safety of Ohio students and teachers is our top priority, but we know that putting more guns in school buildings in the hands of people who have inadequate training – regardless of their intentions – is dangerous and irresponsible,” Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association and Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said in a joint statement June 3
Former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, Democrat governor nominated Trying to remove Devin, said the new law “makes our communities less safe” and predicted that “voters will miss his apathy in November and kick him out of office.”
The bill’s sponsor, state GOP representative Thomas Hall, has said that he was one of the reasons for the response challenges in rural areas of Ohio. believed in the law were required.
“I use the example of rural schools versus urban schools. In urban schools, they have school resource officers, they have a police force that can be there within 2 minutes, 3 minutes. Some of these schools are not as lucky. are,” he said.
a 2020 RAND CORP STUDY Found in at least 28 states, including Texas, allows teachers or school staff to be armed in the classroom under varying circumstances.