Gun Control Advocates versus Armed Teachers

The Utah legislature wants to arm teachers and other school staff to respond to a school shooting. Gun control advocates most affected. Utah governor mulls measure that would fund firearms training for teachers

The title to the article that was posted to the web search (not Google) was "Gun control advocates urge Utah governor to veto bill funding firearms training for teachers." That is what caught my eye, and it is basically what the article is about.

Gun violence prevention advocates who gathered Monday at the Utah State Capitol called on Gov. Spencer Cox to veto legislation that they said could place children in harm's way by training more teachers to carry firearms on campus.

The bill funding tactical training for Utah educators who want to defend their classrooms with guns received final legislative approval last week when the Republican-controlled House voted along party lines to send it to the governor's desk.

Are there problems with the legislation? Certainly not the least is this bit.

Teachers participating in the program who choose not to carry the gun on their person would be required to store it in a biometric gun safe, which uses unique biological data such as a fingerprint or retinal scan to verify the owner’s identity. They would have to pay out of pocket for the storage device.

That provision is a mistake, because those devices have been shown over and over to, for the most part, be junk. There was just a recall of a large number of inexpensive safes, and a few expensive ones as well, that were found to offer almost no security. Plus there is the fact that any safe can be opened. Most gun safes (which are legally classified as "residential security containers") can be opened in under 15 minutes, and even a lot of Class B commercial safes can be opened in under 30.

The problem, from the gun controllers point of view, is that if teachers actually stop school shootings, there will no blood for them to dance in.