According to Firearm Chronicles
Schools have been ordered closed by Gov. Mike DeWine until at least mid-May, and it’s likely that students won’t be heading back to class until the fall, but when they do there could be some big changes in store for districts that have adopted policies allowing for volunteer, vetted, and trained teachers and staff to carry firearms as a first line of defense for students in case of an active shooter on school grounds.
An appeals court in Ohio recently ruled that armed school staff must receive more than 700 hours of training in order to carry on campus without breaking the law, which is the same amount of training required to become a certified police officer in the state.
Sean Maloney of Buckeye Firearms Association and FASTER Ohio joins me on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co to talk about the absurd ruling, and what happens next.
Maloney says the majority on the appeals court that heard the case against Madison School District simply erred when it ruled that Ohio law requires any armed school staff to obtain the same amount of training as law enforcement receives, noting that there are actually two statutes in state law dealing with guns on campus. One requires law enforcement, security guards, and “others” on duty on school campuses to receive that large amount of training, but another statute allows for school districts to designate individuals who are allowed to carry on school grounds.
What’s more, the state legislature in Ohio has actually approved hundreds of thousands of dollars for teachers and staff to receive firearms training through the FASTER program and other courses. If, as the appeals court claims, the legislature didn’t intend for school staff to carry firearms in defense of students, why have they repeatedly approved funds for precisely that purpose?