Few Districts Allow Armed Teachers In Some Rural States Where It’s Allowed

By Tom Knighton

Allowing teachers to carry guns is a good idea. While anti-gunners may disagree, a lot of people don’t. However, it seems that even if states have the good sense to allow teachers to carry, the school districts themselves don’t.

At least, that’s true in some places.

Officials in rural states like South Dakota and Wyoming told President Donald Trump’s school safety commission on Tuesday that few school districts have taken advantage of state laws there to train and arm teachers.

The lack of participation comes despite a ringing endorsement from the president, who touted the idea of arming trained school staff after the shooting in Parkland, Fla., earlier this year that left 17 people dead.

South Dakota passed a law in 2013 creating the “School Sentinel“ program, becoming one of the first states with legislation explicitly allowing staff to carry guns in public schools in districts that choose to adopt the program. Teachers who want to become sentinels must go through 80 hours of training.

“We always thought — and the argument in the Legislature was — that it would be for those most rural schools, where law enforcement was an hour, half-hour away,” said Mike Milstead, sheriff of Minnehaha County in …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms