By Bonita Wilborn
On February 14, 2018, the day of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, information was released stating that since January 1, 2018, in the United States alone, there have been a total of 18 school shootings. That’s an average of 3 shootings per week.
Other reports contradict those numbers stating that some of the 18 events were merely suicides that took place on a school campus. A comprehensive definition of a school shooting is: anytime a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds.
If you ask your self the question, “Why would someone take a gun to a school, even if they were planning commit suicide and do no harm to anyone but themselves?” The answer is because it is commonly known that there are large numbers of unarmed and unprotected people on a school campus.
With the current gun laws in our state and across the nation, there is the possibility of any person in a restaurant, a concert, on the street, or in a mall having a gun and being totally willing to take out a gunman that might open fire. But in schools, the possibility of someone ending the gunman’s reign of terror would be far less likely.
Even schools that have a School Resource Officer (SRO) on site and security measures in place are not immune to a school shooting, as is evident by the most recent school shooting to be in the news. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has a SRO, and security cameras, but the gunman was still able to bring a gun on campus and wreak havoc on the people in the school.
After receiving multiple calls from teachers and coaches saying “Will, we need help!” on Tuesday, February 20th State Representative Will Ainsworth held a press conference where he announced his plan to introduce a bill that will allow teachers to voluntarily go through certification to carry firearms at school.
Ainsworth, the Republican Representative from Guntersville said, “Our kids do not need to be sitting ducks and our teachers do not need to be defending themselves with a number two pencil.”
As explained by Ainsworth, “The new bill would make it an option for teachers to carry a gun at school, but only after going through 40 hours of training with the Alabama Peace Officers’ Standards and Training Commission. The training cost would be paid for by the state, and teachers would have to be re-certified annually. Teachers would also have to undergo a mental health evaluation before they would be allowed to carry a gun.”
Any gunman that wishes to enter a school, with the intent to do bodily harm to students and/or school faculty would no doubt do some research and find out where a SRO is before entering the building with a gun. No doubt they would be aware of where security cameras are located. If the identity of the teachers that are certified to carry a gun at school were common knowledge, any gunman with intent to open fire on a group of people would no doubt want to avoid an area or classroom where those teachers would be. However, it is this reporter’s understanding the identity of the teachers with guns on school property would be secret, much like the Air Traffic Security Guards on an airplane.
Although this particular bill doesn’t address having SROs in every school or having funding for school safety measures such as cameras, Ainsworth said he supports those measures.
DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Michael Edmondson, Marshall County Sheriff Scott Walls, Marshall County Schools Superintendent Cindy Wigley, and DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Jason Barnett, joined Ainsworth at the press conference and all spoke in favor of the bill Ainsworth planned to introduce in Montgomery that day.
State Senator Clay Scofield, Representative Kerry Rich, and Representative Nathaniel Ledbetter also spoke in favor of Ainsworth’s bill.
Nineteen states already have a similar bill in place and ten others are looking to do the same. By passing this bill, Alabama will only be joining the ranks of other states that see the need to “help” bring safety to the school campuses in our state.