While many state legislatures are looking at more restrictions on guns, one Utah lawmaker has introduced a bill to actually provide public school teachers an incentive to bring their guns to campus by offering a $500 reimbursement for purchasing a biometric gun safe for the classroom., according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
In a telephone interview with Ammoland News, State Rep. Tim Jimenez, a Republican from Tooele, explained his idea. He is sponsoring House Bill 119, which creates an “Educator-Protector Program.” He described the proposal as a way to make schools even safer by telegraphing a message to would-be mass shooters that they would not be entering a so-called “gun-free zone.”
Jimenez, a 2008 transplant from Washington State, where such an idea would be ridiculed and rejected by lawmakers in the state capital of Olympia, said guns are already allowed on school grounds.
“There are very few gun-free zones in Utah,” he said.
Biometric safes are designed to read fingerprints electronically in order for the locking mechanism to disengage, allowing quick access to a firearm inside. Jimenez said the legislation was still going through some last-minute tweaking but that teachers participating in the program would be required to take annual training to include “classroom response” and firearm safety.
As noted by KSL News, the training would cover these points:
- Hands-on training regarding the safe loading, unloading, storage and carrying of firearms in a school setting.
- Participation in a live-action practice plan in responding to active threats at the school with an emphasis on the classroom that the teacher is assigned.
- Familiarity with the building or buildings of the school, including where emergency supplies and security infrastructure are located.
Jimenez’s legislation would provide protections for teachers and schools from “civil damages or penalties” if they act in “good faith” and were not “grossly negligent,” according to the Tribune. Schools would also post signs notifying anyone entering that they are not “gun-free zones.”
The state legislator said he and his wife got carry permits when they moved to the Beehive State 15 years ago. He noted that gun laws are much more accommodating than they are now in Washington, where he grew up.
“I moved away from Washington,” he quipped, “and I didn’t bring Washington with me.”
Evergreen State gun owners have suffered because too many people from other states have moved there and, in theory, brought their liberal politics along. Lots of transplants from California and eastern states such as New York and New Jersey—which are notorious for their restrictive gun laws—have migrated to Washington because of a booming tech industry. Many native Washingtonians have moved out as a result, to places such as Utah, Arizona, Texas, Idaho and Montana, or even Florida; all states with far more reasonable gun laws, the way Washington used to be.
(As noted by this correspondent during testimony before the Washington House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, on House Bill 2054, which would limit firearm purchases to one per month, I told lawmakers that the bill is “one more example of an attempt to push gun control rather than crime control.”
“Since 2014, when Washington State started passing restrictive gun regulations, the number of homicides in Washington State has doubled. The number of homicides in Seattle has tripled. How long is it going to take to figure out that we are on the wrong track with this kind of legislation?”)
Utah, Jimenez noted, prohibits firearms in federal buildings and other “secure” locations such as jails, but overall, legally armed citizens have wide latitude where they may carry.
Jimenez also advocates for firearm safety training in the schools, a subject not included in his current legislation.
“I would like to have a program teaching kids firearm safety,” he said. “I tried last year for a bill to provide training, but it didn’t go through.”
That doesn’t mean he won’t try again. He believes “there should be” such programs in the school curriculum. It’s an idea shared by many gun rights activists, especially in the West, where firearms in the home are far more commonplace. Montana (65.0%) and neighboring Wyoming (60.7%) are the Top 2 states for per capita gun ownership, according to 24/7 WallStreet. Utah comes in at 39.7%, and is in 26th place. Still, the state gets an “F” grade from the Giffords Law Center, a gun control group.
According to a recent report at U.S. News, school shootings in Utah are so rare as to be virtually non-existent, and Jimenez wants to keep it that way. Last September, a report at KUTV revealed Salt Lake City police have trained for rapid response to a school shooting.
In Jimenez’ opinion, the more people know they will meet armed resistance, the less likely they are to try creating mass mayhem.
Utah Lawmaker Introduces Bill for Gun Lockboxes in Classrooms by AmmoLand Shooting Sports News on Scribd
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
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