Florida has the Guardian program to arm staff in Public Schools, but what about Private Schools? Are Private Schools able to arm staff? Does anyone know?
@Robert1383 Welcome to the community, we are glad to have you here.
Politics and money, private schools can do what they and the parents want to pay for.
Welcome
You have to check for an answer for each state, individually. From my reading of the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990, there is no differentiation in the federal law between public and private schools. That means private schools can allow firearms if state law has made the proper provisions as described in the Federal law.
The Federal law applies to all schools as decribed here:
"(25) The term āschool zoneā means-
II(A) in, or on the grounds of, a public, parochial or
private school; or
"(B) within a distance of 1,000 feet from the grounds of a
public, parochial or private school.
1/(26) The term āschoolā means a school which provides ele-
mentary or secondary education, as determined under State law.
Raise your hand if youād be willing to volunteer to stand, heavily armed, outside of any school door, to be the brick wall a nut job would have to get past if he tries to hurt our kids!
Do you think THAT would reduce school shootings a little?!?!?!
Given how incredibly rare these events are I donāt think young kids need to be subjected every day to the sight of a line of kids walking by people in body armor carrying rifles.
But Iāll gladly volunteer to stand by the door and say hi to the kids every morning with my pistol and a spare couple mags tucked out of sight. Though I would have to take some school based active shooter and force on force training first.
Welcome Robert1383.
I imagine, these assailants planned and knew what they were doing in that they went after a most vulnerable and easy target (who just could not fight back), and a target of high numbers - all bunched in together, as sad and cowardice as that is.
If not hired staff who schools hire as armed security, do schools allow volunteers who are armed legally?
If there is a push against armed security, would armed volunteers be a viable option to save their system funds?
However, I imagine there would still be some fear by parents and school administrators just having armed volunteers, for fear of accidents, but, what if they went through a special training on how to handle such crises defensively?
Is there a school out there thatās trying this?
I noticed some churches now have them.
Yes there are schools doing this. Weāve been discussing this on the thread above and in other threads.
@Sinbad posted about the FASTER Saves Lives program that trains teachers and staff on defensive and medical responses to these situations.
In Florida, answer is yes. Iāve been on private school campuses, seen multiple security guards carry openly, as well as uniformed deputy at the entrance gate.
The answer is generally yes, but this step is usually done via private security.
For years now, Jewish Synagogues and schools have been taking such steps. More recently, Christian churches have begun the process as well.
This shooting along with the FBIās refusal to get serious about pro life clinic fire bombings will no doubt increase these efforts.
I know of a lot of schools that are doing this. I see the following issues.
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Legality. Some states disallow firearms on school campuses even by concealed carry holders. @Craig_AR addressed this piece.
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Liability. If a school allows this, they accept a certain degree of liability for the actions of their CCW bearing staff. Which is more likely, a staff member stopping a threat with a firearm or a staff member having a liability inducing accident? Each school needs to answer it.
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Training. I think you need significant training. @Shamrock referenced FASTER.
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Who? Do you just let anyone do this or do you vet these people? Seems to me you need to vet them. This is not a task for some untrained, overzealous person. This is a job for folks who have soberly faced some serious realities here. They might have to shoot one of their students. Imagine that! If youāve not watched the video of the cops going into the school, you should. Now imagine that the area where the shooter was is filled with students. Gets way more complicated.
I just talked to a school leader recently where the school has armed CCW staff. They donāt let just anyone do this because they want to. They vet and train.
Just my $0.02. Iāve stayed off this forum this week because Iām too busy and didnāt have the time to engage in all of these discussions.
I know for a fact that the majority of Christian churches will segregate their security teams between unarmed ushers, parking lot attendants, while maintaining a core group of armed (plain clothes) folks who are quite often cops and retired cops.
Out here (in Arizona) we have a number of reputed training facilities. I know of some instructors who are part of those core groups in their churches.
Meanwhile, Twitter is censoring warnings against this upcoming āTrans Day of Vengeanceā all in the face of this horrible school shooting. The reality of this crap is that the majority of these shooters are left wing nut jobs.
It is indeed a āpeople problemā, and I guess that is why most of us are here in this organization to stand as good, law abiding, sensible folks who embrace our Constitutional Rights in the face of the Marxist efforts to take them from us, ALL UNDER FALSE PRETENSES.
I believe there are more than enough potential volunteers that are willing to do the CQB training to perform the security at schools. And today listening to a radio show a potential incentive was mentioned that could be a very good benefit.
After successful completion of the requirements needed all volunteers would be exempt from federal and state income taxes. For those who are retired (LEO Military) and willing to take the job this would in my opinion be a very good thing.
Just my thoughts
Interesting Jamey1. Liked your ideas.
Just to add to the group think per se.
I knew the law local to my state, but looked it up again today. Sounds like some schools figured out a way to have some form of vetted armed guards.
Outside of that, my state law reads firearms are not allowed on school premises, so I wonder if there are exceptions around that.
I heard some angry parents say theyād run into their school.
Otherwise if an armed defender was, āsayā, across a street from a school, as soon as they step on property, they may be breaking state law, and how would anyone even distinguish them from a perpetrator, thus I imagine theyād need to be trained, vetted, uniformed, ID card, and introduced to all the school staff, students, and even local police in advance.
I heard of some parents who choose āhome schoolingā instead. I suspect their children miss out of some socialization learning, but would be safer. I imagine thereās some financial costs to home schooling? I wonder if there is government aid, after all, we pay taxes for public education.
Itās good to hear that some such security is happening. Hopefully on the increase. IDK.
Be well, stay safe.