Who Should Carry Guns in Schools?
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The tragedy in Newtown Conn., is sparking a new debate about who can be armed inside a school building.
Some people believe teachers and administrators should be allowed to be armed.
As the laws go right now, guns are prohibited inside or on the campuses of schools in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. The only exception is a school resource officer.
Having a resource officer at the school provides a first-line of defense and eliminates steps that leave the clock counting down in an emergency when every second counts.
Kevin Quinn, president of the National Association of School Resource Officers, says most of the time the officers are placed in high schools. Since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, though, there is a renewed push to get those officers into elementary schools.
"The amount of training that maybe a teacher would go through or just any normal gun owner that they go through a year -- just because they want to own a gun -- may not be as effective," Quinn said about arming teachers and administrators.
"People are realizing the elementary schools are just as vulnerable, if not more, because they don't have an officer assigned to it."
Quinn explained that NASRO has been around for 23 years, and when a shooting tragedy strikes at a school interest in the organization spikes.
"In a perfect world," Quinn said, We'd have an officer on every campus to keep everybody safe."
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