Mississippi teachers could soon begin carrying guns on school campuses after the Mississippi House passed an amended version of Senate Bill 2079 on Tuesday, March 7. The bill would allow schools to create a “School Safety Guardian Program” and grant participants immunity.
Mississippi Rep. Nick Bain, R-Corinth, introduced the bill on the House floor, saying it is similar to the Legislature’s 2016 Mississippi Church Protection Act, which allows houses of worship to adopt armed security programs.
“We are allowing for staff members, administrators, teachers to potentially carry guns if they are properly trained through the (Mississippi) Department of Public Safety,” Bain said on the House floor. “They have to go through a certain number of trainings and have to get licensed and certified according to our various statutes when it comes to concealed carry and enhanced carry and stuffs such as that.”
“So what this bill does is it creates an immunity statute that, if the school district participates in the training as laid out by the Department of Public Safety, the district will be immune if something happens while that employee is acting within the scope of the guardian program,” he added.
Mississippi schools would be able to start a program to allow teachers to carry guns within school campuses if Senate Bill 2079 becomes law. Photo by Depositphotos.com
The Mississippi Board of Education voted in July to remove a 1990 policy that barred individuals with enhanced concealed carry permits from carrying guns in the state’s elementary and secondary public schools.
Now, Senate Bill 2079 would give a school’s governing body the authority to designate employees to carry guns on school campuses.
“The scope and purpose of each program shall include responding to an active shooter situation or other situation that would cause death or bodily harm on the school campus or in the immediate vicinity of the school campus,” the bill says. “The school safety guardian’s weapon shall always remain under his or her physical control on campus.”
Bain said that the change he made to the Senate version was to mandate the payments ranging from $100 to