Since the shooting in Newton, Connecticut, some lawmakers have introduced legislation to allow teachers and school officials to carry firearms. But one South Carolina lawmaker is taking the NRA’s “more guns will keep schools safe” argument even further, with a new bill that would teach teenagers how to shoot.
Sen. Lee Bright (R), the sponsor of the legislation, argues that “the more guns we have the safer we are.” “[H]ad there been someone in Newtown with a weapon, had it been a teacher, they could have stopped it early,” Bright explained. His bill would allow schools to offer gun training at an off-site location:
Bright says he got the idea after hearing from older constituents who “remembered the days” when students could join a rifle team or learn about shooting during a school day. “We’ve got football, we’ve got basketball, and we’ve got baseball,” says Bright. “I think if they had a hunting team, it would be a great idea.”
The class, dubbed the “South Carolina Gun Safety Program” course, would focus on learning how to properly use a firearm, safety techniques, and the history of the 2nd amendment and the right to bear arms, according to Bright. “The more training we can get on the history of our nation, the founding of our nation, the better,” he says.
Gun violence experts agree that the argument for arming citizens is “fantasy thinking” and a bad idea. But Bright’s bill is not a huge surprise since it comes from the same lawmaker who introduced the “Firearms Freedom Act” to exempt firearms and ammunition from anti-gun violence rules in the days following the Newtown shooting.
