By: Teresa Mull

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) quietly signed a bill into law earlier this month to allow public school teachers to carry firearms inside schools.

“For teachers and other staff to be armed, school districts must opt-in to the so-called ‘Guardian program,’ which allows teachers and other staff to volunteer to carry a gun on campus after getting screened and trained by a sheriff’s office,” the Miami Herald reports. “Lawmakers established that program last year in response to the Feb. 14, 2018, Parkland massacre, which killed 17 students and staff members.”

The bill DeSantis signed into law removes a requirement included in last year’s bill that excluded teachers who “exclusively perform classroom duties.”

“Once the bill is enacted, it will be up to districts to decide whether they want to allow teachers to be armed,” NPR reports.

The law will take effect in October 2019.

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"A year after lawmakers passed sweeping gun control in a knee-jerk reaction to Parkland, I’m glad they are finally stepping up to defend our children," D.J. Parten, Director of Legislation for Florida Gun Rights, told GPM. "The only way to end these tragedies is to end the so-called ‘gun free’ zones that are magnets for criminals. In fact, 98 percent of mass shootings occur in gun free zones. In the end, Florida Gun Rights is still committed to repealing the 2018 gun control and passing solid Constitutional Carry legislation, but this bill is a step in the right direction."

Good Guys with Guns Save Lives
Gunpowder Magazine has reported on numerous occasions – often ignored by the mainstream media – in which an armed citizen stopped a would-be mass shooter from inflicting carnage:

In August 2018, an armed citizen saved the lives of dozens of parents and children gathered at a back-to-school event in Florida.

In March 2018, an armed resource officer exchanged shots with a gunman firing on students at a Maryland high school. The incident lasted about a minute, and the gunman was the only person to die from the shooting.

In May 2018, an armed school resource officer (SRO) wounded a school shooter in Illinois, stopping the suspect from hurting anyone at the school.

Gun Free Zones Kill
GPM’s José Niño reported how gun free zones actually set up a “sitting duck” scenario to make mass killing easier for shooters:

Despite the constant calls for gun control and frequent compromises the political establishment has made – such as the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990 – criminals continue to choose gun-free zones as targets for their killing sprees.

In fact, the Crime Prevention Research Center compiled evidence revealing that 98 percent of mass shootings have occurred in gun-free zones since 1950.

How many more school shootings will it take for politicians to recognize that gun-free zones are a deadly policy?

It’s easy to see why gun-free zones are such prime targets for deranged shooters.

When people are left defenseless, criminals can – and do – prey on them at will.

Criminals opt for the path of least resistance, which gun-free zones provide, since all of their potential victim are disarmed.

It also doesn’t help that law enforcement can’t always be counted on to respond immediately to these threats. According to research from the Department of Homeland Security, the “average duration of Active Shooter incidents in Institutions of Higher Education within the United States is 12.5 minutes. In contrast, the average response time of campus and local law enforcement to these incidents is 18 minutes.”

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].