Arizona House committee advances bill incentivizing teachers to carry guns at school

The bill would make it so Arizona teachers could carry guns at school with less than 5% of the training police officers receive.

Arizona Republicans are looking to help public school teachers in their own way this legislative session. No, they’re not looking to increase teacher pay or reduce class sizes; instead, lawmakers want to incentivize school staff to carry guns at school.

House Bill 2022 would allow districts to pay for firearms training for school employees and would give those public school employees permission to carry guns on campus.

HB 2022 was brought to the house by Rep. Selina Bliss, a Republican from Prescott.

If HB 2022 were to be signed into law, the training to qualify to carry a gun in public schools is a mere 40 hours.

Compare that to police in Arizona, who have to undergo basic training, which consists of over 200 lesson plans across over 678 hours of training. Basic training for police also has three comprehensive exams that each recruit must take and pass.

Bliss’ bill would make it so Arizona teachers could carry guns at school with less than 5% of the training police officers receive.

VIDEO: Do you think it should be legal for people to concealed carry at public colleges and universities?

Presumably, the idea is that teachers and staff have the ability to fight back against a potential school shooter, but one Democratic representative said she already has training on what to do in those situations—and it doesn’t involve violence.

“My responsibility to my students is to keep them safe behind a locked door,” Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, also a public school teacher, said.

“I wonder who will protect my students if I leave them to go play sheriff,” she said.

Another pitfall of HB 2022 is the difficulty for first responders to tell the difference between a school shooter and an armed teacher who is there to defend their students.

“If we want to make schools safer, we should make sure that class sizes are small, that every school has an adequate number of counselors, that each school has a school psychologist, and that we have security staff trained to build relationships with students and have de-escalations, ” Gutierrez said.

The bill is one step closer to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk after it passed by a party-line vote in the Education Committee in the Arizona House on Jan. 14. All Republicans voted in favor, and all Democrats voted against.

Even if it reaches Hobbs’ desk, she is likely to veto the bill, since no Democrats have voiced support for the bill becoming law.