By: Leo Kinney
This article examines the pros and cons of a bill presented in the Assembly.
Bill 135
Chamber: Assembly
Author: Joey Kloes of Hortonville delegation
Title of bill: An act to arm public educators with firearms.
Joey states the purpose of the bill would authorize and foster a cadre of Wisconsin’s public school instructors and leadership who must be permitted to carry a firearm on the stipulation that they obtain a concealed carry license in addition to extensive, professional training that emulates a variety of contingency planning (a type of formal decision making) to promote safe and efficient responses to any arising crises involving targeted acts of violence-notably the discharge of deadly firearms and other ultra hazardous objects that may be used as weapons (e.g. knives, etc.). There was a study conducted by Colorado office of school safety that armed educators have a 70% more chance of slowing down a threat. In 1999 12 teachers and students were murdered in under two minutes. A con speaker of the bill says bringing more guns into the picture would be less ideal for students because they might be more insecure about going to a school where educators are armed and will create a surge of absentees. Another con speaker states what would happen if a teacher just snaps, they also stated that if there were to be a fire it would turn the gun with loaded ammo into an explosive due to the gunpowder located inside the bullet. An amendment poses that that taking money from Wisconsin lottery tax would be the funding for this, a pro speaker for this amendment states that the Wisconsin lottery does rake in a lot of money, a con speaker states that taking money from the Wisconsin lottery tax is bad and that it should go back into the prize pool itself. In the ears of the chair the amendment does not pass. A representative asked if all teachers would be required to carry, the answer was there will be a limit based on student-teacher ratio. Another representative stated could there be other options such as a taser or pepper spray, Joey also stated that 32 states allow educators to concealed carry. At this point we are out of time and representatives were allowed to vote and in the ears of the chair this bill does not pass 20-32.