Dear Commons Community,

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo yesterday signed a bill that prevents local school districts from allowing teachers and administrators to carry guns on school grounds.

“The answer to the gun violence epidemic plaguing this country has never been and never will be more guns,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.  As reported in the New York Times:

“In the aftermath of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., President Trump embraced a proposal to arm teachers as a way to prevent further mass shootings in schools.

His support for the idea, which had been proposed by the National Rifle Association, invigorated a nationwide debate over whether the people educating children should also bear the responsibility of wielding firearms to protect them.

In New York, the answer from state lawmakers was a firm no.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo yesterday signed a bill that prevents local school districts from allowing educators to carry guns on school grounds.

The bill, which still allows law enforcement officials and other school security personnel to carry firearms, was passed in January as part of a larger package of gun-control measures pushed through the Legislature this year. On Monday, Mr. Cuomo signed one of those bills, extending the background check waiting period and banning bump stocks; on Tuesday, he signed bills banning undetectable guns and expanding firearm safe storage laws.

While federal law already prohibits people from possessing guns in or around school grounds, it provides an exception for people licensed to carry a firearm.

At least 40 states have laws on the books that prohibit guns at K-12 schools, even when the owner has a concealed-weapons permit, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control advocacy group.

But J. Adam Skaggs, the chief counsel and policy director for the center, said that within these laws are a patchwork of exceptions and loopholes that concerned gun-control advocates.

In New York, until Wednesday, state law did not prevent school districts from making the decision to arm educators or permit them to carry firearms in school…

… A spokesman for the Senate Republicans, Scott Reif, said on Wednesday that lawmakers opposed to the bill were not in favor of arming teachers but thought the state should focus its efforts on other, potentially more effective measures.

Teachers’ unions were more strenuously opposed to arming educators.

“This is not a ‘Dirty Harry’ movie,” said Michael Mulgrew, the president of New York City’s teachers union. “That’s not how this works.”

Good, sane legislation!

Tony

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