Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday signed a bill that significantly lowers the amount of training that teachers and other school staffers must undergo in order to carry a firearm on school grounds.
"In life we make choices, and we don't always know what the outcome is going to be," the governor said at a press conference on Monday, according to The Columbus Dispatch. "What this Legislature has done, I've done by signing it, is giving schools an option based on their particular circumstances to make the best decision they can make with the best information they have. That's all any decision-maker can do."
DeWine said in a statement earlier this month that the legislation will enable "local school districts, if they so choose, to designate armed staff for school security and safety."
He added, "My office worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training."
The Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, teachers' unions, and gun safety groups all opposed the legislation.
"The safety of Ohio's students and educators is our utmost priority, but we know putting more guns into school buildings in the hands of people who have woefully inadequate training — regardless of their intentions — is dangerous and irresponsible," the presidents of the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers said in a joint statement released earlier this month.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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