NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As we near the one year mark since the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee lawmakers continue to introduce bills to address school safety. One proposal would bring back firearm safety classes in schools.
Under current Tennessee law, students already have to learn about what to do during a fire alarm or tornado drill. Rep. Chris Todd, Republican-Madison County, wants to add gun safety to that list of topics.
"Kids are going to see firearms, either at school or at home. And so this is just basic training," said Rep. Todd Thursday during the House Education Instruction Subcommittee.
Under Todd's bill, the class wouldn't cover how to load or fire a weapon. But it would cover the following topics:
- Safe storage of firearms
- School safety relating to firearms
- How to avoid injury if the student finds a firearm
- To never touch a found firearm
- To immediately notify an adult of the location of a found firearm.
Bill language also stipulates that the instruction on firearms has to be free from any political talk, including gun rights, gun violence and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
While Republican leaders in both chambers admitted, they haven't read and studied the bill, they said they support the idea behind it.
"I think there could be some good in teaching children about the danger of firearms," said Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, a Republican from Oak Ridge.
"Children need to understand and learn to safely be able to either stay away from that firearm completely at certain ages or if they’re going to use that firearm as intended for hunting or something else, how to safely use that firearm," said Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland, who also serves as House Majority Leader.
The same could be said for some Democrats.
"It sounds like a good idea," said Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, who rose to prominence as a member of the so-called Tennessee Three.
Although Rep. Pearson does have some stipulations. "But if that’s as far as you’re going to go, if that’s all you’re going to do — you’re doing a disservice to our communities and our state," he said. "Those in the Republican Party need to use all of their energies and resources and time to stop these incidents from happening in the first place."
So just how young would students learn about the risks of firearms? If the bill passes, leaders of the Tennessee Department of Safety, Department of Education and the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency would help make that decision.
If the bill sounds familiar it's because it actually passed the Tennessee House back in 2020. But the legislative session was cut short due to COVID before the Senate could pass it.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
