In Cheyene, Wyoming teacher and staff members who hold concealed-carry permits, will be authorized by local school boards to carry guns at Wyoming’s K-12 schools under a bill introduced by the Wyoming House of Representatives.
The House voted 54-to-6 to introduce a bill sponsored by Representative John Eklund, R-Cheyenne.
Eklund stated he believes the state urgently needs to act on the school-security issue. There’s little if any law-enforcement presence in many rural areas, and school workers need to be ready to protect themselves and their students, he said.
“I believe that it might be a deterrent for a terrorist or criminal to break into a school or harm our kids,” Eklund said after the vote on his bill. “It might be a deterrent to know that there might be guns waiting on the other side of the wall.”
Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, was among the few who voted against Eklund’s bill.
Speaking after the vote, Brown said anyone who would consider doing harm to schoolchildren should face the uncertainty that teachers and other school workers could be armed. But he doesn’t believe that merely having a concealed-carry permit is a sufficient level of training, he said.
Brown suggested the state require the same level of firearms training for anyone with access to guns in schools as it does for active duty law enforcement officers.
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