Gun laws trigger 2 states' debatesSome oppose new law allowing loaded guns near school groundsBY HOLLY PRESTIDGE
If you think guns don't have any place on or near school property, don't move to Utah.
A change in Virginia's law allows people with a concealed-weapons permit to carry loaded firearms when picking up students from school - as long as the guns are concealed and are kept inside vehicles.
But Utah's latest gun law goes further. It allows teachers, principals and anyone else with a concealed-weapons permit to carry weapons on school grounds. The guns can be loaded and are not restricted to vehicles.
Proponents of the Utah legislation said schools would be safer if people could arm themselves, said Carol Lear, coordinator for school law and legislation for the Utah Board of Education.
When the law was initially written, it required a principal to approve individuals with the concealed permits before they could enter school grounds with loaded firearms, Lear said by phone last week.
For those opposed to guns in schools, the requirement for permission "was a very adequate deterrent, we thought," Lear said.
But that provision was removed before the law passed. Now anyone with a permit may bring a loaded firearm on school property. The law also allows permit holders to have loaded firearms in plain view in their vehicles.
"It's just bizarre," Lear said, that things students get expelled for "are OK for an adult."
Although Virginia's law is more restrictive than the Utah legislation, some Richmond-area teachers say Virginia lawmakers should not have made it easier to carry a loaded gun on school property.
Shonda Harris-Muhammed, a teacher at Richmond's Armstrong High School, said there is no way parents or anyone else should bring guns near a school.
Harris-Muhammed said she was livid upon hearing that Virginia's new law meant gun owners were no longer required to unload their guns before entering school property.
"A loaded gun is very different from an unloaded gun," she said. "Anything can happen."
She said she didn't think Virginia lawmakers thought this new law through. She said it opens the door for kids to say they don't feel safe in school and justify bringing in weapons because they see adults doing the same.
Mark Dozier, a teacher at Henrico County's Douglas Freeman High School, also opposes guns on school property.
"We should do as much as we can to keep loaded guns away from our schools," Dozier said. "Someone who lost their temper can put students and teachers in harm's way."
Jackie Kelley, a sixth-grade English and reading teacher at Henrico's Pocahontas Middle School, has a different perspective.
Kelley moved to Virginia from New Hampshire two years ago. While teaching there, Kelley said, she knew many parents who were hunters and kept firearms in their vehicles.
"I never felt threatened," she said, "and I never felt unsafe in my parking lot."
Kelley said she felt that those who had gun licenses knew how to handle firearms around children. She knew students who hunted with their parents.
Utah state Sen. Michael G. Waddoups, a Republican and the sponsor of that state's gun law, noted that a course on safety is a requirement for a concealed-weapons permit. Waddoups added that the people who take the course "are serious about it and are doing it for the right reasons."
He said he has heard of no incidents in which someone used a firearm inappropriately on school grounds as a result of the law. He said he talked to teachers who came to school armed since the law changed. The change is such a nonissue that the principals aren't even aware that their teachers are armed, Waddoups said.
Lear, who deals with law and legislation for the Utah Board of Education, said it is understood that school employees must keep their firearms concealed. She emphasized "must," and said employees are told that consequences for failure to conceal a weapon could be severe.
"If you ever show that gun," she said, "you may be putting your employment at risk."
She noted that although opinion polls in her state showed 70 percent of the population opposed guns in school, the law passed anyway.
Virginia's gun law passed in the House, 85-9, and in the Senate, 28-11, before being signed into law earlier this year.
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