Arming teachers won't make schools safe

After the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, there was real momentum for making sensible changes to gun laws.

The Florida Legislature even passed some modest improvements to gun regulations, following years in which it loosened regulations without concern for the deadly consequences.

Sadly, Florida seems to be returning to form nearly a year after 17 people — including 14 students — were shot to death in Parkland. Not only has a plan to rescind last year’s regulations been proposed, but a state commission tasked with investigating the shooting is recommending allowing teachers in the state’s public schools to be armed.

Putting guns in classrooms is no way to keep children safe, and in fact would be more likely to result in accidental deaths than prevent a mass shooting.

Law enforcement officers who are trained in responding to shootings should retain that responsibility. In the case of the Parkland shooting, the state commission found that multiple officers were derelict in their duties.

They include the school resource officer assigned to Douglas High School, who failed to enter the building while the shooting was happening, and Broward County sheriff’s deputies, who also didn’t rush to confront the shooter. They should be held responsible, and contributing problems with law enforcement policies and training should be corrected.

The state commission made some recommendations along those lines, but went too far in its proposal to allow teachers to be armed. The Legislature last year allowed some school staff to be armed but let school districts opt out of the program, as Alachua County Schools and a number of other districts decided to do.

The commission also recommended increasing state school security spending and allowing districts to raise property taxes without a referendum to pay for officers or other security costs. In November, Alachua County voters passed a sales tax increase to make school facilities improvements that include security measures.

The idea that more guns will make schools more safe is the same backward logic that has caused the United States to have more gun deaths than nearly any other nation. Unless something is done about the easy access to guns in our country, deadly shootings will continue to be commonplace.

The changes made last year to Florida’s gun laws were a step in the right direction. They included raising the minimum age for all gun purchases to 21 from 18, imposing a three-day waiting period on the sale of rifles and allowing law enforcement to confiscate guns from those who threaten to hurt themselves or others.

But now Rep. Mike Hill, a Panhandle Republican, has filed legislation to rescind those regulations as well as loosen other gun laws. Another bill filed by Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, would allow concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses.

The young people, parents and other concerned citizens who spoke out after the Parkland shooting must again make their voices heard. Guns regulations need to be further strengthened, not loosened yet again.