Should CA Teachers Be Armed? [SURVEY]

CALIFORNIA — California's governor has been signing a flurry of gun restricting laws following the deadliest mass shooting on an elementary school campus in a decade. But other ideas, such as arming teachers in the state, have also cropped up in recent months.

In California alone, at least 33 mass shootings have been reported this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Nationwide, 356 mass shootings have been reported in 2022, according to the archive.

State leaders have been at odds about whether assault weapons should be regulated or how they should tracked, but after school shootings, the idea of arming teachers is often recirculated.

The notion has reinvigorated a nationwide debate over whether the people responsible for teaching students should also be expected to carry firearms to protect them. The idea of arming America’s school teachers has both proponents and opponents.

It was proposed by former President Donald Trump during a 2018 meeting with survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The National Rifle Association quickly endorsed the idea of weapons in schools, and the Second Amendment Foundation and Gun Owners of America signed on in support as well. Gun-control lobbying groups such as Everytown USA, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Giffords Law Center have all opposed it.

A new Politico/Morning Consult Poll taken after the Uvalde school shooting in which 19 children and two teachers were killed found that while a majority of Americans strongly support more restrictions on gun ownership, 54 percent think teachers and other staff should be equipped with concealed firearms.

In 2017, a year before the Parkland shooting, a Pew Research Center survey found 55 percent of U.S. adults opposed allowing teachers and other school officials to carry guns in K-12 schools, and 36 percent said they would strongly oppose such a proposal.

READ MORE: 4 CA Gun Bills That Take Aim At Manufacturers, Advertisers

A sizable majority — 45 percent — said they favored allowing teachers to carry guns in their classrooms, with little difference in the responses of parents with children under 18 in school and non-parents, according to Pew.

Education Week, an independent news site that covers education, tracked 27 school shootings from Jan. 1-May 31 in which 27 people were killed, 24 of them students or other children, and 53 people were injured.

Education Week defines a school shooting as one in which a firearm was discharged on a K-12 school property or bus while school is in session or during a school-sponsored event, injuring at least one person other than the perpetrator. Incidents involving armed school resource officers are not included in the criteria.

In 2021, there were 34 school shootings meeting the criteria, compared with 10 in 2020 and 24 each in 2019 and 2018.

California has some of the toughest laws surrounding guns and assault weapons.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new legislation that will allow Californians to sue companies in the gun industry after reports of gun violence.

The bill, AB 1694, could make it more difficult for manufacturers to sell assault weapons in the state. The legislation borrows tactics from a controversial approach to outlawing most abortions in Texas, in which residents are allowed to sue abortion clinics to stop procedures.

"Our kids, families and communities deserve streets free of gun violence and gun makers must be held accountable for their role in this crisis. Nearly every industry is held liable when people are hurt or killed by their products – guns should be no different," Newsom wrote in a statement.

Starting July 2023, the bill will allow state residents, the attorney general and local governments to sue industry companies in civil court. The bill is primarily meant for those harmed by shootings.

Authored by Assemblymember Phill Ting (D-San Francisco), the bill also requires companies to enforce "reasonable" efforts to make sure that their weapons are not being used illegally.

"Gun violence is now the leading cause of death among kids and teens in the United States, surpassing car accidents. I see no better argument for stronger gun safety legislation," Ting said. "For far too long, the firearms industry has enjoyed federal immunity from civil lawsuits, providing them no incentive for them to follow our laws. Hitting their bottom line may finally compel them to step up to reduce gun violence by preventing illegal sales and theft."

READ MORE: New CA Gun Law Signed By Newsom: What To Know

Patch editor Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.