Teachers in Texas district allowed to carry guns
The right to own firearms is a constitutional right in the United States
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Saturday, 16, Aug 2008 10:10
A superintendent of a school in Texas has permitted his teachers to carry concealed guns to school.
The head of the school in the state's Harrold district, David Thweatt, says armed teachers would help improve security on the premises.
Teachers allowed to carry a gun will have to be permitted to carry the weapon by the district and the state and also undergo training in crisis management
Writing on a local newspaper’s website, Mr Thweatt said: "The naysayers think (a shooting) won't happen here. If something were to happen here, I'd much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is ok because we were able to protect them."
He added that the school's location near a motorway meant that it was more vulnerable to attacks and stated that shootings only started occurring in educational institutions after federal governments made school's gun-free zones.
The possession of firearms on school grounds is prohibited under Texas' law but individual schools have the prerogative to allow them to be carried.
The US has seen a number of shootings by disgruntled students. One of the deadliest school shootings in the recent past occurred in April 1999 in Columbine, Colorado, where 13 people were shot dead and 23 injured in a shooting spree started by two students.
In 2007, a gunman also killed 32 people on the campus of Viginia Tech university.