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Oklahoma House Paves Way For More Guns In Classrooms

A sign outside the Sterling High School gymnasium warns people that teachers may be armed.
Robby Korth
/
StateImpact Oklahoma
A sign outside the Sterling High School gymnasium warns people that teachers may be armed.

Oklahoma’s House of Representatives passed a measure that would make it easier for teachers to have guns in the classroom, late Tuesday.

House Bill 2588, authored by Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, would do away with a requirement of 240 hours of training for teachers armed in a classroom from Oklahoma’s Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET). Instead, school boards would decide how much training an armed school employee would need to carry a firearm.

 

The bare minimum requirement would be a concealed carry permit, which takes eight hours of training.

It passed 68-18. 

Opponents and critics agree that if the bill becomes law it will likely lead to more guns in Oklahoma classrooms

The measure now moves to the senate, where a similar bill passed last year before it was derailed by COVID-19.

 

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