Tennessee, USA passes law allowing teachers to carry weapons

This Tuesday, congressmen in the local Tennessee legislature approved a bill that allows teachers, principals and school staff to carry concealed weapons, just one year after the fatal shooting at a school in this state.

The bill allowing the carrying of weapons in schools was approved by the House and had passed to the Senate in early April. Now the signature of Governor Bill Lee is pending, who declares himself “open” to the idea of ​​carrying weapons and apparently has never vetoed a bill.

The regulations establish requirements for school employees to be able to carry firearms, such as having received 40 hours of “basic training in school police” and as many hours of training per year.

The measure was approved a little more than a year after a man opened fire at a Nashville elementary school, leaving three children and three staff members dead, before being shot dead by police.

Following the shooting, the Republican-led Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two African-American congressmen after they stormed a session to demand stricter gun controls.

Fatal shootings are common in the country, where there are 400 million firearms in circulation. In 2020, 45,000 citizens died from gunshot wounds, whether due to suicide, accident or homicide, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).