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Last updated on Tuesday, April 9, 2013
(STATEHOUSE) - A House committee will decide today whether to scrap a proposal to require an armed staffer in every Hoosier school.
Educators and community leaders are urging the House Ways and Means Committee to kill the idea. They predict training costs will be enormous. And they argue the original provisions of the bill, calling on schools to hire a security officer with training in counseling students, would be more effective in deterring school violence.
Opponents say they're particularly troubled by the bill's proposal to allow teachers or administrators to be the designated armed staffer. They contend there's no way a crash course in firearms training can measure up to a trained police officer or security guard.
The proposal tracks recommendations offered by the National Rifle Association, which argues would-be school gunmen would be deterred by the knowledge that someone in the school would be equipped to return fire.
Peg Paulson with the gun-control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America calls the provision "reprehensible," and argues introducing guns into schools would be more likely to invite violence than reduce it.
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