NRA Task Force Recommends Arming Teachers And School Staff

The National Rifle Association has released a series of recommendations for improving school safety, with a focus on advising schools on how to train teachers and personnel to carry firearms in case of an emergency.

The NRA recommendations come from the "National School Shield Program," a task force created in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting.

The 225-page National School Shield report seems to be aimed at countering the new gun control laws Senate Democrats are expected to consider next week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had previously stated that the new bill would include more in-depth background check and would make illegal gun trafficking a federal crime.

"I have not focused on the separate debate in Congress about firearms and how they should be handled," said former Republican congressman Asa Hutchinson, now head of the National School Shield Program.

His task force's report does not offer an specific recommendations on how many or what kind of weaponry school personnel should be carrying, but Hutchinson commented that the guns could range from "sidearms, to shotguns, to AR-15s."

Hutchinson also underlined that the recommended program was only for staff willing to undergo 40-60 hours of firearm training.

"Let me emphasize -- this is not talking about all teachers. Teachers should teach," he clarified.  

The proposal included seven other recommendations, including an online self-assessment test that schools would use to evaluate their safety procedures, state law amendments that would allow school staff to carry firearms while undergoing training, better coordination between law enforcement agencies, asking states to make school safety a part of their educational requirements, a new program that would assess threats and metal health, increased federal funding for school safety, and to make the National School Shield Program task force a permanent entity.

Hutchinson presented the report at the National Press Club, where he was protected by ten security guards, and plans to make the report available soon at www.nrachoolshield.com.   

To date, the NRA has spent over $1 million developing the National School Shield Program task force.