ALBANY — New York would ban teachers from carrying guns in school under a broad gun control package set to pass the Legislature on Tuesday.
Following the 2018 Parkland, Fla. school shooting, President Trump and the NRA called for teachers and school staff to be armed.
Vice News recently reported that at least 466 districts across the country adopted policies to allow it.
New York wants to go the other way.
“Right now under New York law, if a district decides it wants to arm school personnel, it can,” said state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, the Nassau County official sponsoring the bill to outlaw such moves. “I believe it’s misguided. It’s not focused on the real problem.”
Supporters of arming teachers say it would allow them to protect students if a shooting erupts in school. But Kaminsky says most teachers don’t want to roam the halls looking for active shooters.
“Teachers I talk to just want to teach,” he said.
Districts could still have armed security in schools if they want, Kaminsky said.
The bill to outlaw teachers from carrying guns in school is part of an expansive gun control package that is set to be taken up by the state Senate and Assembly on Tuesday.
Other than a measure passed last year to take firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers, the package is the first dealing with gun control that will pass the Legislature since 2013, when Gov. Cuomo pushed through the SAFE Act in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Ct.
The Republicans who controlled the Senate until this January refused to consider additional measures. But with Democrats now in control of state government, the gun control bills are set to sail through.
Other legislation in the package includes expanding the timeline for background checks on gun purchases flagged for further review to 30 days from the current three, and a “red flag” bill allowing family members, school officials and law enforcement to petition a judge to take guns away from people they believe pose an “extreme” risk to themselves or others.
The Legislature will also push a New York ban on possession and sale of bump stock devices like the one used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting massacre. The devices accelerate the firing rate of semiautomatic weapons. It’s already illegal in New York to attach bump stocks to firearms.
Another bill will outlaw the sale and possession of 3-D guns that are not detectable by metal detectors, while another would create an institute within the State University of New York to study and make recommendations on gun violence and run education and training programs.
Other legislation will create municipal gun buyback programs and set requirements for safe storage of firearms.
“There have been a number of massacres since the SAFE Act was implemented and there’s always improvements we can make to keep New Yorkers safe,” said Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens).
Gov. Cuomo, who has criticized President Trump and congressional Republicans for wanting to roll back gun control measures, is expected to sign the bills.
But Tom King, an NRA board member from New York and president of the state Rifle and Pistol Association, argued that none of the changes will improve public safety.
“This is exactly what we feared (when the Democrats won control of the state Senate),’ King said. “This is a case of the Democrats coming in, running wild, writing bills on everything they can think of, and then trying to pass as much of it as they can.”
He said teachers should be allowed to carry guns as long as they are trained, though he prefers schools hire armed security “just like the legislators have in the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building.”
King disputed that a 30-day background check will turn up information that cannot be found in three days.
And while he said it’s important to know “if anyone out there is mentally deranged,” he said the “red flag” bill as written doesn’t provide enough due process for those “who prove not to be mentally handicapped” and want their guns back.
