Education administrators in Alabama have another option to stop a school shooting, now that Gov. Kay Ivey has signed an executive memo authorizing the storage of firearms in a safe on campus. There are stipulations, but the state is moving to create new approaches for dealing with the threat of school shootings.
Ivey’s memo mandates that any administrator who wants to take advantage of the offer must have a concealed-carry permit, must undergo firearm training, must submit to random drug tests, must be sworn in as deputy sheriff and must work at a school without a school resource officer.
The guns and ammunition must be kept in a biometric safe and should be retrieved only in the event of an armed attack.
Ivey acted on her own, rather than waiting for the state Legislature—which convenes early next year—to address the concerns regarding school safety, because, “With the unfortunate continued occurrence of school violence across our country, we cannot afford to wait until the next legislative session.”
While Moms Demand Action railed against the action, an analyst with The Heritage Foundation pointed out that armed response can stop threats, or keep them from becoming worse. “Even in [Santa Fe, Texas], where 10 lives were tragically lost, the immediate response of armed school resource officers prevented the situation from becoming much worse,” said Amy Swearer, a legal policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation. She also called this a more financially viable option than requiring school districts to hire more school resource officers.
