Tennessee GOP state Rep. Jody Barrett told Newsmax on Friday that he supported the passage of legislation to arm licensed teachers in classrooms because he is in favor of "anything that we can do" to allow teachers to defend students.
"I represent a rural district," Barrett said during an appearance on "National Report." "One of my counties in my House district is the 11th largest geographic county in the state. We have two high schools, one of which is 18 miles away from the sheriff's office."
"In our county, we may only have four deputies on the road at any one time during the day, so you're talking 15, 20, 25 minutes before an officer could even respond to an active shooter situation," he continued. "So, anything that we can do in our rural areas of our state to allow our teachers to be able to act as their own first responders, not only to defend themselves, but to defend their children, in the event that something like this were to happen."
In a 68-28 vote, Tennessee House Republicans passed a bill on Tuesday that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school campuses and prohibit other teachers and parents from knowing who was armed.
The bill heads next to the desk of Republican Gov. Bill Lee for consideration, as it was previously passed by the state Senate.
The Tennessee Legislature also made headlines recently for a bill that would impose penalties on adults who help minors obtain gender-altering surgical procedures.
"This particular piece of legislation was brought by my colleague, Rep. Bryan Richey out of Maryville, Tennessee, and essentially, what he's trying to do is make sure that minors in Tennessee are protected from other, maybe even well-meaning, adults in their lives — aunts, uncles, teachers, other folks — that may just want to try to think that they are helping out, but, by doing so without letting their parents know what's going on or getting their consent, to take these children across state lines," he said. "We're just making sure that there's a mechanism in place to prevent that from happening."
When asked if he feels the governor will sign it, Barrett said he's "very confident that Gov. Lee will sign on to this."
"He's been very consistent in his efforts as well to protect children in Tennessee, and that's something that we're going to continue to do here," he added.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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