Listen Live

Indiana Statehouse

STATEHOUSE — A bill to provide state-funded firearm training to teachers has advanced out of the Indiana House.

The bill would provide free and voluntary firearm training to teachers who wish to be armed while in the classroom. State law already allows teachers to have a gun on school grounds as long as they have permission from their school board.

“When an active shooter decides to go into a soft target, a gun-free zone, and start taking out unarmed people, and when that first 911 call goes out and they are minutes away, seconds count in those situations,” said the bill’s sponsor State Rep. Jim Lucas (R-Seymour).

Democrats, like State Rep Tonya Pfaff of Terre Haute, have their worries about it.

“I worry about students overpowering their teacher and taking their weapon,” she said. “I worry about students stealing guns that are in desks. In my classroom, neither my desk nor my filing cabinet has a lock on it.”

The bill advanced 71-24 out of the Indiana House on Tuesday and is now up for consideration in the State Senate.