Title: A resolution keeping guns out of classrooms.
Policy area: Education

Summary:
This resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that federal funds shall not be used to train or arm school personnel with firearms.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 110 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 110

                    Keeping guns out of classrooms.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 14, 2019

Mr. Murphy (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, and Mrs. Murray) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
                    Keeping guns out of classrooms.

Whereas Congress has consistently made clear that it is unlawful for Federal 
        funds to be used for training or arming school personnel with firearms;
Whereas Congress passed the STOP School Violence Act of 2018 (title V of 
        division S of Public Law 115-141) in response to the shooting in 
        Parkland, Florida, and amended part AA of title I of the Omnibus Crime 
        Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10551 et seq.) to 
        specify that ``No amounts provided as a grant [for school security under 
        such part] may be used for the provision to any person of a firearm or 
        training in the use of a firearm.'';
Whereas section 4102 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
        U.S.C. 7113), as added by section 4101 of the Every Student Succeeds Act 
        (Public Law 114-95; 129 Stat. 1970), defines drug and violence 
        prevention in schools as including the ``creation . . . of a school 
        environment that is free of weapons'';
Whereas existing research demonstrates that training or arming school personnel 
        with firearms will not make schools safer;
Whereas an analysis by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of active shooters 
        between 2000 and 2013 found that trained law enforcement suffered 
        casualties in 21 of the 45 incidents in which officers engaged the 
        shooter to end the threat;
Whereas a survey of gun violence on school campuses showed that out of 225 
        incidents of gun violence between 1999 and 2018, trained armed personnel 
        or school resource officers failed to disarm an active shooter 223 
        times;
Whereas proposed and existing programs to train or arm school personnel with 
        firearms require significantly less training than law enforcement 
        officers receive;
Whereas research demonstrates that increased gun access and possession are not 
        associated with protection from violence and a greater prevalence of 
        guns increases the likelihood of gun violence;
Whereas a greater prevalence of guns in schools creates undue risk of students 
        gaining unauthorized access to firearms and the potential for 
        unintentional shootings and school staff using guns in situations that 
        do not warrant lethal force;
Whereas students of color, students with disabilities, and other vulnerable 
        groups would experience a disparate impact of programs that arm school 
        personnel as those students are disproportionately disciplined and 
        arrested;
Whereas heightened policing within public school spaces decreases a student's 
        sense of safety and the associated anticipation of violence leads to 
        increased anxiety, fear, and depression;
Whereas 73 percent of teachers in the United States do not want to carry guns in 
        school and 58 percent say arming personnel would make schools less safe, 
        according to a Gallup poll from March 2018;
Whereas the majority of parents of school-aged children oppose arming school 
        personnel, according to surveys;
Whereas, as of March 2019, there is no evidence supporting the value of arming 
        school personnel;
Whereas the broad consensus among participants in the listening tour for the 
        final report of the Federal Commission on School Safety released in 
        December 2018 was disagreement with programs that would arm school 
        personnel, according to transcripts; and
Whereas, in that final report, the Department of Education endorsed the use of 
        Federal funds to train personnel to use firearms: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that Federal funds 
shall not be used to train or arm school personnel with firearms.
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