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| National School Shield Task Force Director, former Arkansas Rep. Asa Hutchinson gestures during a news conference at National Press Club in Washington, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, to discuss his groups's school-guns study. The National Rifle Association's study recommends schools across the nation each train and arm at least one staff member. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Senate gun control debate on the near horizon, a National
Rifle Association-sponsored report on Tuesday proposed a program for
schools to train selected staffers as armed security officers. The
former Republican congressman who headed the study suggested at least
one protector with firearms for every school, saying it would speed
responses to attacks.
The report's release
served as the gun-rights group's answer to improving school safety after
the gruesome December slayings of 20 first-graders and six adults at a
Newtown, Conn., elementary school. And it showed the organization giving
little ground in its fight with President Barack Obama over curbing
firearms.
Obama's chief proposals include
broader background checks for gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and
high-capacity ammunition magazines - both of which the NRA opposes.
The
study - unveiled at a news conference watched over by several burly,
NRA-provided guards - made eight recommendations, including easing state
laws that might bar a trained school staff member from carrying
firearms and improving school coordination with law enforcement
agencies. But drawing the most attention was its suggested 40- to
60-hour training for school employees who pass background checks to also
provide armed protection while at work.
"The
presence of an armed security personnel in a school adds a layer of
security and diminishes the response time that is beneficial to the
overall security," said Asa Hutchinson, a GOP former congressman from
Arkansas who directed the study.
Asked whether
every school would be better off with an armed security officer,
Hutchinson replied, "Yes," but acknowledged the decision would be made
locally.
It is unusual for guards to provide
security at events that lack a major public figure at the National Press
Club, which houses offices for many news organizations. NRA spokesman
Andrew Arulanandam said he did not know whether the guards were armed,
and several guards declined to say if they were.
Hutchinson
said school security could be provided by trained staff members or
school resource officers - police officers assigned to schools that some
districts already have.
Dan Domenech,
executive director of the American Association of School Administrators,
said while a trained law enforcement officer with a gun would be
valuable, his group opposes arming "a teacher or an employee who simply
has taken a course and now has the ability to carry a weapon."
The
Brady Campaign, a leading gun-control group, accused the NRA of
"missing the point" by ignoring the need for expanded background checks
and other measures the Senate is considering. It said people want "a
comprehensive solution that not only addresses tragic school shootings,
but also helps prevent the thousands of senseless gun deaths each year."
Also
denouncing the recommendations was Randi Weingarten, president of the
American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.5 million teachers
and other workers. She called it a "cruel hoax that will fail to keep
our children and schools safe" while helping only gun manufacturers.
The NRA released its report as congressional momentum seems to have stalled for any sweeping steps to curb firearms violence.
Top
Senate Democrats have little hope for a proposed ban on assault
weapons, and the prospects for barring large-capacity magazines also
seem difficult. Key senators remain short of a bipartisan compromise on
requiring gun transactions between private individuals to undergo
federal background checks, which currently apply only to sales handled
by licensed gun dealers. The Senate plans to begin debating gun
legislation next week.
White House spokesman
Jay Carney said administration officials were seeking middle ground and
emphasized background checks, widely seen by gun control advocates as
the most effective step available.
"We are
working with lawmakers of both parties, and trying to achieve a
compromise that can make this happen. Especially when it comes to the
background checks," Carney told reporters.
The
spokesman commented as a White House official revealed that the
president plans a trip next week to Connecticut, scene of the horrific
elementary school shootings that spurred the new push for gun control
legislation. Obama wants to use the trip to build pressure on Congress
to pass legislation.
Obama also plans to focus
on firearms curbs in a trip Wednesday to Denver, not far from last
summer's mass shooting in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
The
225-page study cost the NRA more than $1 million, Hutchinson said. The
task force included several former top officials of federal law
enforcement and security agencies, including the Secret Service and
Homeland Security Department.
Hutchinson
acknowledged that the study omitted an earlier NRA recommendation that
retired police officers and other volunteers be armed to provide school
safety. He said the idea encountered "great reluctance" from school
superintendents.
Hutchinson said the NRA did
not interfere with his task force's work. In a written statement, the
NRA said the report "will go a long way to making America's schools
safer."
Hutchinson also called "totally
inadequate" a gun control measure working through the Connecticut
legislature that includes a tightening of the state's assault weapons
ban. The measure wouldn't prevent an attacker with a handgun or other
firearms from attacking a school, he said.
Debbie
Leidlein, chairwoman of the Newtown Board of Education, said having
trained staff members carry weapons "can become a dangerous situation to
have any individuals outside of those who have police training to be
carrying weapons around children."
But the
proposal won support from Mark Mattioli, whose 6-year-old son James was
killed at Newtown and who attended the NRA news conference.
"These are recommendations for solutions, real solutions that will make our kids safer," Mattioli said.
