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[Page S1906]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE RESOLUTION 110--KEEPING GUNS OUT OF CLASSROOMS
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:
S. Res. 110
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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