Private schools could soon assign staff members or volunteers to carry a firearm or stun gun under legislation making its way through the North Carolina Senate.
Supporters of House Bill 193 say it provides private schools with a lower-cost way to protect their students in a manner similar to school resource officers. Rep. Jeff McNeely presented the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, saying private schools in his district struggle with security.
“Many of them don’t have the financial capacity or ability to be able to bring a law enforcement officer in, an SRO, but they still need protection,” McNeely, R-Iredell, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Schools could assign anyone who either holds or is exempt from a concealed carry permit to carry a firearm on school grounds or at school events. McNeely gave the examples of a staff member, a retired law enforcement officer or even a student’s grandparent.
“If we get this so specific, it’ll never be obtainable for that particular school, possibly,” McNeely said.
Sen. Sophia Chitlik, D-Durham, questioned whether introducing more firearms into a school setting actually makes them safer.
Chitlik also questioned how the eight hours of annual gun safety training House Bill 193 requires for someone carrying a weapon on private school property stacks up against the hundreds of hours officers need before becoming school resource officers.
“SROs are markedly different than a grandfather with maybe eight hours of training,” Chitlik said.
Earlier this month, the General Assembly passed a bill that would allow anyone who is eligible to carry a firearm to conceal their weapon without an additional permit or background check. It would also drop the age someone can carry a concealed weapon from 21 to 18.
That legislation is awaiting a decision on a possible veto from Gov. Josh Stein.
The school provisions in House Bill 193 are similar to Senate Bill 280, legislation that has stalled in the House Rules Committee after being sent between chambers.
Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, said lawmakers are trying to prevent incidents like a 2023 shooting in Nashville where six people were killed at a private Christian school.
“They didn’t have any private security. That situation can happen here in North Carolina today if we don’t address this,” Newton said.
In one change, an amendment Sen. Warren Daniel introduced to House Bill 193 increases penalty levels for threatening or harming elected officials. It also clarifies that those protections extend to local elected officials, in addition to members of the executive branch, legislature and courts.
The bill is now headed to the Senate Rules committee, which needs to approve it before the full Senate can take it up. If the Senate approves it, the House would need to concur with changes before sending it to Gov. Josh Stein.
