Post-Uvalde: Mississippi Board of Education Opens Door to Armed School Staff

The Mississippi Board of Education voted last week to remove a 30-year-old policy barring schoolteachers and staff from being armed for classroom defense on K-12 campuses.

FOX News noted Tuesday, “Following killings at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, a July Fourth parade near Chicago and an Indiana mall, the Mississippi Board of Education voted last week to update a 1990 internal policy that prohibited anyone other than law enforcement from carrying guns on public school campuses.”

The Mississippi Free Press spoke with Mississippi Department of Education Office of Safe and Orderly Schools Director Brian McGairty, who explained the move brings schools into compliance with an enhanced carry law passed over a decade ago.

McGairty suggested the K-12 ban on “the possession of pistols, firearms, or weapons in any form by any person other than duly authorized law enforcement officials on school premises or at school functions” ran afoul of the enhanced carry law.

He added, “We simply complied with the state law that’s been in effect for the last 11 years.”

Mississippi Department of Education General Counsel Erin Meyer explained:

“This rule currently conflicts with Mississippi’s enhanced carry statutes, so the enhanced carry statute authorizes individuals who have the proper certification to carry weapons in certain areas that are enumerated in statutes,” she said. “That includes elementary and secondary school facilities, so our policy is currently in conflict with that. State board policies can’t prohibit something that is authorized in law.”

The change in policy does not mean teachers can simply began carrying guns to school for classroom defense. Rather, the change means each school district will get to decide policies for its schools.

Mississippi is one of 25 constitutional carry states in the United States.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.