South Carolina is debating allowing teachers to carry guns in school to avoid mass shootings

The South Carolina State Committee on Education and Public Works is set to review a bill allowing teachers in the state to carry guns in school. The measure allows any personnel at the school to carry a gun if they passed the appropriate training to be considered “School Protection Officers.” Under the bill, a School Protection Officer keeps the weapon on his person at all times while on the premises except when locked in a school firearm safe and uses only frangible bullets. Frangible bullets are designed to disintegrate upon impact to limit danger around an intended target and avoid ricochets. According to WPDE, bill sponsor State Representative Phillip Lowe (R- Florence) said since schools are gun-free zones, that makes them targets. "The people who are deranged and want to inflict pain chose a school because it's a gun-free zone, and they can inflict the most punishment on innocent people," said Lowe. "It doesn't force the district to participate, and it doesn't force them to take every candidate who may want to be a protection officer," said Lowe. The school boards would work with each school and choose administrators who would go through the extensive training that would allow them to have a gun on school property.