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Carolyn Cain, Utah Teacher On The Ed Show: Teachers Should Carry Guns Without Telling Parents, Students

Utah Teacher Wants To Carry Gun Without Telling Parents, Students

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A Utah teacher doesn't think parents "necessarily" have a right to know that their child's educator is carrying a concealed weapon in the classroom.

K-6 special education teacher Carolyn Cain spoke to Ed Schultz on The Ed Show Wednesday to discuss the controversial issue of arming teachers, expressing her desire to "have options" to carry a gun for protection. Issues of gun control, school security and arming educators have swept the nation following the Dec. 14 school shooting that killed 20 children and 6 school employees at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary.

Just four days after the Newtown massacre, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder rejected a bill that would have allowed concealed weapons in schools, day care centers and select other public areas. But in Utah, such a law has existed for over a decade: any person with a concealed carry permit can legally bring a loaded gun into a school, and parents don't have to know about it.

Cain acknowledged that there "are still questions" regarding rambunctious students who could attain access to a weapon in school, but when Schultz asks why parents don't have a right to know that there's a gun in their child's classroom, the teacher responds:

“Well, because I think that firearms are — what we do know is that the bad guys come into schools. What we don’t know — I mean, we’re making lots of guesses about what could happen 'if.' And those things haven’t happened. Like I said, we’ve been able to carry them for 12 years here in Utah, and I haven’t — I have not heard them, and they would be on the news if those things happened. so, I think causing more — it’s the same reason I would prefer not to have big armed militia next to the door for the kids to see.”

Republicans in a number of states have announced plans to introduce legislation that would allow or even require school staff to carry guns. Republican Minnesota state Rep. Tony Cornish, for one, plans to sponsor a bill that allows teachers to carry loaded weapons in classrooms.

One school in Texas does permit concealed carry by teachers, and former Education Secretary Bill Bennett took to "Meet the Press" last month to express his support for arming school staff.

But experts say that bringing weapons onto school grounds would do more harm than good, and teachers have called the proposal "absurd."

"Singular horrible events like this past week make us all upset, but if we look at the data, it doesn't make sense that that's where we need to beef up security in a very expensive way -- not only financially but also at the cost of our children's feeling of security," Kenneth Dodge, director of the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University told The Huffington Post last month. "Isn't it more straightforward to just get rid of the guns?"

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Before You Go

People Who Want More Guns In Schools
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) (01 of09)
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"I wish to God she had had an m-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out ... and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said of slain principal Dawn Hochsprung on Fox News Sunday. He argued that shooters often choose schools because they know people will be unarmed. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R)(02 of09)
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"If people were armed, not just a police officer, but other school officials that were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would be an opportunity to stop an individual trying to get into the school," he told WTOP's "Ask the Governor" show Tuesday, warning that Washington may respond to such a policy with a "knee-jerk reaction." (credit:WikiMedia:)
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) & State Sen. Frank Niceley (R)(03 of09)
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Gov. Haslam says he will consider a Tennessee plan to secretly arm and train some teachers, TPM reports. The legislation will be introduced by State Sen. Frank Niceley (R) next month. "Say some madman comes in. The first person he would probably try to take out was the resource officer. But if he doesn’t know which teacher has training, then he wouldn’t know which one had [a gun]," Niceley told TPM. "These guys are obviously cowards anyway and if someone starts shooting back, they’re going to take cover, maybe go ahead and commit suicide like most of them have." (credit:AP)
Oklahoma State Rep. Mark McCullough (R) & State Sen. Ralph Shortey (R) (04 of09)
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State Rep. Mark McCullough (R) told the Tulsa World he plans to file legislation that would bring guns into schools, calling their absence "irresponsible." “It is incredibly irresponsible to leave our schools undefended – to allow mad men to kill dozens of innocents when we have a very simple solution available to us to prevent it," he said. "I’ve been considering this proposal for a long time. In light of the savagery on display in Connecticut, I believe it’s an idea whose time has come."Sen. Ralph Shortey (R) told the Tulsa World that teachers should carry concealed weapons at school events. "Allowing teachers and administrators with concealed-carry permits the ability to have weapons at school events would provide both a measure of security for students and a deterrent against attackers," he said. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Florida State Rep. Dennis Baxley (R)(05 of09)
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Baxley, who once sponsored Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law, told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that keeping guns out of schools makes them a target for attacks.“We need to be more realistic at looking at this policy," he said. "In our zealousness to protect people from harm we’ve created all these gun-free zones and what we’ve inadvertently done is we’ve made them a target. A helpless target is exactly what a deranged person is looking for where they cannot be stopped.” (credit:AP)
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)(06 of09)
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At a Tea Party event Monday night, Perry praised a Texas school system that allows some staff to carry concealed weapons to work and encouraged local school districts to make their own policies. (credit:WikiMedia:)
Minnesota State Rep. Tony Cornish (R) (07 of09)
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Cornish plans to introduce legislation that would allow teachers to arm themselves, according to the AP. (credit:Alamy)
Oregon State Rep. Dennis Richardson (R)(08 of09)
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In an email obtained by Gawker and excerpted below, Richardson tells three superintendents that he could have saved lives had he been armed and in Sandy Hook on Friday:
If I had been a teacher or the principal at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and if the school district did not preclude me from having access to a firearm, either by concealed carry or locked in my desk, most of the murdered children would still be alive, and the gunman would still be dead, and not by suicide....[O]ur children's safety depends on having a number of well-trained school employees on every campus who are prepared to defend our children and save their lives?
 (credit:dennisrichardson.org)
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett(09 of09)
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"And I'm not so sure -- and I'm sure I'll get mail for this -- I'm not so sure I wouldn't want one person in a school armed, ready for this kind of thing," Bennett, who served as education secretary under Ronald Reagan, told Meet the Press Sunday. "The principal lunged at this guy. The school psychologist lunged at the guy. It has to be someone who's trained, responsible. But, my god, if you can prevent this kind of thing, I think you ought to." (credit:Getty Images)
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