U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-– On October 1, 1997, school principal Joel Myrick (a U.S. Army Reserve Major) stopped a shooting at the Pearl Mississippi High School by holding the killer at gunpoint until police arrived. A student had assisted by blocking the killer’s car with their car. The killer attempted to drive around the other vehicle but became stuck. At that point, Joel Myrick pointed his .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol at the killer, and the killer surrendered.
At the time, it was illegal for Joel Myrick to bring his personal weapon onto the school property. He had to retrieve it from his car. No one attempted to prosecute Myrick for breaking the federal gun-free school zone act.
Thirteen years later, in 2011, Mississippi passed a bill creating a shall-issue enhanced carry permit, which allows the possessors to carry in several otherwise prohibited locations, such as schools and colleges, places that serve alcohol, polling places, meetings of the legislature, airline passenger terminals (excepting federally secured areas) and churches. This effectively allowed carrying in schools by people with the enhanced permit.
In 2016, Mississippi passed a state version of Constitutional Carry (permitless carry). The permitless carry law did not apply to schools. From Mississippitoday.com:
In 1990, the board created a policy which prohibited weapons in schools, except in the possession of law enforcement officials. The policy also allowed districts to create additional rules about weapons in their district. But in 2012, when state lawmakers passed an enhanced carry law that allowed enhanced permit holders to carry weapons on school campuses, the board never updated its policy.
The board voted in July to adopt a temporary rule change to address this issue, and after receiving and reviewing public comment, the board made its temporary change permanent on Thursday. The new policy reads “each local school district shall have a policy concerning weapons on school premises.”
In the July meeting, the Mississippi Department of Education’s (MDE) general counsel referenced an attorney general opinion from 2013, which clarifies that possessing a gun on school property is a felony according to Mississippi law unless one possesses an enhanced concealed carry permit.
No mass murder at a Mississippi school has taken place since 1997. To further enhance Mississippi school safety, Republican Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi has recommended the creation of a school guardian program that would pay volunteers in schools to be armed and responsible for the defense of the students and staff. Volunteers would undergo training and be paid about $500 a month. From mcusercontent.com:
Enhance School Safety
There are few issues of higher importance than ensuring the safety of Mississippi children. When parents send their kids to school, they should be able to rest comfortably knowing that their kids will be safe and protected. Every child should be able to focus solely on learning, and Mississippi intends to provide the security necessary for that.
To better protect our kids, I propose creating the Mississippi School Safety Guardian Program. Guardians will be trained to provide armed intervention in the event of an active shooter threat. They will be employees of the school district and nominated by the district to be trained and certified by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Guardians will receive a monthly stipend of $500 dollars, be issued a firearm, a holster, and ammunition by DPS. They will graduate from a training program hosted by DPS and must recertify with the Department annually. I propose allocating $5 million to cover the cost of an initial rollout for the program across 450 schools, with the goal of ultimately expanding the program to every public school across the state.
Additionally, Mississippi should allocate a dedicated source of funding to identify and provide an annual threat assessment for every school across the state. I propose $1 million toward this effort.
School Resource officers cost about $100,000 a year. $500 a month per guardian would cost about $6,000 a year. About 16-17 school guardians can be trained and available for each School Resource Officer.
The enhanced permit in Mississippi costs about $115 dollars and can be renewed every five years for $72. There are reduced fees for retired and active duty military or spouse and law enforcement officers. Applications must be made in person, but people who have carry permits from other states may apply.
Republicans hold more than two thirds of the Senate and about 63% of the house seats in the Mississippi state legislature. It appears a bill supported by Governor Reeves has a reasonable chance of passage.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Laws “Do Not” prevent criminals from committing crimes, They “Do” however make for soft targets and Helpless Victims.
on the cutting edge of safer schools, great job MS.
Question. Everything of value in America is protected by firearms, why not our schools where the future is coming from?
Answer. Progressives/leftists will use anything and everything to prevent the citizens from arming and defending themselves even sacrificing children. we see it time after time and yet they only wring their hands and call for more gun control. gun control is about controlling who has guns.
They have almost secured the complete destruction of the core family. Their next move is remove the guns.
Then as we all drive electric cars they can tell us where we can and can’t go… and they can track your phone or car nav…
Oh I almost forgot they already have control of what you’re able to buy or spend covered with credit cards.
Sadly we’re doing it to ourselves ;-((
Finally a real plan for school safety
This appears to be a good plan. It is by far the best I’ve seen after the FASTER Saves Lives programme developed out of Ohio in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook “incident”. This one is more government top-heavy but it does seem well thought out and seems to address most of the issues with other programmes. It does cost the taxpyers, but particularly when compared to the typical overpaid undertrained ineffective “school resource officers” such as we’ve seen in in Parkland and Uvalde, it is a good plan.
We live in a rural community, and our school is consolidated (grades K – 12 under one roof). There’s a sign at every entrance informing any visitor of armed and trained staff. As I’ve 3 Grandkids in attendance there, that relieves some worry I can attest to.
One thing that’s failed to be done after every shooting is a serious attempt at hardening schools. Locked doors aren’t enough. Sally Port every entrance and CCTV monitor them all. No one gets through the second locked door without a threat assessment being done.
This is the first program I’ve noticed that proposes to arm school staff. Others allow staff to be armed (presuming they’ll bring their own) but MS DPS will issue the guns. Are any other jurisdictions taking this approach?
That is a significant difference between this programme and that seen in Ohio. There, the volunteers are mostly folks who lready have theur state issued Mother May I Card, then volunteer to take the intensive training. Most already have been carrying their own personal weapon, one which they have selected for themselves. Part of the training is to examine their carry system and make changes if indicated. One major difference with the FASTER programme is that it does not cost the taxpayers a nickel. The training, locations, ammunition, personnel, materials, everything is supplied by volunteers and industry at no cost… Read more »
Ya gotta love a good anti ” human violence” story . No such thing as ” gun violence ” . People arming up to prevent violent crime is a good thing . This is a great way to keep the children safe story . Its better than the Adolph Hitler narrative to keep the children safe .
smartest rule so far, it does not pass buren test but it is in the right direction
According to the post, Mississipi has had no mass murders since 1997. Yeah, maybe they have had a few shootings, I don’t know, but I do know that you can have thousands of armed people protecting a place and if one gets in that has an intention of killing one person it will be next to impossible to stop them. Especially in a school where ever student doesn’t have an armed escort like so many gooberment officials do.
Sanity prevails.
So Mississippi blah blah blah blah. How about this. They make murder, robbery, rape, burglary, automobile theft, robbery and such against the law. That would be a good idea to start. OH WAIT… And let anyone over 18 carry a firearm wherever and whenever they want as long as they harm no one. There are countless articles and commentators and pundits who fence and tangle, who tumble and roll the slogans and platitudes of gun control, civilian disarmament, public safety, gun violence epidemics, commonsense restrictions, loopholes, Second Amendment rights and other sophisticated and nuanced and ultimately irrelevant sophistries that dance… Read more »
LOL! I got a down vote for this? What kind of moron brain dead zombie communist mentally challenged freak of nature daft village idiots read these posts?
I read for content and never even look to see the up/down votes. Irrelevant.
It will be interesting to see how the Mississippi police spokespeople weigh-in on this proposal. Will it be viewed as a threat to their job security or supported as the “reasonable” and “common sense” response to the dangers of todays lib created world?
I like this.
A pro active approach to stopping the criminals as soon as possible.
Wow novel concept……
Good luck getting the left to do something proactive…..
After the Uvalde situation in 2022 I called our school district security office and talked to them about enhanced concealed carry permit holders in Mississippi and their existing lawful carry ability in schools here. I am happy to see some action on an obvious solution to an old problem.
HLB
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but since the Columbine School Shooting (right in the middle of Biden’s much bragged about AWB), the vast majority of all Mass Shootings, not just Schools, have occurred in “Gun Free Zones.” They want to talk ” Common Sense,” Gun Laws, but real Common Sense says Gun Free Zones are actually Target Rich Environments. That’s why Mass Shooters pick Gun Free Zones to perpetrate their heinous acts.
Hello Dean. I note that in your title graphic you used the older, often maligned “Confederate style” flag for Mississippi. Please take note that Mississippi replaced its state flag in January 2021 with the beautiful new magnolia blossom design.
The old flag, that represented the peoples right to replace an unresponsive government, was much better!
Please take note that the noble flag of a once noble people was replaced by a bunch of carpetbaggers and scalawags. They who refused to defend their heritage will not defend their people. Instead they chose and will always choose monied interests, lobbyists and foreign corporations over the people of Mississippi. They do not represent the will of Mississippians, and their joke of a flag will not long fly over the state.