Thanks NRA! Student injured when teacher fires gun in class
As the gun debates roils over whether teachers should have guns in the classroom, an armed high school teacher in Northern California fired his weapon in a classroom and injured a student.
We just can’t make this stuff up.
Dennis Alexander was giving gun safety instructions and accidentally fired a single shot, according to the Mercury News. The reserve police officer for Sand City was in possession of a semi-automatic handgun
Apparently Alexander was teaching a gun safety course at Seaside High School as part of his administration of justice class when he fired a single shot into the ceiling.
Um, why would you have a loaded gun in a classroom?
Thankfully the student reportedly did not sustain serious injuries.
According to KSBW, the father of the 17-year-old boy who was injured said Alexander had told the class he wanted to make sure the firearm was not loaded when it went off. Alexander was planning to use the gun for a demonstration for how to disarm someone.
Is there a new series of questions on the SAT asking about how to disarm someone?
Parents were notified after administrators sent out letters detailing the incident and the teacher was put on administrative leave, pending a full investigation.
In an email to parents, the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District said, “Upon learning of the incident, our Human Resources department, school site administration and the Seaside Police Department immediately began investigating the incident, including interviewing students in the class.”
The gun debate
This accidental incident highlights a bigger issue with teachers having access to a gun while in class.
Gov. Rick Scott supports the act to arm teachers and signed Senate Bill 7026 into law, making this the first gun control legislation since the deadly shooting in Parkland.
According to CNN, the NRA is suing the state of Florida over the law.
Seventeen students and administrators were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire with a semi-automatic military-style rifle.
“This bill punishes law-abiding gun owners for the criminal acts of a deranged individual,” executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action Chris W. Cox told CNN. “Securing our schools and protecting the constitutional rights of Americans are not mutually exclusive.”
—White ex-con charged with robbing a Las Vegas casino in blackface–
The major factors of this law include: raising the age to bare a firearm from 18 to 21, banning the purchase of bump fire stocks, and it giving police officers more latitude to confiscate weapons and gun materials from people that are ruled mentally unstable. The law will also give more funding to schools for armed officers.
The most controversial part of this new law is that some teachers may have the right to bear arms as part of the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program, if the local sheriff and school district can come to an agreement. According to CNN, the $67 million provision is named after the coach who shielded students with his own body and died in last month’s shooting.
Members of the NRA filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida claiming that the new law violates the 2nd and 14th amendment of the U.S. constitution.
Watch our explainer of the complicated history between the NRA and the black community below.
