117 SRES 777 IS: Keeping guns out of classrooms. U.S. Senate 2024-07-30 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

III118th CONGRESS2d SessionS. RES. 777IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESJuly 30, 2024Mr. Murphy submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and PensionsRESOLUTIONKeeping guns out of classrooms.

Whereas Congress has consistently made clear that it is unlawful for Federal funds to be used to arm school personnel with firearms or to train such personnel in the use of firearms;Whereas, in response to the shooting in Parkland, Florida, Congress passed the STOP School Violence Act of 2018 (title V of division S of Public Law 115–141; 132 Stat. 1128), which amended part AA of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10551 et seq.) to specify that [n]o amounts provided as a grant [for school security under that part] may be used for the provision to any person of a firearm or training in the use of a firearm;Whereas section 4102 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7112), as added by section 4101 of the Every Student Succeeds Act (Public Law 114–95; 129 Stat. 1968), defines drug and violence prevention in schools as including the creation … of a school environment that is free of weapons;Whereas existing research demonstrates that arming school personnel with firearms or training such personnel to use firearms will not make schools safer;Whereas a recent analysis by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that casualties for trained law enforcement during active shooter incidents increased from 2021 to 2022; Whereas a survey of gun violence on school campuses showed that out of 225 incidents of gun violence between 1999 and 2018, trained armed personnel or school-based police failed to disarm an active shooter 223 times;Whereas proposed and existing programs to arm school personnel with firearms or to train such personnel in the use of firearms provide significantly less training than law enforcement officers receive;Whereas research demonstrates that—(1)increased gun access and possession are not associated with protection from violence; and (2)a greater prevalence of guns increases the likelihood of gun violence;Whereas a greater prevalence of guns in schools creates undue risk of students gaining unauthorized access to firearms and the potential for unintentional shootings and school staff using guns in situations that do not warrant lethal force;Whereas students of color, students with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups would experience a disparate impact of programs that arm school personnel as those students are disproportionately disciplined and arrested;Whereas heightened policing within public school spaces decreases the sense of safety of a student and the associated anticipation of violence leads to increased anxiety, fear, and depression;Whereas 54 percent of teachers in the United States believe carrying firearms will make schools less safe, according to a RAND Research Report from May 2023;Whereas the majority of parents of school-aged children oppose arming school personnel, according to surveys;Whereas the National Association of School Resource Officers, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers have all publicly opposed State-level policies to arm teachers and school personnel;Whereas, as of June 2024, there is no evidence supporting the value of arming school personnel;Whereas, before the enactment of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (Public Law 117–159; 136 Stat. 1313), the December 2018 report of the Federal Commission on School Safety endorsed the use of Federal funds to train school personnel to use firearms even though, according to transcripts of the affiliated listening tour, the broad consensus among listening tour participants was disagreement with programs that would arm school personnel; andWhereas section 13401 of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (Public Law 117–159; 136 Stat. 1338) added a provision to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) that prohibits using funds under that Act to provide any person with a dangerous weapon or training in the use of a dangerous weapons: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the Senate that Federal funds should not be used to arm school personnel with firearms or to train such personnel in the use of firearms.