[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 46 (Thursday, March 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S1906]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SENATE RESOLUTION 110--KEEPING GUNS OUT OF CLASSROOMS

  Mr. MURPHY (for himself, Mr. Blumenthal, and Mrs. Murray) submitted 
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions:

                              S. Res. 110

       Whereas Congress has consistently made clear that it is 
     unlawful for Federal funds to be used for training or arming 
     school personnel with firearms;
       Whereas Congress passed the STOP School Violence Act of 
     2018 (title V of division S of Public Law 115-141) in 
     response to the shooting in Parkland, Florida, and 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 
     ``No amounts provided as a grant [for school security under 
     such 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. 7113), as added by section 
     4101 of the Every Student Succeeds Act (Public Law 114-95; 
     129 Stat. 1970), 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 training or 
     arming school personnel with firearms will not make schools 
     safer;
       Whereas an analysis by the Federal Bureau of Investigation 
     of active shooters between 2000 and 2013 found that trained 
     law enforcement suffered casualties in 21 of the 45 incidents 
     in which officers engaged the shooter to end the threat;
       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 resource officers 
     failed to disarm an active shooter 223 times;
       Whereas proposed and existing programs to train or arm 
     school personnel with firearms require significantly less 
     training than law enforcement officers receive;
       Whereas research demonstrates that increased gun access and 
     possession are not associated with protection from violence 
     and 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 a student's sense of safety and the associated 
     anticipation of violence leads to increased anxiety, fear, 
     and depression;
       Whereas 73 percent of teachers in the United States do not 
     want to carry guns in school and 58 percent say arming 
     personnel would make schools less safe, according to a Gallup 
     poll from March 2018;
       Whereas the majority of parents of school-aged children 
     oppose arming school personnel, according to surveys;
       Whereas, as of March 2019, there is no evidence supporting 
     the value of arming school personnel;
       Whereas the broad consensus among participants in the 
     listening tour for the final report of the Federal Commission 
     on School Safety released in December 2018 was disagreement 
     with programs that would arm school personnel, according to 
     transcripts; and
       Whereas, in that final report, the Department of Education 
     endorsed the use of Federal funds to train personnel to use 
     firearms: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that Federal 
     funds shall not be used to train or arm school personnel with 
     firearms.

                          ____________________