A high school student proposed referendum to allow teachers to carry on campus
A voter referendum proposed by a Montana teen to allow teachers to carry firearms on campus has received the OK from state officials to move forward.
Chet Billi, a junior at Whitefish High School, filed paperwork with the Montana Secretary of State in May for the first voter initiative proposed so far for the 2016 ballot. The student decided to take action after legislation to allow teachers to carry on campus tanked in the state Senate.
“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Billi in a statement. “This initiative will empower an armed good guy to be between our children and outside threats the whole time that they are at school. Those who have survived a school shooting know that it could have been stopped had someone been in the position to fight back. It shouldn’t be a crime to protect our children.”
The next step with this proposed law, titled Initiative 175 and the Montana School Safety Act, is to collect signatures. 24,175 signatures of registered voters are needed in order to get the initiative through to the 2016 general election ballot.
Billi set up a social media page and also a website to gain attention and voters and also has had assistance with the writing of his referendum from the Montana Shooting Sports Association. If it were to go through it would be voted on in November of 2016.
This is happening in Montana, I don’t think it should be that difficult to get 24,175 signatures on this, it has a huge chance of going through to next years ballot. There are already many ready to support this initiative, and of course, a few that strongly disagree. One woman has threatened to pull her child out of the school system if it goes through. Another mom thinks there is no chance that it would go through, “I don’t think guns belong anywhere in our school system at all. Teachers, students. Anybody.”
A high school student weighed in by saying it is not necessary to have laws like this for Bozeman, he also said that maybe it would be better in Chicago or inner city schools. “I don’t think we would need it because it’s a pretty safe place…”
I’m sure that’s what people said in Newtown, Connecticut, or Columbine, Colorado. They are small peaceful towns where it is too slow and still to imagine the safety being shattered. It is deplorable that we live in a world where people target schools, churches and military recruitment centers. However, it continues to happen as long as the cowards who commit these heinous acts are not stopped. When will they stop, after they kill more than twenty elementary school children? Its up to people like us to stop them.
Training and arming teachers is an intelligent and reasonable way to protect our children in schools. Teachers don’t want violence, they get payed the bare minimum to educate and deal with our children every day, a lot of times the teacher-student bond is remembered long into the student’s life. Teachers and a lot of armed citizens are the same, they wouldn’t use their guns to shoot someone unless they absolutely have to, firearms are viewed as emergency protection devices, crime deterrents, and are used in the instance of defensive gun use…
Making schools gun-free zones is addressing the issue in the worst way available, it’s basically painting a target on a school or building, criminals know they will not be stopped if they have a gun in a gun-free zone. They would think twice though, if they knew they could encounter several armed people who could easily stop them. What a stellar job from this teenager, he has a lot more intelligence than the majority of our government in office right now.
