Trump suggested arming teachers. That's not a new idea in Arizona

President Donald Trump — both Wednesday in a visit with school shooting victims and Thursday during a meeting with law enforcement — suggested arming teachers as a solution to mass shootings in schools.

He then doubled down on the proposal on Twitter.

Arming teachers in schools isn't a new idea, especially in Arizona. But it hasn't been a popular one, even in the state's Republican-controlled Legislature.

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Attempts to arm teachers

Arizona lawmakers in 2013, shortly after the Newtown Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, unsuccessfully proposed legislation that would have allowed teachers and staff in K-12 district and charter schools to carry guns on campus.

The Arizona Citizens Defense League, an influential pro-Second Amendment group behind efforts in recent years to loosen state gun restrictions, advocated for arming teachers.

Republican lawmakers that year introduced a bill to allow guns on college campuses, one to allow teachers in rural areas to carry guns on campus, and a broader bill to allow teachers in any school to carry weapons.

All failed.

A 2008 bill to allow guns on campuses — introduced after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech — also failed.

State law currently allows only trained police officers to carry firearms on K-12 school campuses. Any proposal to allow armed teachers or staff would require approval by the Legislature and governor.

No bill to arm teachers has been introduced this session, although some Republican lawmakers have advocated for such a move. 

Some state educators have said they oppose such an idea.

“We need to do more to protect our kids,” said Chris Knutsen, superintendent of the Florence Unified School District. “I think we need to come together to figure out a way to make our schools safer.”

“I don’t know if arming teachers is the answer,” Knutsen said, adding that more school resource officers on campus is a “positive step forward.”

Florence Unified has no school resource officers due to lack of funding.

Leaders of the Arizona Education Association, which represents teachers, have been outspoken against the idea of arming teachers. 

MORE: Arizona Regents vote to oppose guns-on-campus bill

What are rules on guns at Arizona's universities?

Guns at private schools

Private K-12 schools in Arizona are a different matter entirely.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued an opinion in 2016 that private elementary, middle and high schools can allow guns on campus. 

According to Brnovich, state and federal law do not prevent an individual with an Arizona concealed-carry weapons permit from carrying a concealed gun on private school grounds in Arizona. They also do not prevent schools from having guns secured on campus for use by trained employees who are not police officers as part of a school-approved program.

MORE: Arizona attorney general: Guns are allowed at private schools

Senate President Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, had asked for the opinion at the time. 

"I work with a lot of private schools and several of them had inquired as to what they could to do to make their campuses safer," Yarbrough told The Arizona Republic in 2016. "They inquired about what kind of personnel they could have on campus, and what kind of circumstances they could store firearms on campus."

Yarbrough did not say which schools had asked, or whether any would allow guns on campus.

According to Brnovich's written legal opinion, the Federal Gun Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) makes it a crime to knowingly possess a gun on the grounds of a public, parochial or private school but does not apply if the individual is licensed by the state.

A state law in 2010 allowed individuals in Arizona to carry concealed weapons without needing a permit. But the state still offers the permits. Federal and state law, according to Brnovich, also provide an exception if the individual is carrying the gun as part of a school-approved program.

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"If an Arizona private school were to initiate a program enrolling trained firearm handling persons in a program through which these persons would be allowed to carry concealed in the school zone, the GFSZA's prohibition would not apply to those enrolled individuals," Brnovich wrote. "The analysis is much the same under Arizona law."

Brnovich also said nothing in federal or state law prohibits schools from securely storing guns on private school campuses.

"An Arizona private school could initiate a program in which they securely store firearms on campus and provide access to trained firearm handling employees," he wrote.

Guns near campus

In 2016, Gov. Doug Ducey signed House Bill 2338, which forbids any school governing board — K-12 through university — from banning someone from legally possessing a deadly weapon on a public right of way adjacent to campus.

State lawmakers during debate of the bill said it was a response to concerns about limiting the gun rights of drivers on Central Avenue in Phoenix, who travel adjacent to the Arizona State University downtown campus.

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