A bill to create a new faction of school protection officers with "physical fitness superior to a U.S. Marine" got final approval from Missouri lawmakers in the final days of the legislative session.
The legislation seeks to allow schools to hire volunteer or paid guards called "Missouri Rangers" who could carry a gun on school grounds.
The bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. David Gregory of Chesterfield, told senators he wanted to give schools "a choice to have a higher trained armed guard."
He compared current protection-officer requirements to that of a "Walmart guard with a gun." Currently, schools can appoint teachers and administrators as school protection officers, allowing them to carry a gun or "self-defense spray device" with training and a concealed carry permit.
School protection officers must undergo a minimum of 112 hours of training, according to a Department of Public Safety rule. The state also has school resource officers, which are law enforcement officers with an additional 40+ hours of training related to school safety.
Gregory's legislation proposes a maximum of 160 hours of training, specifying that the program must include lessons on "close quarter combat," bomb and arson training, de-escalation among others.
Prior to training, rangers must pass a physical fitness test. For those 35 and younger, they must "complete a minimum of 40 pushups in less than one minute" and be able to run one and a half miles in less than 12 and a half minutes. The legislation asks the state's Peace Office Standards and Training Commission to identify lower standards for older applicants.
The bill's first pass through the Senate brought little opposition, garnering the support of groups like the St. Louis County Police Association in its first committee hearing. In early April, just two senators voted against the proposal, but Senate Democrats unanimously voted against it when it returned to the chamber last week with less than a day before session adjourned for the year.
House Democrats unanimously rejected the proposal, uncomfortable with the proposition of having more firearms in schools.
"The answer to guns in schools is not more guns in schools," said state Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, a St. Louis Democrat, advocating instead for mental health support for students.
Their arguments did not sway House Republicans, who unanimously voted in support of the bill.
State Rep. Burt Whaley, a Republican from Clever, has experience training school staff on what to do in case of a shooting. The key benefit of having a ranger, he said, was being able to quickly respond to threats.
In one school he trained, the local law enforcement estimated that it could take up to 45 minutes for them to arrive.
"It is typically another person with a gun that knows how to use it, that's trained how to use it… they're usually the ones that are able to subdue (a threat)," he said.
The bill follows other proposals passed last year addressing security concerns, like laws directing schools to share emergency operations plans with local law enforcement and report school safety incidents to the state's education department.
Some of the provisions passed in last year's legislation have yet to be implemented because of a lack of funding, such as a requirement to equip schools with bleeding control kits and train staff on how to apply a tourniquet.
Gov. Mike Kehoe has until mid-July to sign or veto bills before they become law.
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