State Representative Harry Shiver recently spoke out against the controversial proposed Republican plan to arm schoolteachers in order to defend against school invaders. The plan has received a smattering of support from Republicans after the February mass shooting that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, while also drawing harsh opposition from both sides of the aisle.
Rep. Shiver has served in the Alabama House of Representatives for 11 years as a Republican representative from Stockton. In the past, he worked as a physical education teacher for 32 years before retiring. Recently, he stated that teachers should not be made to carry firearms in the classroom because most of them are women. Shiver stressed that “our ladies” are the ones who need to be protected most and should not be made to carry firearms. Shiver continued by asserting that the majority of women are “scared of guns” and seemed to think this especially applied to female teachers.
Rep. Shiver did mention that if teachers wanted to be trained in the use of firearms, that would be a good thing in his mind, but he didn’t think that most of them would be okay with having to undergo the training.
Shiver had another objection to the plan as well, voicing concerns that law enforcement could mistake teachers as a threat. He mentioned that he knows a few highway patrolmen and he knew that when officers arrive on the scene “they shoot the first one holding a gun.”