Next fall, as Ohio teachers get ready for a new year, they might be bringing a different kind of school supply into the classroom. It’s a gun. The Governor of Ohio signed a law that lets them keep a firearm in the room where children are taught after they complete 24 hours of training.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed House Bill 99 on June 13, shortly after it passed the State House and Senate. Starting this fall, the new law permits teachers, principals, bus drivers and custodians, among others, to carry guns into schools after they complete only 24 hours of instruction, a reduction from the 728 hours that were previously required.

Several media reports claim that the bill was “fast-tracked” and designed to undo a June 2021 ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court that said school districts that permit employees to be armed must also require “police-level” training for those workers.

When he signed the bill, Gov. DeWine’s office issued a statement that referred to another school safety bill the legislature passed the previous week. That bill “contains $100 million for school security upgrades at K-12 schools and $5 million for campus security upgrades in higher education.” He also said, “My office worked with the general assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training. House Bill 99 accomplishes these goals.”

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 32 to 9 and passed the House with a tally of 56-34. The signing took place on the same day as Ohio’s new constitutional carry law went into effect. That law allows legal gun owners over 21 to carry concealed weapons after completing eight hours of training.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the new required training will consist of four hours of “scenario-based training hours,” 20 hours of first aid training, as well as the history of school shootings and “reunification education.” The new law leaves the decision to allow guns up to the schools. School districts are still free to prohibit guns on school grounds. They may also require additional training.

Ohio’s new gun law, known as House Bill 99, was no doubt prompted by the recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, that killed and injured 16 at Robb Elementary School. Sadly, that is just the latest of 27 school shootings that have occurred across the United States since 2018, the year that Education Week magazine began keeping track. Americans will long be haunted by the words “Sandy Hook,” “Marjory Stoneman Douglas” and references to other heartbreaking events that have killed a total of 27 children and school employees and injured 56 others.

Not everyone is celebrating the new law. Some Democrats argued against the law, saying it “was not what the community was asking for.” Shortly after the bill was signed, several Ohio mayors gathered to criticize the new bill and call out Republican lawmakers for failing to enact gun control proposals. They asked for a ban on assault rifles, universal background checks, red flag laws to take firearms away from those who could pose a threat, and a 21-year-old minimum age for gun purchases.

Ohio Education Association Vice President Jeff Wensing told Spectrum 1 News in Columbus, “This makes our educators…feel less safe. And it actually makes them consider the future of themselves in this industry.” A 2018 Gallup poll reported that 73% of teachers were opposed to guns in classrooms.

Others were quick to say that there are many alternatives. Most believe that the answer isn’t more guns, but more funding and resources for schools. NPR reports that measures like Ohio’s are “opposed by major law enforcement groups, gun control advocates and the state’s teachers unions, which asked DeWine to veto the measure.” It said that “a handful of police departments and school districts” support the measure.

Specifically, the Bill “establishes the Ohio Mobile Training Team to develop a curriculum and provide instruction and training for individuals to convey deadly weapons and dangerous ordnance in a school safety zone, to expressly exempt such individuals from a peace officer basic training requirement, to require public notice if a board of education of school governing body authorizes persons to go armed in a school, and to make an appropriation.”

The Bill goes on to explain the requirements of training programs and details the public records that must be kept about the programs and those who participate.

Ohio’s new law is the first of its kind since Uvalde. Hopefully, it will be the last, not just because other states will not pass similar measures, but because our country finds that in the future, there is no longer any need.