Survey: 67 percent of NC educators do not want to teach with a firearm

On the first two days since the release of a survey about guns in schools, around 67 percent of the more than 19,300 North Carolina educators who responded to the survey said they would not want to carry a firearm at school.

When asked if they would like to have certain teachers or administrators have access to firearms, assuming they were to have extra training, 50 percent said they would not, around 40 percent said they would and 10 percent were unsure.

North Carolina law currently permits only law enforcement officers to carry firearms at schools. All other weapons must be inside locked vehicles.

In the wake of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida that left 17 people dead, school leaders around the United States are reacting to what many are calling a crisis of school violence.

President Donald Trump sparked the conversation of arming teachers last week after listening to a series of emotional stories and pleas from school shooting survivors.

"If you had a teacher who was adept with the firearm, they could end the attack very quickly," he said, stating that schools could arm up to 20 percent of their teachers to stop "maniacs" who may try and attack them.

Johnson has said that he does not believe teachers should be armed in the classroom.

Instead, he supports more funding for school resource officers.

"Firearms on school grounds should be in the hands of these trained, uniformed, law-enforcement professionals who courageously chose a career protecting citizens from violent threats," Johnson posted on Twitter Monday.

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore has appointed a bipartisan committee to look at the issue of school safety.

The bipartisan House Select Committee on School Safety will examine current safety standards and procedures in North Carolina’s elementary, middle and high schools and make recommendations on "statutory and non-statutory changes to ensure the highest level of safety for North Carolina students, teachers and other school personnel," Joseph Kyzer said in an email to WRAL News last week.

Correction: A previous version of this story said the survey was part of the NC Educators' Perspective survey, but it is not. It is a separate survey sent on March 1 meant to ask educators about guns in schools. The story has also been corrected to show that 50 percent of educators surveyed said they do not want teachers or administrators with training to have firearms in class. The previous version incorrectly stated that 50 percent did support that.