The State of Tennessee recently started their first school year under a new law that gave school districts and individual schools the ability to decide if they would allow their faculty and staff to carry a concealed firearm. And during a pearl-clutchy segment on Wednesday’s edition of NBC’s Today, the liberal network suggested that a handgun was effectively useless against an AR-15, but highlighted a teacher keeping a baseball bat in her classroom instead of a gun.

Without citing her source, NBC anchor Kate Snow lead into her report by proclaiming “there have been more than 750 shootings on school campuses” (she may have gotten that figure from the Gun Violence Archive, which NewsBusters has debunked).

“The new law sets up a lot of rules and training before a teacher or staff member could show up to school armed,” she reported. “But each school district and principal would need to approve.” And according to a teachers union, so far none have opted to adopt the policy.

Snow sat down with sixth-grade history teacher Josh Arwood who would like to carry his firearm to school, and fifth grade science and social studies teacher Jennifer Orth who proclaimed in pure ignorance that a handgun was completely “useless” against someone with an AR-15.

The anti-gun journalist backed up Orth, grilling Arwood on being supposedly outmatched:

ORTH: People are not walking into schools with handguns. People are walking into schools with AR-15s. And a handgun against an AR-15 is useless.

SNOW: And to you, Josh, do you worry if that weapon is larger than what you have got, do you worry you will be able to do any good.

ARWOOD: Well, I mean, I wouldn't be able to do any good if I didn't have a weapon. You know? At least having something gives me some chance.

An AR-15 does not make the user magically impervious to bullets, nor do they weaken the effectiveness of handguns. In the 2022 shooting at the Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana, a gunman opened fire with an AR variant and was quickly put down by a mall patron with a concealed carry handgun.

That fact was made even more striking by the cognitive dissonance Orth. At the end of the segment, Snow highlighted how “Jennifer keeps a baseball bat in her classroom.”

If a handgun was “useless” against an AR, what was a baseball bat going to do?

“Tennessee is not unique,” Snow warned. “About half the states have laws allowing teachers or other school employees to be armed, according to the Giffords Law Center,” she added, omitting the fact the Giffords Law Center was a left-wing, anti-gun rights organization.

She followed up with a hard cut to a hysterical woman on the verge of an emotional breakdown over the law. “I can't imagine sending my child into a school knowing that there is a gun that is within feet of her learning how to be a fifth grader,” proclaimed Mary Joyce, holding back tears.

Snow noted that Joyce was the mother of a girl injured in the Covenant School shooting last year and touted how she “fought for gun reforms, like a red flag law that never passed. And this spring she was part of heated protests against the legislation to arm teachers.” At no point did Snow mention that the Covenant School shooter was a transgender terrorist who targeted the school.

Intentionally downplaying the opinions and rights of the other people living in the community and the state, Snow and Joyce whined that lawmakers didn’t listen to naysayers like them:

SNOW: Why do you think this law passed? The legislators said they were doing this for Covenant, in the wake of school shooting at your kid’s school.

JOYCE: They weren't listening. They haven’t listened at all. It almost felt like we were screaming underwater.

They also suggested, without evidence, the law was passed for less than noble reasons.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

NBC’s Today
August 14, 2024
8:41:27 a.m. Eastern

CRAIG MELVIN: The new school year underway for a lot of folks, including students in Tennessee who, for the first time in public schools, a new law allows teachers and staff to be armed in the classroom.

SHEINELLE JONES: NBC News Daily anchor Kate Snow traveled to Tennessee to see how it's playing out. Good morning.

KATE SNOW: Yeah. Good morning, guys. So, in the last five years, there have been more than 750 shootings on school campuses. This law was passed in the spring in the wake of a devastating shooting the Covenant School in Nashville last year where you remember six people, including three children, were killed.

The new law sets up a lot of rules and training before a teacher or staff member could show up to school armed. And while some teachers say they will feel safer carrying a gun, that doesn't seem to be happening just yet.

[Cuts to video]

As kids and teachers head back to school in Tennessee, a new law allows teachers and staff to “possess and carry a firearm” on school grounds.

GOV. BILL LEE (R-TN): There is an option in that piece of legislation. It is a tool that districts can use if they choose to. It, therefore, will be decided at the local level.

SNOW: But each school district and principal would need to approve. And so far, the Tennessee Education Association says it is “unaware of any school boards that have modified their firearm policies to accommodate the new law.”

Josh Arwood teaches sixth grade history in Greene County in rural eastern Tennessee. He wishes his district would allow him to carry his gun into the classroom.

JOSH ARWOOD: If they were to allow it, I would be fine with doing it.

SNOW: You would sign up to carry?

ARWOOD: Uh-huh.

SNOW: And what would that look like for you?

ARWOOD: It would be concealed at all times.

SNOW: He says he would be ready to confront a shooter to save his students.

ARWOOD: What if somebody came into my school meaning harm to them? I want to feel like I did everything I could to protect them.

SNOW: We sat down with Josh, alongside Jennifer Orth who teaches fifth grade science and social studies in Nashville.

SNOW: Do you think teachers should be armed?

JENNIFER ORTH: No, I don't. I’m just afraid the likelihood of someone being hurt accidentally is greater than the likelihood than any teacher is going to be able to prevent school shootings. People are not walking into schools with handguns. People are walking into schools with AR-15s. And a handgun against an AR-15 is useless.

SNOW: And to you, Josh, do you worry if that weapon is larger than what you have got, do you worry you will be able to do any good.

ARWOOD: Well, I mean, I wouldn't be able to do any good if I didn't have a weapon. You know? At least having something gives me some chance.

ORTH: I just don't think that an environment that is full of children needs to be full of more guns. Just in general.

SNOW: Under the new law, teachers would need to pass background checks, undergo 40 hours of training, and would be personally liable if something went wrong. Anyone armed must conceal their weapon, and no one would know which staff members were armed, not even parents.

And Tennessee is not unique. About half the states have laws allowing teachers or other school employees to be armed, according to the Giffords Law Center.

MARY JOYCE: I can't imagine sending my child into a school knowing that there is a gun that is within feet of her learning how to be a fifth grader.

SNOW: Mary Joyce’s daughter Monroe was nine when she was injured at the shooting at the Covenant School. She describes herself as conservative, a supporter of the Second Amendment. Last summer she fought for gun reforms, like a red flag law that never passed. And this spring she was part of heated protests against the legislation to arm teachers.

Why do you think this law passed? The legislators said they were doing this for Covenant, in the wake of school shooting at your kid’s school.

JOYCE: They weren't listening. They haven’t listened at all. It almost felt like we were screaming underwater.

SNOW: Do you think this is the law now for political reasons? Do you think it was political?

JOYCE: I think partly it was political.

SNOW: Josh, who’s also a Republican county commissioner, and Jennifer, a registered Democrat, agree on this.

ARWOOD: It’s at least a good step to kind of see where it goes. But I think it was so some of them could give themselves a pat on the back and be able to throw some red meat to their constituents.

ORTH: I think they were trying to say, ‘well, we did something. We tried to do something to make the kids safer.’

[Cuts back to live]

SNOW: Representative Ryan Williams, the Tennessee lawmaker who sponsored this legislation said in a statement, in part, “There is nothing political about ensuring districts have the ability to determine how best to protect their schools from dangerous individuals.”

Josh has been a teacher for 18 years; Jennifer 11. And guys, they both say their jobs have gotten harder. Jennifer said to me, “When I walk into a new classroom, the first thing I do is think about where would I put the kids in the event of a shooting.” And by the way, Jennifer keeps a baseball bat in her classroom.

HODA KOTB: So, in Tennessee, no teachers will be armed this school year at this point.

SNOW: At the moment because no districts, according to the teachers' education association, no schools have agreed, no districts have agreed. And you have to have the district and your principal saying yes, and then you have to do the other things, the training and all of the requirements you have to have a permit yourself, et cetera, et cetera.

MELVIN: It is a sad commentary on where we are as a society and a country that this is a debate that's being had.

KOTB: Yeah. Agreed.

MELVIN: Thank you, Kate.