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Arkansas AG: School Staff Cannot Carry Guns

Arkansas school districts cannot use a little-known state law to employ teachers and staffers as guards who can carry guns on campus, the state's attorney general said on Thursday in an opinion that likely ends a district's plan to arm more than 20 employees when school starts this year.

Arkansas school districts cannot use a little-known state law to employ teachers and staffers as guards who can carry guns on campus, the state's attorney general said on Thursday in an opinion that likely ends a district's plan to arm more than 20 employees when school starts this year.


Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, a Democrat, wrote in a legal opinion issued by his office that a state board that licenses private security agencies lacks the authority to allow districts to employ their teachers and staffers as security guards. A state lawmaker requested the opinion a day after The Associated Press reported on a plan by the Clarksville School District in western Arkansas to use more than 20 teachers and staffers as volunteer security guards armed with concealed 9mm handguns.

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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