A gun range is not usually the place you would expect to find a teacher, but just like having pencils and paper, the S.E.T Guns and Range in Oak Ridge is preparing in case guns soon become part of a teacher's supply list.
"We're offering free handgun carry classes for teachers that are actively working," said Denise Walker, co-owner of S.E.T. Guns and Range. "We want teachers to be able to have the opportunity to carry a firearm just like anybody else."
After the February 14 shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people, Walker felt the need to offer the classes to help protect her community and the schools her grandchildren attend.
"A teacher that is qualified and trained properly to carry a firearm and is doing so willingly, would be a great line of defense against an active shooter," Walker said. "People are realizing that things are not the way they were when they were kids. We have to be prepared to protect ourselves at all costs."
But some teachers feel that asking them to protect their students with a gun is simply too much to ask in addition to all the other tasks they are already required to do.
"We're expected to do the job of social workers and counselors and school nurses. It just seems like if we decide to arm teachers, now we're going to be expected to do the job of our police officers," said Lauren Hopson, a teacher at Halls Elementary School and a co-founder of SPEAK (Students, Parents & Educators Across Knox County). "What we really need is to be armed with more social workers in our schools, more school counselors, we need to be armed with smaller class sizes."
Tennessee currently has a bill making its way through the House and Senate that would allow some teachers to carry guns in schools. That bill is focused on teachers in rural counties.