SC bill would create gun training class for high school students

ROCK HILL, S.C. — A new bill in South Carolina that would create a new high school class for gun training is getting mixed reviews.

Spartanburg Sen. Lee Bright introduced the bill. He said the class would be offered as an elective, and each district would get to decide whether to offer it. It would focus on firearm safety and the Second Amendment.

Bright told Eyewitness News that the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., made him rethink the Second Amendment.

"I believe the more guns we have the safer we are, because had there been someone in Newtown with a weapon, had it been a teacher, they could have stopped it early," he said.

He said the class would be taught by law-enforcement officials.

High school junior Zian Haselden thinks it could help make her high school safer, but she knows there's a risk too. "Just getting guns into the hands of certain students that could potentially harm others," she said.

Haselden's mother, Sheila, thinks the class is a good idea. " I think kids need to know safety and stuff and if they're not going to learn at home, they need to learn it somewhere."

But others, such as 20-year-old Moira Jordan, worry about the idea of guns in class.

"There are some kids who are that, they're kids. I do not think that would be a good idea for a lot of kids."

Bright said the chairman of the Judiciary Committee will now decide if the bill gets voted on in subcommittee. However, it's not clear if or when that would happen.

Eyewitness News called a number of school district officials in York County to see if they thought the classes could be a possibility here, but we did not hear back by news time.

WSOC