Indiana Moms Demand Action Applaud Failure of Dangerous Gun Bills This Session

Volunteers with the Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, celebrated after the Indiana legislature closed last week without passing a dangerous gun bill to incentivize arming teachers in schools.

“People always say that defense wins championships. This session we played defense, and public safety won,” said Rachel Guglielmo, a volunteer with Indiana Moms Demand Action. “If we have to show up to every hearing for the next 10 years to defeat risky legislation, we will.”

This session lawmakers considered several bills to allow more guns in schools and to incentivize schools to arm teachers. However, research shows that arming our teachers doesn’t make children safer or prevent gun violence in schools. On the contrary, it increases the chances that a teachers’ gun will get into the wrong hands, or that a gun will discharge unintentionally and wound a student.

The defeated bill:

• SB 263, legislation that would have incentivized schools to arm teachers by using funds from Indiana School Safety to fund firearm training for teachers.
• This bill passed out of the Senate 42-7 and was sent to the House. The bill was originally amended to take out the fiscal language that would have accessed the Indiana School Safety Fund. The bill was then killed. 

This session, Indiana chapter of Moms Demand Action took action by: 

• Urging legislators to vote against SB 263 and instead focus on common sense gun safety legislation. Indiana Moms Demand Action volunteers testified against the bill several times throughout the session. 
• Organizing an advocacy day at the State Capitol with 150 Indiana Moms Demand Action volunteers to meet with legislators and support common-sense gun legislation. Consistently testifying before legislative committees in opposition to the bill which threatened the safety of Indiana children and families. 
• Driving hundreds of calls and emails educating lawmakers about dangerous bills and urging them to prioritize gun sense legislation. 

 Statistics about gun violence in Indiana are available here, and information on how Indiana’s gun laws compare to other states’ overall is available here.