Imagine you’re a teacher and you hear gunshots inside the school you work in. The sounds of shooting get closer and closer. You do what you’ve been told to do in such an instance, but you know it won’t matter. You wish you had your gun on your person, but you simply didn’t have any way to get the required training so you could do so.

How would you feel?

Sure, it’s easy for us to say that you should have made the time for that training. However, in Ohio, that training just isn’t practical for a large number of people, including teachers.

Now, a bill seeks to make it a lot more accessible.

here’s a new push for Ohio lawmakers to approve a bill that would allow educators to carry guns in school.

It’s called House Bill 99 and it would give Ohio schools the authority to put guns in the hands of school staff with only 20 hours of training.

“We have some serious concerns about HB 99 which would essentially gut training requirements for any school employees who are authorized to carry weapons on school property,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association.

DiMauro said right now, an Ohio teacher must undergo basic peace officer training at 700 hours in order to carry a gun in school.

“What the bill would do is put a maximum of 20 hours training in that state standard, completely tying the hands of the experts who are tasked with the training regimen,” said DiMauro.

Except, 700 hours is ridiculous, especially for a teacher.

To put that number in perspective, while DiMauro claims that’s the same training peace officers undergo, the average amount a police officer trains in the United States is just 213 total hours.

That isn’t just firearms, either. It includes a lot of policy and procedure training that simply isn’t applicable to a teacher. There’s no reason for them to waste their time by sitting through such things.

By capping the number of hours, lawmakers are seemingly trying to force these “experts” to only include what teachers actually need.

I mean 700 hours is nearly 12 weeks. That’s the bulk of one’s summer vacation–the primary benefit of being a teacher, really–and it makes no sense. After all, infantry troops in the Army or Marine Corps might not get 700 hours of weapons training throughout an entire enlistment, for crying out loud. Why should that be a requirement for a teacher?

Granted, I don’t think teachers should have to jump through extra hoops just to carry, but I get that not everyone agrees.

But shouldn’t we all be able to agree that 700 hours is more than a little excessive? In 20 hours of intensive, scenario-based training, you’d be amazed at what can be covered, so there’s no way 700 hours is acceptable.

Now, the question is whether this bill will pass. Considering the way Ohio has gone of late, I really don’t see it not passing.

Then, I foresee absolutely no problems stemming from a lack of training by an armed teacher.