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Hello and welcome to the Ex excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024, and this is a special episode of the excerpt. served.

On March 27, 2023, a mass shooter at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee

killed three students and three staff members.

In the aftermath of yet another US school shooting,

Tennessee legislators passed a bill permitting teachers and other school faculty

to arm themselves. They're not alone.

According to the Giffords Law Center,

roughly half of all states allow school employees who have concealed carry permit

to carry firearms on school grounds. Opposition to the Tennessee bill has been fierce.

Still the question remains, how do we keep our schools safe from gun violence?

Here to discuss Tennessee's controversial new bill, were joined by Rachel Wegener,

Children's Education reporter for the Tennesseean,

a Gonet network property.

Thanks for being on the excerpt, Rachel.

Thanks for having me.

What was the impetus for the

the passage of this bill. So Republican lawmakers actually brought this bill

forward before the school shooting a couple of months before their main

arguments then and now it centered around the ongoing

...