Even in Pro-Gun States, Bid to Arm Teachers Stalls

When a gunman killed 26 children and staff at a Connecticut grade school, Missouri Rep. Mike Kelley quickly proposed legislation that would allow trained teachers to carry hidden guns into the classroom as a "line of defense" against attackers.

Similar bills soon proliferated in Republican-led states as the National Rifle Association called for armed officers in every American school.

Yet less than four months later, the quest to put guns in schools has stalled in many traditionally gun-friendly states after encountering opposition from educators, reluctance from some governors and ambivalence from legislative leaders more focused on economic initiatives.

The loss of momentum highlights how difficult it can be to advance any gun legislation, whether to adopt greater restrictions or expand the rights to carry weapons.

Since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., legislators in at least four states — Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland and New York — have passed significant gun-control measures. The Newtown attack came less than five months after a gunman killed 12 people and injured 70 at a Colorado movie theater.

So far, South Dakota is the only state to respond with a new law allowing school personnel to carry guns into elementary and high schools. A similar proposal is poised for passage in Kansas. And Arkansas has enacted a new law allowing colleges to let staff with concealed gun permits bring their weapons on campus.

But Kelley has shelved legislation that would have let Missouri school staff carry firearms if they have concealed gun permits. His legislation never received a public hearing even though he is the House majority whip responsible for rallying Republican support for bills.

Kelley, an NRA member, tried to cast the bill's demise in a positive light.

"It's done the No. 1 thing that I wanted, and that's to bring awareness to schools about some of their safety issues," he said.

House Speaker Tim Jones vowed this past week that Missouri's Republican supermajorities would still pass some sort of pro-gun measure this year. But it's unlikely to involve arming teachers.

In Oklahoma, where pro-firearms measures usually get a warm reception from lawmakers, gun-rights advocates faced an uphill battle against educators opposed to any effort to allow guns in schools. A bill letting schools develop policies for arming trained employees died in the Senate Education Committee.

"As a rule, it's very difficult to find educators and administrators that support the idea of putting arms in the schools, for whatever reason," said Rep. Steve Martin, chairman of the Oklahoma House Public Safety Committee.

After opposition from education groups, the North Dakota Senate defeated a bill last month that would have let people with permits bring their weapons into schools. And the New Hampshire House rejected legislation that would have let local school districts seek voter approval for their personnel to carry guns.

"The chances an armed teacher will hit a child are high," Dean Michener, of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, told lawmakers earlier this year.

When NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called for armed school officers, he warned that gun-free schools "tell every insane killer in America that schools are their safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk." His message carried extra heft, because many lawmakers in the more than two dozen Republican-controlled states are NRA members. The NRA did not respond to request for comment about the state response to its proposal.

In some states, Republican governors have put the damper on legislative efforts to place guns in schools.

Just days after the Newtown shooting, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed legislation letting concealed weapon permit holders — including teachers — carry guns in schools, because there was no provision for local school districts to opt out.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence raised concerns this past week about a bill requiring an armed "school protection officer" onsite during school hours.

"Decisions that are nearest and dearest to our hearts ought to be made by parents and local school officials," Pence told reporters.

Some states such Texas and Utah already allow teachers and administrators to bring guns to school, though the practice is not common. Just three Texas school boards have granted permission for concealed guns, said state Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican who is sponsoring legislation to train armed teachers for classroom gunfights.

In Minnesota, where the gun debate is on hold at the Capitol, the small town of Jordan recently decided to place satellite police offices in its public schools. The intent was that the mere presence of police would deter any would-be attackers.

Some ardent guns-rights supporters remain hopeful that stalled legislation still can pass this year.

Texas Rep. Dan Flynn, a Republican co-author of a bill allowing guns on college campuses, said opposition from public universities and big cities has so far kept the measure from coming to a vote. But the Legislature doesn't adjourn until Memorial Day.

"This is still Texas," Flynn said. "And in Texas, the Second Amendment is right up there with mother, God and apple pie."

———

Associated Press writers Tom Davies in Indianapolis; David Eggert in Lansing, Mich.; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; and James Vertuno in Austin contributed to this report.

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States with weakest firearm laws lead in gun deaths: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many states with the weakest firearms laws have the highest rates of gun-related homicides and suicides, according to a study released on Wednesday by a liberal think tank.

Alaska had the most gun deaths, with 20.28 deaths per 100,000 people in 2010, twice the national average, the analysis by the Center for American Progress showed.

Louisiana and Montana, which followed with 19.06 and 16.58 deaths per 100,000 people, respectively, were among the 10 states with the weakest gun laws, according to the study, the latest to link gun laws to firearm deaths.

Eight of the states with the highest levels of gun violence were among the 25 with the weakest gun laws, said the report, citing a study last year by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

"This report - as others before it - demonstrates a strong link between state gun laws and gun violence," it said, adding that this link didn't imply cause and effect.

"Factors such as gun trafficking across state lines, overall crime patterns, and other socioeconomic issues in a state all play a role in gun-violence rates," it said.

Louisiana, Alaska and Alabama have the highest levels of gun violence, based on measures that include firearm deaths, suicides, homicides, and police officials feloniously killed by guns.

Hawaii, Massachusetts and Connecticut had the lowest rates of gun violence, and were among the 10 states with the strongest gun laws, the study found.

Hawaii had the fewest firearm deaths in 2010, at 3.31 per 100,000 people.

Last month, researchers reported in the online journal, JAMA Internal Medicine, that more gun laws in a state were associated with lower firearm death rates.

Several states have moved to tighten gun laws following the massacre of 20 students and six adults at a Connecticut school in December.

President Barack Obama is seeking to pass the broadest gun control regulations in a generation, but faces stiff opposition from pro-gun groups.

The United States had about 31,300 firearms deaths in 2010, with two-thirds of them suicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control and the National Vital Statistics Report.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Bernadette Baum)

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States' aid to public colleges has fallen 28 percent since 2008

(Reuters) - State governments, which have been battling slow economic growth, cut aid to public colleges for five years and now spend 28 percent less per student than they did in 2008, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The reductions in every state except Wyoming and North Dakota average $2,353 for the 75 percent of undergraduates who attend public colleges and show few signs of easing soon, according to the study's lead writer, Phil Oliff of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

"The rate of decline has moderated somewhat, but we don't see clear signs that states are reinvesting in their higher education systems," Oliff said in a conference call with reporters. "They are coming out of an enormous hole."

Revenues for state governments have risen for nearly three years, but are not matching the bounceback after previous recessions, with the rate of increase slowing in the 2012 third quarter, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

The cuts by state governments range from nearly $4,800 annually per student in New Mexico to $561 in Alaska and have spurred tuition hikes at public colleges, staff cuts, larger classes and the elimination of courses and departments, the study said.

"Thirty-six states have cut funding by more than 20 percent, with 11 states cutting funding by more than one-third. Two states -- Arizona and New Hampshire -- have cut their higher education spending in half," the study said.

Florida, Oregon, Louisiana and Alabama were among states that pulled back most sharply on college aid, while New York, North Carolina and Maine made the smallest reductions in the years tracked in the study.

Tuition at four-year public colleges has grown on average by $1,850 a year, or 27 percent when adjusted for inflation, since the 2007-2008 academic year, the study said. Tuition in Arizona and California has shot up more than 70 percent.

Other big percentage hikes were in Florida, Georgia, Washington state, Hawaii and Alabama.

State policymakers need to ease away from tax cuts and to consider increasing revenues to reinvigorate their public colleges, the study said.

(Reporting by Michael Connor in Miami; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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States' aid to public colleges has fallen 28 percent since 2008

(Reuters) - State governments, which have been battling slow economic growth, cut aid to public colleges for five years and now spend 28 percent less per student than they did in 2008, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The reductions in every state except Wyoming and North Dakota average $2,353 for the 75 percent of undergraduates who attend public colleges and show few signs of easing soon, according to the study's lead writer, Phil Oliff of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

"The rate of decline has moderated somewhat, but we don't see clear signs that states are reinvesting in their higher education systems," Oliff said in a conference call with reporters. "They are coming out of an enormous hole."

Revenues for state governments have risen for nearly three years, but are not matching the bounceback after previous recessions, with the rate of increase slowing in the 2012 third quarter, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

The cuts by state governments range from nearly $4,800 annually per student in New Mexico to $561 in Alaska and have spurred tuition hikes at public colleges, staff cuts, larger classes and the elimination of courses and departments, the study said.

"Thirty-six states have cut funding by more than 20 percent, with 11 states cutting funding by more than one-third. Two states -- Arizona and New Hampshire -- have cut their higher education spending in half," the study said.

Florida, Oregon, Louisiana and Alabama were among states that pulled back most sharply on college aid, while New York, North Carolina and Maine made the smallest reductions in the years tracked in the study.

Tuition at four-year public colleges has grown on average by $1,850 a year, or 27 percent when adjusted for inflation, since the 2007-2008 academic year, the study said. Tuition in Arizona and California has shot up more than 70 percent.

Other big percentage hikes were in Florida, Georgia, Washington state, Hawaii and Alabama.

State policymakers need to ease away from tax cuts and to consider increasing revenues to reinvigorate their public colleges, the study said.

(Reporting by Michael Connor in Miami; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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New pope must deal with divided church in United States

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pope Francis will face a divided Church in the United States, with the faithful at odds over issues like contraception, same-sex marriage and married priests.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was chosen to lead the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, a role that will leave him with the daunting task of helping unite a U.S. Church caught in a tug-of-war between traditionalists and progressives.

"The bishops of the United States thank God for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspired choice of the College of Cardinals," Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement.

U.S. Catholics interviewed seemed largely optimistic about the new pope - but some are taking a "wait and see" approach to a church leader known to be a strict traditionalist on issues like contraception.

In the United States, the results of November's presidential election highlighted the divide between Catholics who want the Church to modernize and those who favor its traditional ways. U.S. Catholic bishops pushed hard against policies favoring gay marriage and contraception, warning of the "intrinsic evils" of the Democratic platform. But post-election polling showed that most U.S. Catholics favored Democratic President Barack Obama.

Forty-six percent of Catholics surveyed said the new pontiff should "move in new directions," while 51 percent say he should "maintain traditional positions," according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted last month.

Donna Doucette, executive director of Voice of the Faithful, a group of lay Catholics that formed in 2002 in reaction to the clergy sex scandals, said she had mixed opinions about Pope Francis, who is known for choosing a simple, humble life, but who is not a liberal.

"It remains to be seen whether he is a person of the 21st century or the 17th century," Doucette said

OUT OF THE BOX

Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor for The Catholic Association, a lay group which advocates conservative social policies, said she does not think the new pope belongs in a "box" labeled traditional or progressive.

"He has this personal simplicity - yet he holds this high office in the church," said Ferguson. "He spoke out in Argentina against allowing same-sex couples to adopt, yet he goes to the hospice and washes the feet of AIDS patients, which embodies the teaching that every person has a home in the church."

Nicholas Cafardi, dean emeritus at Duquesne University Law School and a civil and canon lawyer, agreed that Bergoglio is tough to easily classify.

"He's a Jesuit - Jesuits are known as men of education, men of ideas, men who aren't afraid to confront opposing ideas, and at the same time he's certainly been very orthodox himself in his teachings," Cafardi said.

Russell Shaw, a Catholic writer and former spokesman for the Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that this pope has been spoken about as a reformer of the Curia, the central governing body of the Church.

"Pope Francis needs to do whatever has to be done to make sure that the Curia works together as one unified body," he said.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80 percent of U.S. nuns, offered its congratulations and prayers to the new pope. The group was criticized by the Vatican last year for focusing too much attention on social issues, like poverty, and not enough on opposing abortion and gay marriage.

Some U.S. Catholics interviewed expressed optimism that the new pope had chosen to take the name of Francis, a saint who advocated for reform and for the poor.

"This is a powerful first sign that he recognizes the church is in need of a spiritual renewal rooted in humility and social justice," said John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, a liberal advocacy group.

SEX ABUSE ANGER

The U.S. church's challenges include recovering from the clergy sexual abuse scandal, which has resulted in the bankruptcies of prominent archdioceses and cost the Church in America an estimated $3 billion in legal settlements.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted over the past week showed that most American Catholics name the scandal as the biggest problem facing the Church.

About 25 percent of U.S. residents are Roman Catholic, but that number has been buoyed by a continuing influx of Hispanic immigrants. Lapsed Catholics have become the nation's second largest religious classification, after Catholics, representing 10 percent of U.S. residents, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Even those who continue to identify as Catholics find themselves at odds with some Church teachings, particularly on the subject of contraception. A 2012 Gallup poll found that 82 percent of U.S. Catholics found birth control morally acceptable, even though it is prohibited by the Church.

Most U.S. Catholics surveyed, 54 percent, also support gay marriage, compared to 47 percent of all Americans, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this month.

Some U.S. Catholics see the traditionalism of the Church as a source of strength.

"We live in a culture that's ailing," said Terry Sullivan, 57, a parishioner at St. John Cantius in Chicago, which has regular Latin Masses. "The Church is here to heal it, not to accommodate the disease."

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; additional reporting by Scott Malone; editing by Claudia Parsons, Paul Thomasch, Stacey Joyce and Jackie Frank)

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