North Carolina made national news again with another bill that involves teachers and guns.

On March 8, CNN posted a piece on its website entitled “North Carolina teachers who carry guns to school could get a pay raise under a new bill.”

Filed on Wednesday, the School Security Act of 2019 would give a 5% salary boost to teachers who undergo basic police training.

These “teacher resource officers” could carry guns in an open or concealed manner, and they would have the same arrest powers as police officers, the bill says.

The piece references a survey done by NEA about teachers’ attitudes pf being armed in the school setting.

NEA members overwhelmingly reject the idea of arming teachers and other educators to address the problem of school shootings.

• An overwhelming majority, 82 percent, say they would not carry a gun in school, including sixty-three percent of NEA members who own a gun.
• Sixty-one percent of gun owners oppose arming teachers. Sixty-four percent of those in gun households oppose arming teachers.
• Two thirds, 64 percent, say they would feel less safe if teachers and other educators were allowed to carry guns.
•  Educators do not believe that this proposal would be effective in preventing a school shooting.
• Seven in ten (69 percent) NEA members say arming school personnel would be ineffective at preventing gun violence in schools.
• Three quarters (77 percent) of NEA members believe it is too easy to access guns in the United States. As a result, they support a wide range of solutions to limit access to guns.
• Ninety-nine percent of NEA members favor universal background checks. 
• Ninety-one percent support taking measures to prevent the mentally ill from accessing guns;
• Ninety percent support preventing those with a history of domestic violence from gaining access to guns;
• Strong majorities also support creating a database (87 percent) to track all gun sales; banning assault weapons (85 percent); banning bump stocks (84 percent) and high capacity magazines (80 percent); and also raising the age of gun ownership to 21 (78 percent).

So, as the top public school official in the state, what is Mark Johnson’s stance on this issue?