Kay Ivey’s guns in schools plan criticized from both sides of the political spectrum

Gov. Kay Ivey’s proposal to allow certain school administrators to have firearms was met with criticism on two fronts — on one flank, the governor’s approach was slammed by one of her Republican opponents for being too rigid, while she was attacked from the left, where one Democratic gubernatorial candidate called the proposal “insane.”

Details of the Alabama Sentry Program, which would allow school administrators in schools that don’t have school resource officers to store firearms on school campuses, were unveiled Wednesday by Ivey and ALEA. The governor, who faces three challengers in Tuesday’s Republican primary, said the proposal is a stopgap measure until all schools can have resource officers and that the administrators would have to be approved by local superintendents, sheriffs and school boards before being designated as sentries.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, one of Ivey’s rivals, said through a spokesman on Wednesday that the governor’s plan is inflexible.

Continue reading on AL.com