GOP candidate Ives displays this photo on her Facebook page
HOMEWOOD – In light of the furor over last week's school shooting in Parkland Florida, IL GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Jeanne Ives says she is open to arming teachers to protect their students, but with several crucial stipulations:
"The teachers would have to be trained, agree to continue to be trained and practice, and they would need to personally want to do it," Ives told Illinois Review during a meet and greet at south suburban Homewood's Aurelio Pizza Sunday afternoon.
But the first step in correcting the problem, she said, is to make sure government is accountable.
"That's what we're looking at, one failure after another failure by government," Ives said. "The school knew he was a troubled kid, the police had 39 calls for service, the FBI had specific calls saying this guy was going to shoot up the school. And on top of that, the man who had a gun cowardly sat outside while children were being slaughtered. It's unreal, It's unreal."
And now they're blaming law-abiding gun owners, Ives said.
Ives said she was okay with armed officers in the school, and hardening the buildings.
"I have no problem with what some are doing to secure the classrooms and close off hallways to trap the shooter. There's things like that that can be done," she said.
But what happened in Florida was a failure of government, the West Point graduate said.
"What you saw in Florida is a failure of government – take background checks – if that guy with that history had been reported correctly, he never could have gotten that gun," Ives said.
What did she think of raising the right to buy a gun to age 21?
"Well, what other rights are we going to raise to age 21?" Ives answered. "The age is arbitrary. The average age of a mass shooter is somewhere in the 30s."
Ives, an Army vet and a staunch 2nd Amendment supporter, could have a chance to voice her strong opinions on the Illinois House floor this week as word is several gun control measures are expected to be considered at the State Capitol as soon as next week.
Illinois House and Senate Democrats historically propose controversial measures as election season heats up to use vote roll calls in campaign mailings.
