Tennessee GOP state Rep. Jody Barrett told Newsmax on Friday that he supported the passage of legislation to arm licensed teachers in classrooms because he is in favor of “anything that we can do” to allow teachers to defend students.

“I represent a rural district,” Barrett said during an appearance on “National Report.” “One of my counties in my House district is the 11th largest geographic county in the state. We have two high schools, one of which is 18 miles away from the sheriff’s office.”

“In our county, we may only have four deputies on the road at any one time during the day, so you’re talking 15, 20, 25 minutes before an officer could even respond to an active shooter situation,” he continued. “So, anything that we can do in our rural areas of our state to allow our teachers to be able to act as their own first responders, not only to defend themselves, but to defend their children, in the event that something like this were to happen.”

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