Nashville congressman drops legislation expanding teachers’ rights under Second Amendment “to make sure our kids are safe.”

FIRST ON FOX: Nashville MP Andy OglesR-Tenn., drops a bill to expand teachers’ Second Amendment rights to protect students from school shootings.

Ogles is introducing the Teachers Empowered Against Classroom Harm (TEACH) Act on Friday to establish a grant program that provides defensive firearms training programs to protect students armed invaders.

“The TEACH Act would make schools tougher by allowing teachers and school staff to participate in defensive training programs aimed at keeping schools and their children safe,” Ogles told Fox News Digital.

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“Right now Secretary of Education Cardona has a personal treasury of over $27.5 million – instead of using that money to fuel the left’s indoctrination campaign, let’s work to keep our children safe from armed intruders,” the congressman continued .

“We will never be able to ban the intentions of bad people, but we can allow responsible men and women of goodwill to gear up to stop bad actors,” he added. “This law would help make our students, educators and classrooms safer.”

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ari., a fellow supporter of the legislation, told Fox News Digital that “the Democratic approach to gun violence in schools has failed repeatedly and violated our Second Amendment rights.”

“Hardening American schools is an effective first step in protecting our children from armed intruders and does not penalize law-abiding gun owners,” Biggs said. “I applaud Congressman Ogles’ recent legislation that will allow us to better secure schools and protect our children from gun violence.”

Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, another co-sponsor of the bill, told Fox News Digital that “in 2021, 49% of all active shooters were stopped by armed civilians.”

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“If Congress is serious about preventing school shootings, it needs to make schools tougher, allow teachers to do self-defense training, and modernize schools’ firearms policies when more than half of the states recognize constitutional carry,” he said Boebert.

“Second Amendment protections are the most effective way to prevent violence in our communities and stop school shootings,” she continued. “Unarmed zones are dangerous because they create vulnerable targets.”

Boebert added, “Republicans need to debunk the myth that gun control is the solution to school shootings, and we need to show we’re serious about protecting the Second Amendment and protecting students from evil killers.”

The bill reverses a ban on using funds from elementary and secondary education statutes for school safety and repeals a section of the U.S. Code that encourages states and local jurisdictions to adopt policies that go beyond the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act.

In addition, the bill redirects approximately $27.6 million of dedicated funds from the Secretary of Education for technical assistance and capacity building into a new voluntary grant program to provide defensive firearms training programs for teachers to protect schools.

The bill already has double-digit GOP co-sponsors, including Biggs and Boebert, and Reps. Troy Nehls of Texas and Alex Mooney of West Virginia.

The measure is also supported by the non-profit gun rights organization Gun Owners of America (GOA).

GOA Director of Federal Affairs Aiden Johnston told Fox News Digital, “GOA is proud to support this legislation by Rep. Ogles.”

“At GOA, we have championed the need to harden schools, which comes in many forms,” ​​Johnston said. “Whether it’s arming willing teachers or empowering parents, these policies play an important role in deterring violence in schools.”

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“There’s a reason no school shootings have happened at a school with teachers armed, and Rep. Ogles’ legislation will play a crucial role in hardening schools by creating a pool of federal funds to train willing teachers and while also modernizing gun policies in schools where more than half of the United States recognizes constitutional carry,” he continued.

The Ogles counties include a part of Nashville where a transgender mass shooter killed three nine-year-olds and three adults at a Christian school last month before being killed by police.

The Tennessee Republican slammed a far-left transgender group he said was trying to portray the Nashville school gunman as a “martyr.”

Following the shooting at The Covenant School, the Trans Resistance Network issued a statement calling a double tragedy for the victims and their families, as well as for the transgender shooter, 28-year-old Audrey Hale.

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“Any attempt to turn a mass murderer into a martyr is beyond disturbing,” Ogles, who represents the community where the shooting took place, told Fox News Digital. “The idea of ​​anyone trying to justify this atrocity sickens me to the core.

“March 27, 2023 was not a double tragedy as this radical group wrote,” Ogles said. “It was a targeted attack on children attending a Christian school by a hateful local terrorist. There is no place to accept or justify the actions of The Covenant School shooter.”

Fox News Digital’s Joe Schoffstall contributed coverage.