Stun Gun Ban Sent to Governor

A bill repealing an 8-month-old state law allowing teachers and other school personnel to arm themselves at work with electronic stun guns won final legislative approval Thursday.

In a 43-23 vote, the Assembly concurred with Senate changes and sent the bill, by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista), to Gov. George Deukmejian.

San Diego city school officials had sought the bill to ensure that they had the authority to tell teachers and other school workers that they could not bring the high-tech self-defense weapons onto school campuses. The battery-powered devices temporarily daze and immobilize their victims.

Fearing legal repercussions because of the wording of a law the Legislature passed last year, school officials have given three teachers permission to carry the weapons this year. But a school board policy adopted in January in effect requires that the weapons be registered with the principals’ offices and locked up whenever the teachers are not carrying them.