A Virginia school board may call on the state to ban “assault-style weapons” and require parents to sign a form about their personal gun storage.
Two members of the Fairfax County School Board, Laura Jane Cohen and Karl Frisch, submitted a request for a “preventing gun violence” workgroup, citing the “record-breaking sales” of firearms during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the form obtained by The Daily Wire, the board aims to create “a plan to keep students and schools safe by aligning curriculum, safety protocols, professional development, legislative priorities, and parent/guardian resources.”
The proposal calls on the state to enact “comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation,” including universal background checks, a ban on assault-style weapons, and increased funding for gun dealer oversight. It justified the taxpayer-funded educational institution’s lobbying on hot-button social issues by saying it related to “student achievement” because “Providing a safe learning environment is essential.”
“By advancing this Forum Topic, the Board agrees to the following specific actions: The FCSB supports comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation including, but not limited to: requiring universal background checks, closing the Charleston loophole, disarming domestic abusers, increasing support for violence prevention programs, implementing extreme risk protection orders, prohibit so-called ‘ghost guns’ and assault-style weapons, addressing police gun violence, increasing timely access to gun violence data, and boosting funding for gun dealer oversight and public health research,” the request reads.
The proposal also includes a “Students Rights & Responsibilities” form that details an existing Virginia law requiring gun-owning parents to protect minors from easily accessing the guns. Parents would be required to sign the form “acknowledging awareness of these legal obligations,” including “the importance of asking about secure firearm storage in homes that my child visits.”
Journalist Stephen Gutowski, the founder of The Reload, told The Daily Wire the letter seemed “vaguely threatening and patronizing,” especially as the school board is actively promoting a slew of gun-control measures. He also noted that parents are aware of the two school board member’s agenda to pass restrictive gun measures, making it more difficult for gun-owning parents to connect with the board.
“Certainly, making sure children don’t have unsupervised access to firearms is a hallmark of responsible gun ownership,” Gutowski said. “But the school board taking the unusual step of sending a vaguely threatening and patronizing letter to parents would be more likely to sow distrust among gun-owning parents than produce any positive results.”
“It’s difficult to imagine a worse way to connect with parents who are gun owners than implying they may be breaking the law and advocating for a ban on popular guns they may own,” Gutowski said.
The request does not explain what the consequences would be for a child whose parents refuse to sign the form.
School board members Cohen and Frisch did not respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.