OHIO — Gov. Mike DeWine announced he signed House Bill 99 Monday, which lowers the number of training hours for school employees who carry firearms. 

The bill lowers the required training hours for armed personnel from 700 hours to a maximum of 24 hours. The bill doesn’t require school districts to arm personnel, but if they choose to, they will notify parents. 

DeWine said at a press conference Monday morning that despite signing the bill, he prefers police resource officers or police officers to carry the guns.

For years, Ohio has allowed employees to carry guns on school grounds as long as it's approved by the school board. An Ohio Supreme Court ruling in 2021 though mandated employees to undergo 700 hours of peace officer training—the same number required of law enforcement officials.

DeWine and other Republicans claimed the 700 hours stood as a barrier to allowing staff to carry firearms at school because of the amount of time it takes. DeWine said he “worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety."

The signing came on the same day Ohio’s “permitless carry” law went into effect. The bill no longer makes it a requirement for Ohioans 21 years old and older to complete eight hours of the handgun training course to carry and conceal a firearm. 

"This does not require any school to arm teachers or staff,” DeWine said. “Every school will make its own decision.”

The bill resurfaced following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, when a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and shot and killed two teachers and 19 students. 

Many Republican lawmakers support the measure, saying it will make schools safer for children and ease the minds of families.

Republican Rep. Thomas Hall, OH-53, sponsor of the bill, said the bill “is doing something,” referencing the calls after the Dayton shooting for lawmakers to “do something" about gun violence. 

Democrats, however, said it wasn't the right decision. 

"This is not what Ohioans meant when they called on DeWine to 'do something' following the 2019 mass shooting in Dayton," said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters. "Ohioans were counting on DeWine to grow a spine and stand up to the gun lobby. All he did was cash the lobby's campaign checks and do its bidding instead."

Some school districts and cities are already making their stances known on the bill. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District officials said last week at a press conference with Mayor Justin Bibb that they intend to ban teachers and non-security personnel from carrying guns. 

The Columbus Board of Education released a statement Monday, saying it's "disappointed" in DeWine's decision to sign HB 99 and will continue to prohibit carrying firearms on district property. 

"Addressing occurrences of gun violence is the job of our trained law enforcement professionals," the board wrote in a statement. "The job of school professionals is to educate students. Our teachers and staff do not enter their professions to enforce laws. The responsibility of public safety is that of our city, county, and state safety and law enforcement experts."

The Ohio Education Association also expressed disappointment in DeWine's signing of the bill. 

“Our students and educators need to be in safe environments where they can focus on teaching and learning, not on the threat of having unprepared, woefully undertrained people—regardless of their good intentions—making split-second life-or-death decisions about whether to pull the trigger in a chaotic classroom full of innocent bystanders," said OEA President Scott DiMauro in the statement. "It would take hundreds of hours of training and firearms practice to be ready for those situations; Governor DeWine says he’s fine with just 24 hours of instruction."

The news release said that Ohio Education Association members did not want to be "in the dual role of educating students and serving as armed security guards."

“DeWine’s decision to sign this dangerous legislation on the same day that Ohio’s new law allowing just about anyone to carry a concealed weapon with zero training takes effect truly shows where his priorities lie,” DiMauro said

Reporter Josh Rultenberg contributed to this story.