The Issues with Teachers Carrying Guns to School
Gun control is a controversial issue already; now the question society is pondering is: should teachers be allowed to carry guns to school? Like most instances there are some pros and some cons that could occur if allowed. Although some instances occur where students need protections in schools, teachers are not the ones who need to carry weapons; however, more security and other measures need to be enforced.
Gun laws are an important key to consider. There are pistols and machine weapons as well. If a teacher were to carry a gun, it would be a handgun type and an attacker could easily carry a machine weapon. A handgun is hardly a legitimate defense mechanism against a machine gun. A machine gun can carry forty five to sixty rounds, whereas a handgun can only carry about nine bullets (Glennon). If a machine gun that an attacker brings has that many bullets and is automatic, a pistol isn’t going to do anything unless shot first. Also the government interferes in the problem of guns because the need for gun control. “Roughly sixteen thousands two hundred and thirty seven murders were committed in the United States in 2008 of these about ten thousand two hundred eighty-eight, or 67% were committed with firearms” (Agresti,Smith). Also the government has right to carry laws which enables citizens the right to carry a firearm if one can pass a background check and a gun safety course. Forty out of the United States fifty states has agreed to let people who meet certain criteria to carry firearms, and the other ten are indecisive or completely disagree (Agresti,Smith). This shows that the population as a whole has the right to carry guns if legally allowed, but not teachers just because s...
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... result in allowing it. Students could very fall into the wrong hands, teachers could snap and put others in harm, it could ruin the kid by making them feel nervous about it just being there, so on and so forth. There are numerous adversities that the population would have to face just to prevent something that might never happen. Does it seem worth all the heartaches one could experience? Ask yourselves, Is allowing teachers guns in the school the best option for the better of everyone? Maybe there are other safer and easier solutions to the problem. This world is chaotic and needs to have more security in schools. That is true, but the mindset of allowing teachers the ones to carrgo about things. Think about all the situations that could happen in the future or at anytime if we did allow it, and not just about the minor point that schools need to be more safe.
Michael Eisinger an eighth grade science teacher says, "If a gunman is going to cause violence in a school, they are going to have the element of surprise," "My guess is that they would still be able to shoot teachers, students or whoever else they wanted before some sort of coherent response materialized. (Huffington Post) Arming teachers isn’t going to solve the problem. We still will end up with deaths in schools. The gunman may decide to take the professors gun as well, which will result in the enemy having another harmful weapon.
One of the biggest debates in education is how to respond to gun violence in schools. According to BBC, “There were 64 school shootings in 2015” (BBC). One response to the rise in gun violence in schools is to arm teachers. Even our President has mentioned “giving a bonus” (Davis 2) to teachers that The fact that the idea of arming teachers is even being discussed is disappointing. Bringing more guns into a school is not the answer to gun violence. Most people that defend the idea that guns will “help” keep schools safe have basically three points: (1) teachers will be trained in gun safety, (2) it helps deter potential school shooters, and (3) it will make the students feel more safe. Even though there is some truth to those points, I think that the cons of arming teachers vastly outweigh the pros of arming teachers.
Everyone knows that parents’ first worry is the safety of their children. With the increase of violence in schools, parents have started to wonder if their children are really safe in the school setting. Shootings like Sandy Hook and Columbine left parents, administrators, and educators feeling the need to be proactive towards children’s safety. Reacting to situations like these is not good enough when children’s lives are on the line. Administration has started to brainstorm different ways to help insure the protection of their students. The idea of having teachers carry concealed weapons has been on the front burner for quite some time. As a result of this extreme idea, insurance companies have started to increase or even cancel policies with schools that have armed teachers because of the high risk they are putting themselves at. Parents and administrators also worry about the idea of children getting their hands on one of the teachers’ weapons and injuring themselves or other students. Because this idea seems quite extreme, I believe there are other alternatives that are less dramatic and more positively out looked, such as having armed security guards in schools.
One reason teachers should not be able to carry guns because guns are currently illegal in schools; Guns are illegal because they are dangerous. The Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA) is a federal law that was accepted in the United States in 1990. According to the GFSZA, “It shall be unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.” In order for teachers to carry guns, we would have to discard this law. Also, the school board would have to create a new policy, allowing teachers to carry guns. Adjusting the rules would be time consuming and confusing. Changing the GFSZA would make students tense and distract children from learning. Citizens from CNN Politics say, “72.4% of educators said they would be unlikely to bring a firearm to school if allowed to do so.” This data shows that the majority of teachers do not even want possession of a gun in the classroom. School officers have the right to carry guns, teachers should just focus on education. Not only does it create a huge responsibility, there would also need to be a large financial investment to supply guns for every school. This money would be hard to come up with, and not everyone is in favor of sacrificing money for firearms.
... a high school student, I don’t take much stock in the safety codes and drills in place to keep students safe in the event of a shooting. I would feel much safer knowing my teacher has the ability to protect the class, rather than hide and lock the door. An educator is responsible for the students in their class. They are responsible for their education and their safety while the children are in their classroom. The safety of fifteen or more students would be much more easily secured by one person if that person was armed. Promoting teachers to arm themselves also prevents school shootings; criminals don’t attack a victim that can fight back. At least 60% of school attacks would be prevented with an armed faculty warning sign. School faculty members should be armed to secure the safety of the countries students, and in hand prevent the majority of potential shootings.
In “Vulnerable Schools Need Protection: Guns, Training For Teachers may be the answer”, published in a 2008 edition of the Chicago Tribune, David McGrath argues that some teachers should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon for protection. First, McGrath states that if a random psychotic gunman were searching for someplace to attack, his classroom would make an easy target. He feels that if he was trained and armed, his class would not be trapped without a chance of survival because he would be able to defend against the gunman. Sec...
...dren will see as their teachers are armed and will follow their footsteps and think it is okay to carry a gun. However children can be taught from right and wrong and learn that guns are no good to have in hands of a child. Children will also be taught that teachers are armed for safety purposes only and will feel safer at school instead of feeling scared to be there.
Teachers should be armed on school grounds. Having a free gun zone is an easy target building for shooters. (Santoni, Matthew) So teachers having guns would improve the safety for students and it will become a non-free
Like Mr. Cuellar said “ Being an US Customs I know any one with a gun in a shooting will help out to, there is more good people then bad and together we can take them down , that’s why I am with guns allowed in school campus , for the reason that I am also a father and care for the safety of my family members”. As he mentioned it can also be protection for oneself when you encounter a problematic situation. There are good reasons why we should allow them but there is more bad ones than good. Some people say that they’ll feel more protective if they have a gun with them , knowing someone you don’t know has one. If guns would be allowed under strictly rules and would have a lot of training and permissions / test people have to go through maybe like that I will be safe in school with guns
Teachers already do not have enough time to do what they are supposed to do. They barely have time to go to the bathroom let alone have time to worry about a gun. Every child would become a potential victim of a gun accident since teachers would not have enough time to worry about the gun. A teacher could end up forgetting about the gun being out and someone else could grab it and shoots others intentionally or
I have discussed this argument with several people and most of them are against teachers carrying guns while teaching. One main concern that I have heard is, “what if the teacher is having a bad day”, or “what if they decide to take it out on the students? And then I remind them that teacher’s go through a very rigid background investigation and are trusted individuals! We must trust our teachers and their judgment. If we feel comfortable enough with these teachers to send our kids to them five days a week, f...
That is why Rebekah Elliott’s article “The Real School Safety Debate: Why Legislative Responses Should Focus on Schools and Not on Guns” would be valuable to include. Elliot writes that to properly provide safety into schools is to put more funding into higher security and individual school safety programs. Like many writers, she agrees that the Sandy Hook incident shifted America’s views on the second amendment but she believes that having armed teachers could be a safety risk in itself. Her argument is that although it would be more cost efficient to arm teachers than to hire more security, it could increase the liability for negligence if there was a result in injuring a student (2015
On the side if teachers were to carry guns students and parents may be more scared. “When violent force is upheld as safety, fear and silence creep in”(Corbett huffington post). “Kids get their hands on guns, and they know how to use them”( Corbett huffington post). “I have a patient who recalls his silent car rides with his father who kept two guns under the driver’s seat. Silently the boy watched, on guard, even though nothing ever happened. But then again nothing was ever
They say that having the gun in the classroom would make it safer. I say that it would cause more danger to the children if there were to be a gun in the classroom. One main problem would be how would the teachers keep the gun protected. It sounds pretty easy for the teacher to be able to watch the gun, but if the teacher went outside the classroom for something a student could be able to get to the gun. The student could take the gun and steal it and that is one of the problems that would occur.
Bang the kid is dead and it's because the parents did not put up there gun. This is why we should not give kids guns. About 10,000 kids under the age of 14 die a year. Others might say kids need guns for self defence. It is absolutely important kids have no access to guns because, it's deadly, it could get in the wrong hands, and they are too young to risk their life.