Teachers And Guns
“Since 2013, there have been over 200 school shootings in America, an average of nearly one a week”(Everytown Research). How safe is our family members at school? Allowing teachers and staff to carry guns could lower that number. Some people may disagree with it, saying that it would be teaching students violence. School shootings would be a thing of the past if staff were armed.
Allowing teachers to carry guns could help lower school shootings. “While some believe tighter gun controls are the answer, others believe the best solution comes in giving more people — like teachers and administrators — more training and more access to firearms that can save lives as well as take them away” (Evensen guns and teachers). “Our organization
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“For schools in rural areas like Harrold High School in north Texas, the right for teachers to carry guns is a comfort to staff and students alike” (Christian Should Teachers Carry Guns). “After 20 children and six adults were fatally shot by a gunman armed with assault weapons at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, gun advocates, and even some government officials, claimed the massacre could have been prevented if the school personnel inside had been carrying guns” (Mettler Washington Post). “The administration states that they feel safer knowing that, should an intruder enter the school, teachers are ready to jump into action”(Christian Should Teachers Carry Guns). “They also explain because of their rural location, by the time the rescue squads would reach the school, it could be too late”(Christian Should Teacher Carry Guns).
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
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.
When I was in elementary school, I never feared of having an intruder enter my school, nor did we ever prepare for a tragedy such as that. It was not until recent years that school shootings became more of a common and feared issue. As a future educator, it is a terrifying thought that my classroom could be invaded and it would be my responsibility to protect my students. Even with the number of school shootings rising every day, our government has yet to make it legal for teachers in every state and every school to carry a gun in the classroom. This essay will review and analyze the opinions of multiple scholars and their input on the issue of teachers carrying weapons in the classroom and protecting the safety of students. It will discuss
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.
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 country's students, and to 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...
The topic ‘Teachers should be armed” interest me so much because I have met a teacher who dealt with a school shooting and he truly believed if teachers were armed the shooting would have never occurred There have been so many cases of shooting inside of schools, innocent people getting hurt and students and even staff members not feeling safe in school. I myself have met a person who had to deal with a deadly tragedy of a shooting inside of Columbine High School watching his own students’ lives end because of 2 boys who thought taking ones live can make theirs better. This changed his whole perspective on why a teacher should be armed ‘’If teachers were armed April 20, 1999 this would have never happened”, he said. This teacher told me if he was armed that day he could have saved students’ lives because he felt helpless when the shooting happened and there was nothing to do about it. Cases like these teachers should be prepared with a weapon in handy. Having teachers armed will lower the risk of school shootings.
Allowing concealed weapons in the schools is not a good thing because the teachers are not trained enough to carry a concealed weapon at the schools. Teachers need a lot of training just to hold the weapon and how they should be using it. Teachers also need a lot of nerves to use the gun on somebody else and it’s not about just using it, it’s also about doing the right thing at the right time. A couple of years ago Utah was the first state to legalize to carry a concealed weapon at the schools. According to Desert News, Last year a town named Taylorsville in Utah, a sixth-grade teacher injured herself in the school bathroom when her concealed firearm accidentally went off inside an elementary school bathroom. Luckily she just did not had serious injuries. If we allowed teachers to carry
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.
Wouldn’t you feel a great sense of relief if you knew that your child was being protected at all cost while at school? Teachers carry a lot of weight on their shoulders just by walking into the classroom daily. This added level of security would not only protect our children but it also protects the teachers and other staff members as well. Teachers being allowed to carry handguns while in class should be a discussion that every parent should have.
In the light of the school shootings in the last few months, arming teachers is becoming more likely. In Natalie Proulx’s article Should Teachers Be Armed with Guns?, she questions if teachers should be armed with guns to protect students in the case of a school shooting. Allowing teachers to be armed could protect students from any danger and it might also deter suspects from wanting to shoot up a school. Parents send their children to school to learn and shouldn’t have to worry about if their child is going to be safe. As a parent I shouldn’t have to worry if another student is coming to school fully armed to endanger other students. Arming qualified teachers who are willing to protect students from acts of violence should be allowed.
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
Did you know that there has been an average of 1 school shooting every week this year? We are barely 11 weeks into 2018 and the tragedy of school shootings have been sweeping the country from California to Virginia. There are teachers in multiple states that are authorized to conceal weapons on their campus. Some students feel safe knowing that their teachers hold a gun, however some may think their lives are in danger.
Nevertheless, if the government allow people to bear a gun in schools, this might affect students in several ways. Students can feel afraid by the risk of losing their lives, therefore, their academic achievement might decrease or even drop their interest in getting a degree. Other students might feel at risk knowing the any moment the person has a gun and the power to start a shooting, killing all your classmates. For this reasons people do not want that the government allow guns on schools or public places.