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
What do you think that the rising controversy of teachers being armed in schools. Many people think that teachers being armed in schools is a terrific idea while others believe it is a terrible idea. There are many ideas about what is going to happen once teachers are armed. Many fear that arming teachers is the right step to securing the safety of students at school, though they fear that the teachers won’t be trained as well as other law enforcement. In some cases teachers already bring guns to school.
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.
Another reason teachers should not be able to carry guns is because it would be very hazardous; Kids would feel unsafe with guns easily accessible. Having a gun in the classroom would create tension and make it to focus. If teachers accepted firearms then a child could get their hands on it. According to Corbett from Slate magazine, “If a gun finds its way into a teacher’s desk, briefcase, or purse. A child will get his hand on it.” If the gun was easil...
... 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.
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.
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 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...
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.
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