Now more than ever the increase of in school massacres are starting to become more evident. The Sandy Hook and Oregon shootings are sending people searching for a way to keep their children safe when they are away from home receiving an education. This poses an issue, some people see it is fit for teachers to be armed with a gun in case of future attacks on the school. The outcome that will follow from arming teachers will be negative, but there is a solution that involves the protection of students without handing guns over to teachers.
First, having a firearm in a building full of children or young adults is asking for an accidental incident to happen. This scenario is no different than the curious kid who finds the thought to be secure firearm at their own home and mistakenly kills/maims themselves or someone else. As stated in a website for The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Injury Research and Prevention, “People who report “firearm access” are at twice the risk of homicide and more than three times the risk of suicide compared to
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More times than not teachers are not properly educated, prepared, or skilled enough to arm the gun and shoot it during high stress crisis. A school teacher, Mrs. Robinson commented, “I’m not sure I could even get to a gun in a drawer or closet to use it. I think my gut instinct would be getting my kids secured first” (CNNMoney). An untrained or barely trained faculty member with a firearm is more of a liability than an asset. The weapon could easily fall out of the hands of a briefly trained teacher and into the hands of the perpetrator. Even annual training is not enough training for a teacher to be skilled enough to handle a firearm. Therefore, it is negligent to supply teachers with minimal training the right to carry a firearm on 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.
Arming Teachers In the last ten years, there have been eighteen school shootings in the United States. Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, and Universities are all included. From these eighteen shootings there were one hundred and one students and faculty members killed, the majority being students. In the average classroom, there are at least fifteen students to one teacher. One adult is tasked with insuring the safety of fifteen to thirty students.
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...
School shootings have the ability to be stopped. They are largely one of the worst repeated tragedies our great nation has endured, and they should be stopped today! No terrorist wants to go out in his/her infamous blaze of “glory” by failing in their attempt. Arming educators has the capability to end school shootings in this decade. “And I haven’t even touched upon the pure deterrent effect of a potential mass murderer having to worry one of his targets might be armed” (Concealed Weapons). This quote presents the very real possibility that just if teachers are armed, future shooters will reconsider and possibly not attempt it at all. Providing this overwhelming deterrent in the foremost thoughts of a would be murderer emphasizes the positive effect concealed weapons operated by teachers could
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
There is one reaction that is always to be expected after a mass shooting, and that is the call for an increase in control. This can be defined in numerous different ways, and can include a great deal of different aspects. People who call for an increase gun control in the wake of mass shootings are, in general, people who believe that more guns means more crimes. Gun control advocates cite studies that state, “Higher gun prevalence is associated with an increase in homicides, and suicides, and possibly even more residential burglaries” (Ludwig 17). Often times, after mass shootings, those in favor of more gun control look to countries like Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Japan, and their strict gun policy and cite this as the direction
According to the statistics from the President of the National School Safety and Security Services whose name is Kenneth S. Trump, it’s more effective to arm teachers with weapons because it will cheaper, be more effective in regards to numbers of trained individuals, save everyone tax dollars, and make students feel more secure with knowing who in their school is carrying the weapons, not just some random officers that are paid to protect the school incase a threat would happen to collide with the school. To explain the benefits by using data from the Department of Education and the National Rifle Association, there are a total of 3.1 million school teachers in the U.S. and the main goal would be to arm about 1/5 of these teachers, so the total would be around 718,000 teachers (Trump). One may ask what is significant about 718,000 armed teachers in schools, and the answer is that this amount is just smaller than the quantity of personal combined in the Army and Navy, which means that America would add almost 50% more armed and ready personal to society to protect the innocent (Trump). Speaking generally, if all the 718,000 teachers obtaining appropriate training, glocks, and supplies would be a one time cost of 251 million to 1 billion dollars to arm these teachers. Putting this in
Firstly I would like to go over the laws around allowing teachers and faculty to bring guns into a school. Currently there are only 18 states that let teachers and faculty carry loaded weapons on the campus with little
How would you feel if your child was to come home and tell you that, that one angry grumpy teacher is now allow to carry a gun to school? That seems pretty mediocre, I know if I was to have a child I wouldn’t be ok with it. Some politicians are trying to decide on rather or not should teachers be allowed to carry guns to school for protection. Due to the recent gun incidents in the schools all across the world, politicians are really considering rather teachers should be equipped with guns to protect theirselves and the children under their supervision. I personally don’t think that this is such a great idea, as a matter of fact it’s ludicrous. Teachers shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns in the school because the generation isn’t quite ready for that change in history, that’s the reason we have resource officers in the schools, and adding another gun to situation isn’t going to always be a good solution .
Arming teachers is believed to make schools safer. Each year 142 school shootings take place, but only in the U.S.. On 5/3/17, 45 school shootings took place in the U.S. in the year 2017. That’s about one third, only in four months, which gives more time for shootings to happen. In these shootings, many people die, and many others wish they were stopped.
Personally as a student who would like to be a teacher in the future, I would not feel comfortable carrying or having access to a gun. Guns are extremely dangerous and I don’t think something so dangerous should be so close to children. There are too many risks of having a teacher being able to carry a gun. Children could get access to the gun and physically harm themselves or others. On the flip side, what if the teacher has mental health issues, gets into an argument with a student and then pulls out a gun? None of these scenarios have a good outcome and therefore further enhance my opinion on why teachers should not have access to
In the summer of 2013, 4 principals came together to discuss whether they wanted to have teachers carry guns with them in school. Three principals said that they agree with the idea but one principal disagreed. That principal said that it's teachers having guns is a high risk. He also said that you're “putting a lot responsibility on the staff of the school to perform a law enforcement they aren't trained for” according to (“Arming Teachers to Keep Schools Safe”). There have also been incidents where teachers were not responsible with the handgun. In 2014 in Idaho State University, a professor's handgun discharged and he shot himself in the foot. So a lot of responsibility on the teacher's shoulders. While many states are trying to stop gun
The primary reason why many people believe that educators should be armed with weapons is to protect the students if school shooting happens. If teachers have guns, they would be first responders in the emergency situations, while it takes a while, such as ten to fifteenth minutes or even longer, for the police to respond to the incident. Teachers want to have more choices to prevent students get shot in school shooting situations. After terrible school shootings had happened in America, a lot of people, such as parents and educators, figure out an optmal solution, which they can actively control and solve incidents in emergencies instead of passively waiting for police officers. Thus, carrying guns is the most potential idea for educators in order to protect students against the imminent danger. As a teacher, Hansen, who is teaching in Utah, wants to ensure the safety of her students, so she is willing to “stand in front of a bullet for any student.” To her, this is the best solution to protect students, but she also wants to have another choice to defend both students and herself. Therefore, she is one of many people across America, who totally encourages teachers to carry handguns. Another example is Jim Krohn, a teacher at the Clarksville
In 1991 research indicates that there were over 750,000 handguns in New York City alone and only a small part of them are legally owned and with this the crime rate has increased (Bernards, 1991). During the mid-90’s gun deaths in the United States were more than the deaths in the Korean War, new laws passed after the mid 90’s and crime and gun control still increased. No matter what the gun violence stats are many people still believe in gun rights. Violence among teenagers and young adults with guns has always been around and most of the time were their own worst enemy in the past and the present. For example, “Jesse James was seventeen and serving as a Confederate Guerrilla during the Civil War, when he gained a reputation as a crack shot