The President, law-makers and Americans are pushing for teachers to carry guns, which would bring additional risks, promote gun violence, would be costly, and require regulations, when there are alternatives to fight the gun violence in America’s schools.
Teachers carrying guns would pose more safety risks than benefits to the students they aim to protect. This type of protection could turn into a threat by accidental injury or death. For example, a teacher in California accidentally shot his gun while teaching a public safety class injuring three students, and another incident in Virginia with no injuries (Caron). As Christina Caron notes, shortly after President Trump implies that teachers should carry guns, these guns brought in by teachers
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were accidentally discharged (Caron). Both teachers also work as police officers indicating they have more experience with guns. There is a high risk that more students could get injured by a teacher trying to stop a shooter.
With little or no experience in stopping a gunman a teacher may mistakenly shoot the wrong person. Student by-standers could get hurt from cross fire, bullet fragments or just by the teacher not having good aim. Kate Murphy writes an article interviewing a teacher, expressing that she wants to protect her students with any means possible and that every teacher should because they can defend against a threat before authorities could arrive (Hansen ‘qt.in.’). Others may agree that teachers should carry guns to protect the students. Without exploring the risks this seems like a quick and inexpensive resolution to the problem. Although, having guns present daily leaves more probability of accidents than the possibility of a shooter threat. Additionally, the presence of guns has the potential to cause the “weapons effect” that could cause more violent altercations. In the 1960’s Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony LePage did a study on how people react when they are in the presence of guns. In this study people who seen guns reacted more aggressive toward people that had irritated them, which was then called the “weapons effect” (Bushman). According to Brad Bushman, Ph.D., just seeing a weapon can make
people act with more force whether they are upset or not (Bushman). This could cause a normally non-violent student to act more vengeful when confronted with a conflict. The hazards of having armed teachers appear to have conflicting results in protecting the students. Introduction: During a public safety class, a California teacher’s gun accidentally fires and injures three students shortly after the president proposes that teachers carry guns in schools. After the recent school shooting in Florida, there has been a debate as to whether teachers should carry guns to school to protect the students. Having guns in schools raises safety concerns. There would need to be rules put in place to manage the use of the weapons, training, and where the responsibilities fall. Having guns present may be the wrong impression American wants to leave on the children. While protecting the students should be the main objective it appears to be a means to advance political agendas, promote gun sales and the National Rifle’s Association. Finding non-violent solutions would be fundamentally more productive for all involved. The President, law-makers and Americans are pushing for teachers to carry guns, which would bring additional risks, promote gun violence, would be costly, and require regulations, when there are alternatives to fight the gun violence in America’s schools. Topic Sentence #2-Sub topic #2: Therefore, arming American teachers with regulations would prove to be costly. Allowing teachers to carry guns would require regulations so they know what their responsibilities are and to ensure that protocols are followed. Without regulations in place there are no limits to what qualifies as acceptable behavior when a teacher handles their gun around the students. School Districts around the nation will be taking on enormous responsibility allowing teachers to carry firearms. Many questions would need to be answered, such as what type of guns are the teachers allowed to carry, under what type of situations are they allowed to handle their weapon, who ensures the guns are in good working order, and when is it justifiable to discharge their weapon? The districts may have to consider hiring attorneys to protect themselves from potential lawsuits. Additional topic sentence: Ultimately, having teachers armed would send the wrong message to the students and have an unfavorable outcome. School has traditionally been a place for children to feel safe and a place to start their foundation for their future. Students look to teachers as mentors. Having teachers carry guns would be teaching students that fighting violence with violence is acceptable. Is that the message our country wants to portray to our children? Doing so would create an unstable environment. Students would get out of control when faced with conflicts, they would turn to fighting violence with violence, and not seeing anything wrong with it. This type of behavior could than escalate quickly and turn more violent with horrific results. With the volatile atmosphere this could generate it would make it difficult for students to learn and get the most out of their education, which defeats the purpose of what the educational system is stands for. Teaching the students to fight violence with violence would essentially have a negative effect and demolish a safe environment for the children to learn. Conclusion: The safety of the public schools would face more daily challenges if the schools start allowing teachers to carry firearms. Without implementing guidelines and training the risks add up. This would be damaging to students, not feeling safe, and getting the most out of their education. Students reactions to the message the schools would be presenting could have an adverse effect causing an unmanageable environment. There would be additional costs such as, attorney fees, liability insurance, and training. This suggested action to gun violence in schools seems to be a way to get the National Rifle’s Association to support the Trump administration. There are other options that should be explored before adding more guns to the equation. Schools could hire experienced security, add locks on entrance doors, or the Unites States could simply have more gun control. If the President, leaders and citizens pushed for utilizing other methods of safety it would prevent daily dangers, send students the right message while feeling safe at school, and would be less expensive.
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.
Gun-control laws are a very controversial topic right now in the U.S., especially when it comes to allowing concealed-carry holders on college campuses. Nevertheless, guns should be permitted for concealed carry on college campuses if the carriers have concealed-carry licenses because mass shootings occur mostly in gun-free zones. There have been many incidents in which concealed-carry holders have disarmed attackers, and concealed-carry holders are overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens. However, the argument’s opponents believe guns should not be allowed on college campuses for various reasons, including: professors might be afraid to issue bad grades, a gun may go off by accident, college
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...
Taking privileges away from the majority of mentally stable, healthy, hard working Americans just because a percentage of alcoholics, drug addicts, gang members, and mentally ill individuals are to blame for the school shootings, murders and suicides, would just be insane. So, why is the government trying to implement more strict gun laws for the people that don't do these heinous crimes. The debate on if the government should take the guns away from all the citizens in order to stop these crimes would not stop those who are committing the crimes in the first place. Then, the question would be, how would we know who really has the guns and where they are?
There's a problem in America. Children, defenseless are being shot one by one. They go to their school and the schools are a gun free zone. The shooters take advantage of it and take the children's lives. Teachers should be able to carry a handgun to protect their children. This is very important, to all teachers and students for their safety. Shooters wouldn't come in the school knowing that the teacher had a gun. Students would feel way safer. There would be a lot of safety that would go into this.there are a lot of facts that can help us make the decision.
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
Teachers play a very important role in our kid’s lives on a daily basis. Not only are they there as educators, but they are also there as protectors as well, especially for our younger students. They are not only there to watch over them and make sure that they get home safely, but they are there to protect them from any harm, including a gunman. If a gunman were to enter the school and some if not all of the teachers were licensed to carry, he could be stopped before harming or even killing several people, including our children.
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
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
In concealed carry classes, teachers are taught several essential gun facts and social facts about carrying concealed firearms: pros and cons of different holsters, places that allow concealed carry and places that do not allow concealed carry, the type of belts that make concealed carry comfortable, what to do when going into “gun-free” zones, the necessity of a first aid kit, various gun myths, ways to talk to the police, and much more (Owens). Other lessons include avoiding accidental discharge, how to draw a weapon correctly in different scenarios, different types of knives, firearm safety rules, close-quarter techniques, how to pie corners, and how to handle more than one assailants (Owens). These lessons, along with carrying a concealed weapon and/or firearm, allow teachers to be ready to defend themselves and their students from any kind of harm, especially a criminal with a gun threatening to kill and wound numerous people: ‘…training weekly and being checked out weekly and knowing how to use that weapon and being willing and able to do it’ (KDVR.com). Why should teachers go through these lessons? The answer is simple: teachers need to be able to protect their students’ lives and their own lives from criminals that wield firearms and other weapons.