There have been more school shootings in the past 8 years than theres has been in the past fifty years. School shootings have gotten out of control. Kids are scared to go to school because they don’t think they are safe. Most schools do intruder drills, but schools could be doing more. One possibility is arming teachers which would provide a good deterrent to school shootings. Arming teachers would be a bad thing because It will cost a mass amount of money, the teachers will need a great deal of training, and guns make the school environment very menacing and very uncomfortable.
In 2011, 10.3 in every 100,000 people in the U.S. were victims of gun related deaths. If the teacher would have had a gun then he/she could have shot the attacker. Teachers should carry handguns because it provides safety for the students and because it is the teacher’s right.
Truth be told, there is very few ways to prevent an attack on a school. Merriam Webster defines the word Prevent as “to stop something from happening or existing.” This means that the police have to know beforehand if an attack on a school is to be prevented and arrest the attacker before the attack happens. For clarification, the reason I am using the term “an attack” instead of “a shooting” is that an attack can happen at the school that does not involve a gun. School attacks that have not been prevented can only be reacted to. With reaction being defined by Merriam Webster as “to behave or change in a particular way when something happens, is said, etc.” If the police cannot be there to react to an attack that leaves only the school staff, including teachers.
Over the past few weeks, arming teachers has been a controversial topic throughout the country. School shootings have taken the lives of many over the past few years, yet they are becoming more and more frequent. In today’s society children shouldn’t have to go to school worried if they are going to be safe that day. If teachers are armed it will add that extra bit of protection to the children. A big question is if arming teachers is even going to matter if an active shooter happens to be in that school. What a lot of people do not take into consideration is that the teachers must go through training and have to be liable to the responsibilities they are taking once they have a concealed carry weapon. Arming teachers could help lower the number of school shootings because the reaction times will be much faster, and it will add a bit of security to the children.
Many people from both the Republican and Democratic parties favor the idea of placing a ban on assault weapons and creating a new federal database to monitor gun sales as well as having background checks for private and gun show sales (Struyk, 1). Other possible safety measures include every school having a professional crisis team that can review their existing policies, staff members who question every visitor who comes into the school, constant locked doors, and more frequent safety drills (Gumbrecht, 1). Since the Columbine shooting of 1999, even architectural designs have been implemented to ensure school safety. Schools that have been built since then try to have single, prominent entryways, reduced landscaping which means fewer places for the shooter to hide, restrooms away from entrances, and mechanical and electrical systems away from easy access points (Gumbrecht, 2). Construction companies have been trying to create something to make it so that the accident is contained, whether it be a shooting or an explosion (Gumbrecht, 2). All of these policies and safety measures being implemented would reduce the risk of students and staff dying in saddening situations like
Equipping teachers with guns, who are little more than civilians, is absurd. This would not help prevent the type of deadly mass shooting we 've been seeing lately. All that would do is increase the possibility of innocent people getting caught in the crossfire. Instead of training for how to use guns teachers should be taught self defense and how to use items around them as weapons. It would also help if every teacher learned self defense and not just a
Students today live their day-to-day lives in constant fear of what seems inevitable. The United States has one of the highests rates of school shootings in the world. Society has become so desensitized to these shootings that they are no longer shocked to hear about another school falling victim to it. Even when students take a stand against gun violence, the only solution offered to them is a proposition to arm teachers. However, bringing more guns into a school will only further deteriorate the situation. Teachers should not be armed in schools because the could not handle a real situation, and the liability is too much of a risk.
Conclusion By arming teachers there are alot more positives than negatives, Yes bad things can happen with a deadly weapon in a classroom but people will continue to do these horrific crimes knowing there is hardly anything that’s going to stop them. So by arming teachers this will give some fear in a potential shooters eyes versus a shooter knowing they can march into any school they want to and kill students and teachers without anyone putting up a fight until first responders getting to the
One side of the argument is yes, teachers should be armed at all times. School districts in Missouri have allowed teachers to start training to carry guns with them, not long after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 (Ashtari). Ashtari claims teachers are now receiving 40 hours of training if the districts pay $17,500 to the law enforcement officers training them. Since teachers, in the certain school districts, now carry their firearms on their bodies, students can no longer hug their teacher or touch them. Missouri districts are not the only districts making plans to arm their teachers, some districts in Colorado are now looking into the possibility of arming their teachers.
In the past and present, school safety is one of the number one priorities of any school district. Having a safe and secure learning environment is crucial in getting children of any age the education that they need and deserve. When this security is threatened it can be either directly, for the victims of school shootings, or indirectly, for the students that hear about these incidents and no longer feel as safe when they are in their school. When a tragic event happens like what recently happened in Florida, there will be an argument and as with any argument, there will be many sides. Some ideas for school safety that have come out of this incident include, gun control laws, mental health screenings, and things that can be done in schools to control the situation of having an active shooter. One method of deterring an active shooter was stated as arming select teachers within schools in order to effectively end the situation and protect the students.
The debate of gun control dates back 100s of years,and many people want to ban guns so that no one can have them. That statement is complete ignorance to what really goes on. The debate has many different viewpoints with some being as radical as banning guns to create a false sense of Utopia. The recent rise of school shootings has set off a spark of gun control debates that make little sense. What if the school shooter was met by a principal at the door who happened to be carrying a 9mm handgun under his suit where 99.9% of students did not even know it was there? Guns are a very prominent tool that when in the right hands can lead to the saving of people and hunting animals without any harm
Teachers should be able to possess guns during school hours because the teacher could protect the students, be able to prevent school shootings, and neutralize other threats.
As life goes on, we have no clue what is going to happen tomorrow, as many of us just live life as it goes but in reality, we should think of situations such as a fire, intruder, kidnapping etc. situations. There has been staff and students killed in shootings at Columbine high School in Colorado in 1999, Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 and now at Stoneman Douglas in Florida, where or who is next? No one is expecting this kind of situation nor are they well prepare for them. Schools preform drills such as shelter-in-place, lockdown, evacuation, drop, cover, and hold in case of an earthquake etc. but in reality as much as the students practice the safety drills in that moment each person will forget everything and have so many other questions
Why should schools have stronger security? It’ll reduce the amount of incidences of violence. There have been 18 school shootings since 2018 started. That tells us that there needs to be security in front of the school doors that have a metal detector walk through. So many incidents have occured and they need to be stopped. Think about how parents feel, they think their children are going to school to learn and be protected. School is about education, we shouldn’t have to worry about our lives here. A walk through metal detector will indicate if a student or person has a weapon on him or her. There should also be armed security guards, like a school resource officer, that would help if anything with a weapon were to happen or anything in general. The guards will be there to protect us.
But, perhaps arming teachers isn’t the best, safest or only route to a better future and an end to the problem. Having higher budgets for schools to get security, metal detectors and armed policemen and women would do a whole lot more than arming teachers. What is more sacred than the lives of the future? What could be more precious than a child who has yet to see their latter years? Time is already spinning and wasting out. Don’t let their clock stop spinning because they aren’t protected to the utmost