The Pros And Cons Of Guns In Schools

Greg Toppo made a unique point: “Just as their grandparents feared polio and their parents feared nuclear war, these young people arrive at school each morning fearing death by high-powered rifle.” School shootings have become more and more typical in modern society. One solution that some propose to the violence is giving teachers guns in their classroom, and it has become a hot topic in Washington recently. Teachers in the United States should not have guns in the classroom because students could accidentally get ahold of the gun, teachers have to leave their students in order to find the intruder, and there are already many everyday items that teachers need in their classrooms rather than firearms.

Teachers in the United States should not

When a teacher is given a gun, they are given the ultimate protection of their students. The popular proposal is that teachers would have to leave their classroom in order to hunt down and take out an intruder. If that were to actually happen, the teacher would be forced to leave their students alone without adult protection. It can be a “pretty bad ethical dilemma to put somebody in” (David Benke, qtd. in Chavez). If a teacher is forced to leave their classroom to hunt down an intruder, they leave multiple students in danger of being harmed. Under most school regulations, teachers are to stay in their classroom with their students so that they are the last line of defense for the kids, but when they leave to find the intruder the students are left with no one. Another point is that shooters usually do everything they can to ensure that their plan will be successful. Time and time again, it has been shown that school shooters find out everything they can about where they are going to commit their crime before they do. Britt Smith pointed this out by saying, “If bad guys know that there is a gun on campus their first target will be to take that person out.” If there was only one teacher with a gun in the school, then the shooter could find them, kill or injure them, and then do what they want inside the school

To start, Robert Runcie indicated that teachers need to be armed “with more money in their pocket.” (qtd. in Balingit) Teachers need more money so that they can provide for regular classroom items that their students might not have. Some school districts are poor and not well-funded, so teachers have to buy classroom items if they want their students to have them. If school districts have the extra money to pay for teachers to go to training to carry a gun, if they have the money to pay for gun safes, if they have the money to pay for the guns and ammunition, then they most definitely have the extra money to give to teachers for classroom objects. Students in schools need scissors, pens and pencils, glue, dry erase markers, etc.-things that they would normally use for crafts and assignments. These items should take priority because these are what students are going to need in order to do their work. Also, "students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms.” (Lily Eskelsen Garcia) It has become more common for school districts to take out the more creative classes to make room in the budget to get better-qualified teachers for their students. Districts want their students to perform better in STEM (science,