By Faith Speece
The idea of giving teachers firearms has been a hot topic in the news since the Parkland shooting. President Trump has openly expressed his support for this idea. According to the New York Times he said, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” He’s proposing bonuses for educators who undergo gun training.
What many people don’t realize is that some schools already allow this. Before Parkland, 18 states already allowed adults to carry loaded weapons on school grounds with the principal or school board’s permission.
Schools who allow teachers to be armed have biometric safes that can only open with the designated persons finger print along with bullet proof vests hidden nearby. Others schools allow teachers to wear them in holsters.
There have been problems with allowing guns on campus. According to CNN on March 14 of this year three students were injured after a teacher accidently fired inside the classroom of a Northern California school.
Many feel that more guns are the exact opposite of what we need right now. And that arming teachers can do more harm than good. The common argument for not arming teachers are the safety of the teachers and students. An armed teacher may potentially shoot a student, another teacher, or even a first responder in the chaos of a mass shooting. Also an armed teacher may potentially be shot by someone thinking that they are the shooter.
There are other concerns, how is a teacher with a handgun supposed to successfully take down a assailant with an AR-15? Who is going to pay for the training and guns for the teachers? What prevents someone taking a gun from a teacher? Any two students could successfully take a gun from a teachers holster if they wanted to.
Some teachers have come out and said they don’t want to be armed. “Teachers don’t want to be armed, we want to teach. We don’t want to be, and would never have the expertise to be, sharp shooters; no amount of training can prepare an armed teacher to go up against an AR-15,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the National Federation of Teachers, in a statement responding to Trump’s proposal, “When you have seconds to act when you hear the code for an active shooter, is a teacher supposed to use those seconds getting her gun instead of getting her students to safety?”
Almost everyone can agree that action needs to be taken to prevent gun violence and mass shootings in school, but what that action should be is still up for debate.