Teachers Armed With Guns

Decisions on if teachers should carry on campus

Mass shootings seem to be a major topic on the news thus far into 2018 and solutions are hard to come by. These tragic events are happening within schools as well, killing innocent children. Now, citizens across the U.S. want change and want it fast. President Donald Trump hinted at the chance of having teachers armed with guns in order to stop the threat. With that comes a very sticky situation of whether teachers should be allowed to carry guns and whether they will be prepared at the time of a potential shooting. Arming teachers is not the proper solution for mass shootings. We should not have to be worried about shaving seconds off the time of a shooting, rather stopping the threat all together.

A lot of citizens are advocating for stricter gun laws which have been implemented by other countries. Stricter gun laws would give people less access to obtaining a gun thus making it harder for everyone to buy one. If teachers have guns, that means there are more guns on campus so there is more of a chance for a student to get a hold of one, which defeats the purpose.

Majority of Americans want students to have a safe learning environment to come into every day where they do not have to worry about an outside threat. It would be ironic that in order to provide a safer campus, teachers should be allowed to carry guns on them. Parents could refuse to send their child to school knowing that teachers are armed as well. That could be nerve-racking to some students who are not comfortable with this solution. People can argue that more police officers should be on campus. Even though police officers roam around campus, some students feel as if there could be more precautions to make the school safer.

It is almost impossible to practice and train for the idea of a school shooting. Teachers could go through countless hours of training to carry, but might never experience anything like what they are training for. The pressure and anxiety could make a bad situation even worse after adding weapons into the equation. People can say that adding more guns on campus would have the potential to stop a shooting, but when officers on duty aren’t able to eliminate a threat, teachers may not have the ability to do it with basic training for such a situation.

Society, as a whole, has to change in order to make change in the government and eventually all of America. Stricter gun laws may not be the answer. Understanding why people are resorting to this method of insanity would be huge. Mental health should be discussed and we should not shy away from it. Discussing mental health would be a positive step in the right direction in hopes of stopping this madness.