Armament Of Teachers

In october 2015, independent.co.uk published these facts.

“There have been 142 school shootings in the US since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, a near average of one a week, according to data compiled by Mass Shooting Tracker.”

In 2013, The Arkansas Christian Academy in Bryant, Arkansas shocked the U.S when it announced that some of its staff members will be armed and ready to protect the school in case of a threat. School shootings have been an issue for a while, with the first major school shooting happened in Austin, Texas in 1966, where a college student went into the clock-tower and used a sniper rifle to murder 17 people and injure 31. The next major school shooting occurred at Columbine, Littleton Colorado, where two students went on a rampage and killed 12 students and 1 teacher and hurt 21 other people before finally shooting themselves. And finally, in one of the more horrendous cases, 20 year old Adam Lanza killed his mother and then forced his way into an elementary school. He killed 6 staff members, and shot and killed 20 children. None of these children were over 7. In all three of these cases, none of the teachers were armed with any adequate protection. When the Arkansas Christian Academy released the announcement, people were shocked. This sparked the “Should Teachers Have Guns?” debate again, more aggressive than ever.  

I believe that teachers should have guns to protect the students in school. This is because of 4 key reasons. Law enforcement cannot effectively respond within 2 minutes of a call, as most units are not stationed directly near a school. Teachers will be able stop shootings before they happen as the thought of an armed school is sometimes enough to ward off potential shooters. If a shooter came in the school, the teacher would be able to defend the children and the parents would feel much safer knowing their kids will most likely be safe in case of an emergency. Teachers would not be required to be armed, but if they chose to, they would have to get a permit and all the proper training.

I think that teachers should be armed because in most situations, law enforcement cannot effectively and quickly respond in a school shooting. According to the department of homeland security, “The average school shooting last 12.5 minutes, while the average police response time for threats is 18 minutes” This effectively shows how the shooting could be over before the police even arrive at the scene, which can be a disaster. IF we had armed teachers, the shooting could be over before it starts if a staff member shot the perpetrator before the perpetrator shot anyone else. Law enforcement could arrive on scene if the gunman was still engaged with teachers, allowing them to react together and save more lives than waiting and hiding. This is why  teachers using weapons can save more lives than waiting for the police to arrive because by then it could already be over. It doesn’t matter if you get there 1 minute after it's over, everything would have happened and the school shooter has most likely killed themselves.

Moving on, I believe that teachers should be armed because the thought of an armed teacher will be enough to scare off potential shooters. Another way of thinking about it is that If I have a gun, and you are thinking of mugging someone, you probably aren't going to mug the person with the gun. If everyone had a gun, you probably wouldn’t mug anybody at all in fear of dying. This also goes with school shootings as people might be afraid to shoot the school up if they might die., unless of course, the person who is carrying out the shooting is mentally ill. Even just a sliver of doubt in that individual's mind may amount a millisecond of time for the teachers to eliminate the threat.  

Next, I believe that teachers should have firearms because if a shooter came in the school, the teacher would be able to defend the children and the parents would feel much safer knowing their kids will most likely be safe in case of an emergency. If I was a parent, and I found out there was an shooter at the school, I would immediately be concerned for my kids lives. With an armed teacher in the classroom, the children will be safe and protected from any threats that may present themselves. If I was a parent and I had an armed teacher in the school, I would feel way safer than not having a armed teacher in the school. Some parents might be concerned on how the students could steal a gun, which can easily be taken care of by carrying the guns on the teacher and the student not knowing which teacher has guns. Genie strickland, a parent says this about her school having guns: “I think you’ve got to do whatever you’ve got to do”.  If a student started frisking a teacher, that would be pretty suspicious and raise some red flags. If I was a student, I would also feel safe knowing that during a lockdown, and someone in the school has a weapon that they will use against the intruder to ensure our safety. Some people might say that the school teachers might go crazy and shoot up a school, but if that is the case they shouldn’t be teaching in the first place!  Another example is that in Israel, Palestinian terrorists were attacking Israeli school groups. Israels response: arming teachers to make sure that doesn’t happen. No teacher has shot a kid or gone crazy and killed all the kids, which shows that teachers are moral and not crazy.

Finally, I believe teachers should be allowed to bring firearms to school because teachers would not be required to be armed, but if they chose to, they would have to get a permit and all the proper training. So that means you aren’t forcefully giving someone a gun and saying go train and everything. Because if you do that you will get a negative attitude in your training and if you don’t want to do something, you most likely will try the least amount possible to do that one thing. But if we allow people who either already have a weapon and a concealed carry permit or in some states where they have constitutional carry, which allows you to carry a handgun without a permit, the teacher will receive special instruction and really learn how to operate the weapon so that if they need to use it, they don’t falter under the recoil and shoot and hit an innocent person. That's why schools will have the option for their teachers to carry, instead of making every single staff member carry a weapon, which could result in a number of innocent deaths in case of a school shooting.

In conclusion,

                     I believe that teachers should be allowed to carry firearms at school because law enforcement cannot effectively respond within 2 minutes of a call, as most units are not stationed directly near a school. Teachers will be able stop shootings before they happen as the thought of an armed school is sometimes enough to ward off potential shooters. If a shooter came in the school, the teacher would be able to defend the children and the parents would feel much safer knowing their kids will most likely be safe in case of an emergency. Teachers would not be required to be armed, but if they chose to, they would have to get a permit and all the proper training. I defend these because I believe that this is a changing world, and the world out there right now for many young individuals isn’t the same as it was 20-30 years ago. No law can stop these from happening, but if we can prevent more loss of life by preventing the criminal from killing people, then we can truly try to change the course of how the world is right now. If we could pass a law to prevent these, I would but criminals do not follow laws, and they will find a way to obtain weapons while other americans would be restricted because of that. That is why I believe teachers should be armed.