The President, law-makers and Americans are pushing for teachers to carry guns, which would bring additional risks, promote gun violence, would be costly, and require regulations, when there are alternatives to fight the gun violence in America’s schools.
Teachers carrying guns would pose more safety risks than benefits to the students they aim to protect. This type of protection could turn into a threat by accidental injury or death. For example, a teacher in California accidentally shot his gun while teaching a public safety class injuring three students, and another incident in Virginia with no injuries (Caron). As Christina Caron notes, shortly after President Trump implies that teachers should carry guns, these guns brought in by teachers
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With little or no experience in stopping a gunman a teacher may mistakenly shoot the wrong person. Student by-standers could get hurt from cross fire, bullet fragments or just by the teacher not having good aim. Kate Murphy writes an article interviewing a teacher, expressing that she wants to protect her students with any means possible and that every teacher should because they can defend against a threat before authorities could arrive (Hansen ‘qt.in.’). Others may agree that teachers should carry guns to protect the students. Without exploring the risks this seems like a quick and inexpensive resolution to the problem. Although, having guns present daily leaves more probability of accidents than the possibility of a shooter threat. Additionally, the presence of guns has the potential to cause the “weapons effect” that could cause more violent altercations. In the 1960’s Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony LePage did a study on how people react when they are in the presence of guns. In this study people who seen guns reacted more aggressive toward people that had irritated them, which was then called the “weapons effect” (Bushman). According to Brad Bushman, Ph.D., just seeing a weapon can make
Arming teachers is deranged. Many teachers or potential teachers may shy away from their dreams or future plans of being a teacher with forcing him/her to carry guns and police student’s.
One of the biggest debates in education is how to respond to gun violence in schools. According to BBC, “There were 64 school shootings in 2015” (BBC). One response to the rise in gun violence in schools is to arm teachers. Even our President has mentioned “giving a bonus” (Davis 2) to teachers that The fact that the idea of arming teachers is even being discussed is disappointing. Bringing more guns into a school is not the answer to gun violence. Most people that defend the idea that guns will “help” keep schools safe have basically three points: (1) teachers will be trained in gun safety, (2) it helps deter potential school shooters, and (3) it will make the students feel more safe. Even though there is some truth to those points, I think that the cons of arming teachers vastly outweigh the pros of arming teachers.
Everyone knows that parents’ first worry is the safety of their children. With the increase of violence in schools, parents have started to wonder if their children are really safe in the school setting. Shootings like Sandy Hook and Columbine left parents, administrators, and educators feeling the need to be proactive towards children’s safety. Reacting to situations like these is not good enough when children’s lives are on the line. Administration has started to brainstorm different ways to help insure the protection of their students. The idea of having teachers carry concealed weapons has been on the front burner for quite some time. As a result of this extreme idea, insurance companies have started to increase or even cancel policies with schools that have armed teachers because of the high risk they are putting themselves at. Parents and administrators also worry about the idea of children getting their hands on one of the teachers’ weapons and injuring themselves or other students. Because this idea seems quite extreme, I believe there are other alternatives that are less dramatic and more positively out looked, such as having armed security guards in schools.
Another reason teachers should not be able to carry guns is because it would be very hazardous; Kids would feel unsafe with guns easily accessible. Having a gun in the classroom would create tension and make it to focus. If teachers accepted firearms then a child could get their hands on it. According to Corbett from Slate magazine, “If a gun finds its way into a teacher’s desk, briefcase, or purse. A child will get his hand on it.” If the gun was easil...
The safety of fifteen or more students would be much more easily secured by one person if that person was armed. Promoting teachers to arm themselves also prevents school shootings; criminals don’t attack a victim that can fight back. At least 60% of school attacks would be prevented with an armed faculty warning sign. School faculty members should be armed to secure the safety of the country's students, and to prevent the majority of potential shootings.
In “Vulnerable Schools Need Protection: Guns, Training For Teachers may be the answer”, published in a 2008 edition of the Chicago Tribune, David McGrath argues that some teachers should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon for protection. First, McGrath states that if a random psychotic gunman were searching for someplace to attack, his classroom would make an easy target. He feels that if he was trained and armed, his class would not be trapped without a chance of survival because he would be able to defend against the gunman. Sec...
Gun-control laws are a very controversial topic right now in the U.S., especially when it comes to allowing concealed-carry holders on college campuses. Nevertheless, guns should be permitted for concealed carry on college campuses if the carriers have concealed-carry licenses because mass shootings occur mostly in gun-free zones. There have been many incidents in which concealed-carry holders have disarmed attackers, and concealed-carry holders are overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens. However, the argument’s opponents believe guns should not be allowed on college campuses for various reasons, including: professors might be afraid to issue bad grades, a gun may go off by accident, college
Taking privileges away from the majority of mentally stable, healthy, hard working Americans just because a percentage of alcoholics, drug addicts, gang members, and mentally ill individuals are to blame for the school shootings, murders and suicides, would just be insane. So, why is the government trying to implement more strict gun laws for the people that don't do these heinous crimes. The debate on if the government should take the guns away from all the citizens in order to stop these crimes would not stop those who are committing the crimes in the first place. Then, the question would be, how would we know who really has the guns and where they are?
Allowing concealed weapons in the schools is not a good thing because the teachers are not trained enough to carry a concealed weapon at the schools. Teachers need a lot of training just to hold the weapon and how they should be using it. Teachers also need a lot of nerves to use the gun on somebody else and it’s not about just using it, it’s also about doing the right thing at the right time. A couple of years ago Utah was the first state to legalize to carry a concealed weapon at the schools. According to Desert News, Last year a town named Taylorsville in Utah, a sixth-grade teacher injured herself in the school bathroom when her concealed firearm accidentally went off inside an elementary school bathroom. Luckily she just did not had serious injuries. If we allowed teachers to carry
They are our first defense and would be able to react much faster than any police officer who couldn't get to the scene in time “(yes or no)”The teachers will be certified which requires a background check so all teachers carrying will be mentally stable. most of the public shootings are in gun-free areas, i.e. schools, malls, etc. By making schools gun-free it doesn't make the school safer for the children, it makes it safer for the shooter. “(yes or no) “Teachers are the first line of defense in a classroom. And it states in the 2nd Amendment that we have the right to bear arms. In Utah, the 10 years teachers have been allowed to carry guns no K-12 school shooting have occurred. Some teachers spend more time with students than their own parents do “(yes or no). I can not find a way that this is still not safe. The safety is
Like Mr. Cuellar said “ Being an US Customs I know any one with a gun in a shooting will help out to, there is more good people then bad and together we can take them down , that’s why I am with guns allowed in school campus , for the reason that I am also a father and care for the safety of my family members”. As he mentioned it can also be protection for oneself when you encounter a problematic situation. There are good reasons why we should allow them but there is more bad ones than good. Some people say that they’ll feel more protective if they have a gun with them , knowing someone you don’t know has one. If guns would be allowed under strictly rules and would have a lot of training and permissions / test people have to go through maybe like that I will be safe in school with guns
I have discussed this argument with several people and most of them are against teachers carrying guns while teaching. One main concern that I have heard is, “what if the teacher is having a bad day”, or “what if they decide to take it out on the students? And then I remind them that teacher’s go through a very rigid background investigation and are trusted individuals! We must trust our teachers and their judgment. If we feel comfortable enough with these teachers to send our kids to them five days a week, f...
That is why Rebekah Elliott’s article “The Real School Safety Debate: Why Legislative Responses Should Focus on Schools and Not on Guns” would be valuable to include. Elliot writes that to properly provide safety into schools is to put more funding into higher security and individual school safety programs. Like many writers, she agrees that the Sandy Hook incident shifted America’s views on the second amendment but she believes that having armed teachers could be a safety risk in itself. Her argument is that although it would be more cost efficient to arm teachers than to hire more security, it could increase the liability for negligence if there was a result in injuring a student (2015
In concealed carry classes, teachers are taught several essential gun facts and social facts about carrying concealed firearms: pros and cons of different holsters, places that allow concealed carry and places that do not allow concealed carry, the type of belts that make concealed carry comfortable, what to do when going into “gun-free” zones, the necessity of a first aid kit, various gun myths, ways to talk to the police, and much more (Owens). Other lessons include avoiding accidental discharge, how to draw a weapon correctly in different scenarios, different types of knives, firearm safety rules, close-quarter techniques, how to pie corners, and how to handle more than one assailants (Owens). These lessons, along with carrying a concealed weapon and/or firearm, allow teachers to be ready to defend themselves and their students from any kind of harm, especially a criminal with a gun threatening to kill and wound numerous people: ‘…training weekly and being checked out weekly and knowing how to use that weapon and being willing and able to do it’ (KDVR.com). Why should teachers go through these lessons? The answer is simple: teachers need to be able to protect their students’ lives and their own lives from criminals that wield firearms and other weapons.
Allowing teachers to carry guns could help lower school shootings. “While some believe tighter gun controls are the answer, others believe the best solution comes in giving more people — like teachers and administrators — more training and more access to firearms that can save lives as well as take them away” (Evensen guns and teachers). “Our organization