The U.S. has endured more than 70 school shootings with a death toll exceeding 230. (Locked Down & Loaded). In a recent report issued by xx, the guidelines emphasize that there is no foolproof way to identify a potential active shooter or to respond to the event once it's begun. Each case is unique, though there are some signs that have been identified by the FBI and others -- acquisitions of weapons, or fascination with previous shootings, for instance -- as potential tip-offs (Zubrzycki, Jaclyn, and Nirvi Shah). But what happens when the shooting rampage has begun? The guide releasd by President Barack Obama, instructs people to learn the best steps for survival if a situation does erupt; and work with law enforcement during the response to help save your life or the person(s) you are helping (Zubrzycki, Jaclyn, and Nirvi Shah). The training and recommendations to teachers and staff to hide, confront, wait for law enforcement, but do the numbers suggest this is the most effective way to reduce injuries, deaths, stop the active shooter from continuing his rampage? Should the introduction of more guns in schools should be looked at as an effective deterrent to active shooters. The guide lays out steps and plans to be proactive and learn to identify the “warning signs” and “common behaviors” and to report these to officials in an attempt to prevent the situation from ever happening. In a joint collaboration between the Secret Service, Department of Education and the Federal Beaurau of Investigation the report Campus Attacks, Targeted Violence Affecting Institutions of Higher Learning, examined lethal or attempted lethal attacks at U.S. universities and colleges from 1900 to 2008. Logic says that prevention is the best method... ... middle of paper ... ...ere is giving people the ability and access to life saving equipment or weapons that could help stop the situation while law enforcement officials contain the perimeter and wait outside for the shooting to stop. It’s clear that the intentions of this training guide is to minimize the loss of life, but statistics show that taking action without the use of a deadly weopon is clearly ineffective and increases the chance of injury and death. We need to put aside the debates on what each side thinks is right for gun control and give school personnel the tools and training to help save lives. It remains to be seen if more guns will be incorporated into the hands of staff. The numbers, research, and past history of school shootings show that the current training protocols are ineffective at reducing the amount of injuries, saving lives and stopping the active shooters.
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.
The history of school shootings has shown an increase in mass school shooting. The very first known school shooting in the United States occurred on July 26, 1764 in present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania. As part of the Pontiac's Rebellion, four Lenape Native Americans entered the school house and started shooting, killing the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and about nine students. Only two students survived the massacre (“History”). Since the 1700s the United States society has changed in many ways. Schools have become more than just one room school houses and each grade has its own teacher. Furthermore, the problem of school shootings has not decreased but rather increased over the years. On the one hand, reports from the Centers for Disease Control showed that in general school violence decreased from 1992 to 200...
In the last ten years there have been eighteen school shootings in the United States. Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, High Schools, and Universities are all included. From these eighteen shootings there were one hundred and one students and faculty members killed, the majority being students. In the average classroom, there is at least fifteen students to one teacher. One adult is tasked with insuring the safety of fifteen to thirty students. How are teachers expected to accomplish this in the event of a shooting? There are safety codes and drills practiced such as code red, code blue, and evacuation drills that can help keep students safe. In the event of a code red students are to gather in the corner of the room farthest from the door; teachers turn off the lights and lock the door. Some teachers do what they can and barricade the classroom door with desks or filing cabinets… but hiding in a dark room isn 't enough. A code red is called out when an intruder is in the building. The shooter would hear the code red being announced and know the students are hiding, especially if the shooter is a member of the school, then they know exactly what the procedure is. A barricaded door might deter a shooter, but they will most likely move on to the next class-- or they decide that the barricade isn’t going to stop them. In the high school I attend the vast majority of classroom doors are mostly glass; in theory a school shooter can shoot right through without even having to enter the classroom. The best way to protect students is to have a more effective defense against threats.
It is a sad time in American history when one can easily recount recent school shootings in their own area. This ease stems from a sharp increase in the number of firearms brought into elementary and middle schools across the country, with an intense focus on the issue beginning after the shooting of 20 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Most school shooters are male, white, and often upper middle class. They are also more, often than not, under some type of mental stress that is causing them to create this type of violence in our communities. In fact, many school shooters are never suspected of doing any harm to their peers and teachers until it is much too late.
There have been many horror stories in the news about mass shootings at schools. The public, and even the president of the United States, is asking if anything can be done to prevent these tragedies. There are many theories on why students kill their peers at schools; these range from increased violence in video games and movies to bullying troubles at school. Almost always, the perpetrator suffers from some form of mental illness (Khadaroo). Because of this, motives for these crimes are extremely difficult to discern. Although the theories for the causes of this dilemma are tenuous at best, the effects are very perceptible. Can anything be done to prevent these massacres? School shootings are a complex problem that cannot always be prevented, but there are a number of actions we can take to reduce the frequency and extent of the damage caused. These actions include placing more restrictions on firearms, creating detection programs for shooters, hiring more counselors for unstable students, and placing guards or police in schools. School shootings are a serious problem, and a solution is needed in order to prevent these calamities.
This means that students having guns on campus won’t make any impact on the number of suicides in college students. Guns would not be a distraction in class because concealed carry means that it would be out of sight out of mind resulting in no one even knowing that it is there. If we waited to rely on police officers so many more people would have died. There can only be so many police officers. Citizens have to take a training class to receive their concealed handgun license. A background check is ran and they are just as capable of protecting the public as a police officer or other trained individual. The argument about a Taser is bad advice because a Taser has to be used in close quarters and in most cases a person would be shot before being close enough to the gun shooter to tase them. “The answer to bullets flying is almost always more bullets flying. That’s why the police bring so many guns with them when they respond to a report of ‘shots fired’” (Common Arguments). How else do we expect police to respond? If police didn’t carry guns and respond with gunfire to take out active shooters then they would run the risk of being shot and dying. It is insane to believe that answering shooting with anything less than guns is reasonable. There has never been a case that police have encountered a situations that they have had to try to figure out
Preventing School Shootings From 1980’s till now, there are has been many school shootings. Many researchers have made many hypotheses as to why these occur. The most tragic shooting took place in Sandy Hook Elementary. 2.
School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in. However, on a college campus, the pupils attending are not children anymore; the age range is from 17 to mid 20’s. Therefore they understand the consequences associated to the use of weapons and have gained more maturity. In April 16th, 2007, at Blacksburg, Virginia, there was a shooting rampage enacted by Sung-Hui Cho (23 years, from Centreville, VA) who fired over 170 rounds, killing 32 victims, before taking his own life at the Virginia Tech campus. Colleges and Universities would be a much safer place, for student and teacher, if guns were permitted on campus for self-defense purposes.
Gun control is both a crime issue, as well as a safety issue. It can range from moderate to extreme. Gun control goes as back as the 17th century where Japan was using guns for war making as to current tragedies occurring in schools. Guns have never disappeared, they have only multiplied in numbers to numerous amount of guns, ranging from small to big. Gun control isn't only a problem but it can also be solution depending on how it is being used and the person using it. Gun control can be controlled with many methods but in the end it matters how the person is going to use the weaponry.
Although most security measures passively make schools safer, it is not nearly enough to prevent an individual who intends on creating mass violence from completing his or her task. State representatives, national organizations, school staff, and parents need to come together to figure out the most reliable ways to prevent an active shooter situation from occurring in their schools. One solution that has been active is many schools have partnered with local law enforcement agencies to provide a police officers to patrol school grounds....
By appealing to several different views, Wheeler is able to grab every reader’s attention. Using schools as his focus point grabs the reader’s attention on a personal level. A school is a place where your children, your friends, your spouses all could be, and we still aren’t motivated to change our gun control laws. Tragic events do not have to happen like those that occurred at Virginia Tech, The Jewish Day care in Los Angeles, and Pearl High School. Wheeler believes concealed carry should be allowed in every school. Let’s make the students and teachers of these schools and colleges their own heroes. Wheeler says we must embrace all of the varied disciplines contributing to preparedness and response. We must become more willing to be guided and informed of empirical finding. School officials base policies on irrational fears. Wheeler states, “What is actually worse, the fear of what we think might happen, or the massacres that actually did occur?” Wheelers essay is very well thought out and uses fear, credibility, and factual evidence to support his beliefs. My belief is we should allow teachers and students to have guns at schools, as long as they have gone through training to do
In this article Emmett Tyrell informs us about gun violence in schools and what the NRA has proposed to stop the gun violence, and mass shootings across America. While the gun control debate rages, many schools have become war zones, and all school zones are vulnerable. The National Rifle Association's has come up with a 225-page report contains dozens of recommendations to improve safety in our nation’s schools. The NRA’s National School Shield program will train and enable school personnel to carry firearms to protect our nation’s children.
When is it necessary to start taking more action in the prevention of school violence? In less than ten years, in the United States, there have been more than twenty-five school shootings resulting in at least one death per shooting. This number is outrageous and certainly warrants more school violence prevention. It is unacceptable that the schools in the United States are not safe enough to allow children to attend without the possibility of getting seriously injured, or even killed. Most people realize that there is a slight chance of school violence everyday, but not everyone realizes how great a possibility it is for a school to be...
Even when people call the police, it takes time for the police to come and shooting does not take that much time to kill people. To solve this problem, I think the campus safety should carry guns. Also, teachers may have a right to have guns, too. When the shooter comes into the classroom, the teachers are the only adults that can protect the students. To protect children, they all have to be trained how to use the gun.
These days, school safety is one of the most important parts of running a good school. So how can we make our school, safer and a better school overall?