We have to stop school shootings from being so devastating; teachers are our answer to this problem. School shootings rarely occur, but when that first shot is fired, there is no turning back. There has been many people trying to solve this problem, but the only solution that would work is slight different. Although most people do not want guns in schools, teachers will be our best security when they are armed with a firearm. The simplest solution to this problem is to outnumber the bad guy with good guys armed with guns.
School shootings have been happening since the 18th century. A possible solution to this problem has not ever been tried and everyone is suffering because most Americans are not educated enough on weapons, and how the good guys can use it to defend themselves. If most Americans knew how teachers would use the weapon has a way to defend themselves and the students, then I think this method would be in effect right now. People think that arming teachers is a way for more shooting to occur and more accidents to happen, in which they are wrong. Teachers would have to have the weapon locked up in a gun safe until it is time to take it out and use it. Teachers and students are sitting ducks when a shooter comes into a school. Just as Representative Mark McCullough said “It is incredibly irresponsible to leave our schools undefended—to allow mad men to kill dozens of innocents when we have a very simple solution available to us to prevent it” (1). As of now, teachers are unarmed and have no method of defense, although they do tell all the students to hide in the classroom and lock the door, that won’t stop a determined shooter from getting into the room. Students and staff would have a better chance of su...
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... school. Robert McDonnell said, referring to Sandy Hook’s principal, “If a person like that was armed and trained, could they have stopped the carnage in the classroom? Perhaps” (2). In the near future, hopefully someone proposes this law again and it passes, so that the current students are safer and the future generations feel comfortable going to school without worrying.
Works Cited
Davidson, Amy. "Should Teachers Carry Guns?" The New Yorker. Condé Nast, 21 Dec. 2012.
Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
Lundeen, Darlene. "Opinion on School Staff with Guns." Personal interview. 5 Feb. 2014.
Martin, Henry. "NRA In Action [Vs. Gun Banners' Inaction]." America's 1st Freedom. National
Rifle Association, 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
"2 Oklahoma Legislators to Propose Arming Teachers." Tulsa World [Tulsa, OK] 18 Dec
. 2012. Student Resources in Context. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Michael Eisinger an eighth grade science teacher says, "If a gunman is going to cause violence in a school, they are going to have the element of surprise," "My guess is that they would still be able to shoot teachers, students or whoever else they wanted before some sort of coherent response materialized. (Huffington Post) Arming teachers isn’t going to solve the problem. We still will end up with deaths in schools. The gunman may decide to take the professors gun as well, which will result in the enemy having another harmful weapon.
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.
On December 12, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School was invaded by an unstable, armed man. Earlier that year the principal of the school, Dawn Hochsprung, implemented a new security system that required all visitors to buzzed into the school by visual identification. Many schools have also put in similar security systems to have school doors locked at all times during the school day, helping insure students’ safety. For Sandy Hook this minor security system would not be enough. When the gunman arrived to the school, he shot his way through the front do...
... a high school student, I don’t take much stock in the safety codes and drills in place to keep students safe in the event of a shooting. I would feel much safer knowing my teacher has the ability to protect the class, rather than hide and lock the door. An educator is responsible for the students in their class. They are responsible for their education and their safety while the children are in their classroom. 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 countries students, and in hand prevent the majority of potential shootings.
School shootings are still happening and we have to put a stop to it. We need to have these teachers prepared and ready to fight. Students to deserve to have their lives out to rest knowing something could have been done that’s why we need to have these teachers armed. This is a cold world if someone enters a school with a weapon teachers need to have their weapon ready too for the sack of their children. A school is a fun place to learn but to also keep safe. This is why teachers should be armed.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
One of the most horrific tragedies that could ever happen in one of our nation’s elementary schools occurred on December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. Around 9:30 a.m. a heavily armed lone gunman, blasted his way through a window located to the right of the front door of Sandy Hook Elementary school using a Bushmaster .223 caliber rifle. It only took six .223-caliber bullets to shatter enough glass to create a hole big enough for him to enter through. The name of this lone gunman was 20 year old Adam Lanza, a former student at Sandy Hook. In addition to his rifle, Adam also brought with him, two pistols (a Glock and a Sauer); which he kept inside a pair of military-style cargo pants he was wearing. He was also wearing a utility vest that contained ten magazine with thirty rounds each in its pockets. Once inside the school he entered the school’s main office and nurse’s office. He did not see the staff members who had been hiding, so he headed back out into the hallway.
If someone were to rely solely on television media, it wouldn’t surprise me if he/she thought that America’s schools were being taken over by these so-called “juvenile super predators.” The American people would assume that every quiet kid who gets picked on is going to turn around in school one day and start unloading his newly acquired firearms on his peers. This is hardly the case. While there may be an occasional “super-predator,” the media has highly over publicized these rare, extraordinary events.
"A Brief History of NRA." A Brief History of NRA. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.
Schools were once traditionally viewed as a safe place for children, teenagers, and adults. The educational setting coupled with community involvement gave no reason for violence to occur in schools. As years progressed, the occurrence of violence in school shocked communities across the nation, calling for state lawmakers and school districts to produce a solution to prevent these acts from occurring. Events such as the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado urged schools throughout the U.S. to increase their security measures with more stringent policies and procedures while spending millions of dollars on security equipment from security cameras to metal detectors. While schools increase their safety measures to prevent another major incident from occurring, such as a suspect with a firearm (active shooter) from entering school property, some of the security measures have not been effective. An example is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where the shooter was able to bypass a locked door which is one of the security measures the school had in place, making personnel visiting the school required to request entrance into the building (Barron).
...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.
Throughout the years of education, kids go to school to get an education, to hang with friends, to get excise, and many other things. America should have armed officers in in public schools. Since kids are spending a majority of their time throughout the day and year at school, they should feel safe in that environment. That can soon change with school security falling behind with this current growth of school shooting. Schools shootings have begun occurring more often in the United States from elementary schools all the way up to colleges. How should school systems fix this problem? One solution that could be the most effective is having multiple armed officers in schools. Let’s begin with some major school shootings that were lacking armed officers, when the resource officer successfully stopped a potential shooting, and reasons why we should have an armed officer.
“That could never happen in my school.” This is one of the first thoughts that goes through a students mind when they hear about a school shooting. The fact is though, it can. School shootings can happen at any school at any time. Lack of security is only a small part of the problem. The major issue lies in the low morality of students and warning signs overlooked by administration.
School shootings are preventable. In the months since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT there have been thirty-six school shooting incidents. These represent a clear threat to the nation. Safe schools are imperative for a functioning, thriving democracy. These incidents can be prevented, they are not the inevitable by-products of a free society. Reasonable laws, education, and experienced counselors and educators are key.
Why? Why should parents have to worry about sending their child to school everyday? Why should students have to sit in class with thoughts in the back of their head like, what if that were to happen here? Why? The question everyone wants answers to is why do school shootings even happen. There is no single, certain answer to these questions. By finding out why school shooting occur, preventing them will be much easier.