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Why should teachers be allowed to carry armed weapons
Gun violence in school conclusion
Essay teachers with firearms in schools
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Imagine being a defenseless child, hiding or staring at someone armed with the intent to harm you. Thousands of students felt that way in the Beslan Massacre of 2004. Three hundred eighty five students were killed, and seven hundred and eighty three were injured until law enforce could take control of the situation. Hundreds more felt helpless at the Garissa University College attack where one hundred and forty eight died, and seventy nine were harmed. Some argue that teachers being armed can be just as dangerous due to firearms being present around the students. Their argument has some truth to it but the dangerous situations could be easily avoided with concealed carry or even a safe/lockbox. Teachers should be able to carry handguns in school because they would be able to protect from intruders, to deter invaders, and to be able to exercise their rights given to them by the 2nd Amendment. …show more content…
In Texas, a “school is 30 miles from the nearest police station” (“Up” 7). This is the case for a lot of schools all over America. Hundreds if not thousands of students and teachers could have been saved while police were on their way to the scene if teachers were armed. Having teachers carry firearms also helps if “the district [can not] afford security guards” or on duty police officers (“Up” 7). Purchasing guns and arming teachers instead of paying guards hourly wages will will save school districts tens of thousands of dollars. Also, having multiple armed teachers instead of one to two guards increases the safety of the school and it’s overall population. Allowing teachers to be armed in schools will be cost effective and create a more safe
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.
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.
One reason teachers should not be able to carry guns because guns are currently illegal in schools; Guns are illegal because they are dangerous. The Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA) is a federal law that was accepted in the United States in 1990. According to the GFSZA, “It shall be unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.” In order for teachers to carry guns, we would have to discard this law. Also, the school board would have to create a new policy, allowing teachers to carry guns. Adjusting the rules would be time consuming and confusing. Changing the GFSZA would make students tense and distract children from learning. Citizens from CNN Politics say, “72.4% of educators said they would be unlikely to bring a firearm to school if allowed to do so.” This data shows that the majority of teachers do not even want possession of a gun in the classroom. School officers have the right to carry guns, teachers should just focus on education. Not only does it create a huge responsibility, there would also need to be a large financial investment to supply guns for every school. This money would be hard to come up with, and not everyone is in favor of sacrificing money for firearms.
Arming Teachers 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 are at least fifteen students to one teacher. One adult is tasked with insuring the safety of fifteen to thirty students.
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...
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.
School shootings have the ability to be stopped. They are largely one of the worst repeated tragedies our great nation has endured, and they should be stopped today! No terrorist wants to go out in his/her infamous blaze of “glory” by failing in their attempt. Arming educators has the capability to end school shootings in this decade. “And I haven’t even touched upon the pure deterrent effect of a potential mass murderer having to worry one of his targets might be armed” (Concealed Weapons). This quote presents the very real possibility that just if teachers are armed, future shooters will reconsider and possibly not attempt it at all. Providing this overwhelming deterrent in the foremost thoughts of a would be murderer emphasizes the positive effect concealed weapons operated by teachers could
There are plenty of ways we can prevent school shootings and one of them is by adding more school security officers. If there is more security, then it would be easier for them to give a warning when there could be a pote...
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
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).
Now more than ever the increase of in school massacres are starting to become more evident. The Sandy Hook and Oregon shootings are sending people searching for a way to keep their children safe when they are away from home receiving an education. This poses an issue, some people see it is fit for teachers to be armed with a gun in case of future attacks on the school. The outcome that will follow from arming teachers will be negative, but there is a solution that involves the protection of students without handing guns over to teachers.
This sounds dangerous, having guns in schools, but it actually provides more security. Most SRO’s have guns, which they are trained to use. Kenneth S. Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, says, “School districts considering arming teachers and school staff with guns would take on significant responsibility and potential liabilities that I firmly believe are beyond the expertise, knowledge-base, experience, and professional capabilities of most school boards and administrators” (Arming Teachers and School Staff- School Security”). Trump does not believe that teachers should be allowed to arm guns inside the school because of a liability issue. Nonetheless, most houses have guns in them, but when they are put up in a safe, or somewhere children cannot get to, the house is still a safe place. Therefore, if the school did allow the teachers to obtain a gun somewhere in the classroom, intruders would be less likely to show up because they know it is the whole school against the single, or few intruders. Teachers will only be allowed to be armed at school if they have a concealed weapons permit, CWP, and are thoroughly trained on how to use a gun. Teachers will be required to go through a drill once a month on how they should hand the situation if an intruder were to come into the building, as well as how they should handle a gun and when they should use the gun. Due to only
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.
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