Should Teachers Carry Guns Essay Example

Despite the notion of arming teachers with firearms would seem adequate; however, it’s not an ethical approach as children will go to school in fear, all teachers are not trained in firearms, and would cause division in the bond between students and teachers.

A gun to a child’s eye can be a scary sight, especially in their teacher’s hands. Children will go to school in fear. Children and particularly adolescent kids would be scared to participate in class knowing their teacher has a gun, making the progress of learning and growth of mindset and behavior within the classroom decelerate.

Comprehension and academic areas of focus would hard to reach, rendering kids’ chances of having any true comfortability and fun in their education. Rules and codes of schools will seem as if they must not ever be violated or children will think their teacher will take violent measures with their gun if they don’t follow directions. Utah, in 2003 passed a law legalizing handgun owners can walk in school with their firearms. Mitchard, a journalist writes“I don't know how threatened university students in Utah feel, but there are plenty of children whose home lives are so lousy and stressful that school actually is one of the places on Earth where they feel safe. 

And teachers the only adults they can trust” (Mitchard). This law raised high alarms of fear for parents and teachers and made some school districts challenged the school board. Laws that let people exercising their gun rights near schools is never safe and causes internal and external threats to children. Kids, especially those with vulnerable emotions can react with deep sorrow and cry miserably if their teacher get mad or when receiving discipline, making schools feel like prisons to children. 

There are also higher rates of suicide among children when more firearms are present, especially children who have parent who firearms. “Access to a firearm, irrespective of age, triples the risk of death by suicide and doubles the risk of death by homicide. And the vast majority of fatal unintentional shootings of children are self-inflicted, or are by other children and involve an unsecured gun found in their own home.”(EveryTown). Having a gun present at school and maybe at home now triples the rates of suicide risk for children.

A teacher is a person who teaches and enlightens students, not a person who attempts to halt school shootings. Teachers are not trained nor should be trained to carry guns in case of a school shooting. Gun-related school attacks can be very traumatic to teachers and students. Teachers can become hesitant and accidentally shoot a student or leave the shooter on a vicious rampage. “It is unfair to ask teachers who are not trained police officers to make the difficult decision of when shooting a student is actually necessary”(Rostron and Siebel, Article Commentary). 

Teachers should not have the option of killing someone’s kid in the process. Having the ability to make these choices make teachers seem less like teachers and more like a “cruel law enforcer”. Teachers also if angered, could threaten their students, using the firearm dangerously and incorrectly, showing immoral conduct.

The most lasting effect of arming schools is the potential division between students and teachers. Students would want to associate more less with teachers, making educational unity of the school severed. Disagreements between students and teachers can make students defenseless knowing their teacher has a gun. Simple altercations between teachers and student could turn bloody very quickly. “For example, a teacher might lose patience with students and threaten them with a gun, or a teacher's gun might be misplaced and found by children”(Mitchard). Children could easily found the gun, and start a disastrous scene. 

There are many reasons of why people push for a law to establish this arming of schools, especially those who have happened to loss someone in a school shooting. But there are two sides in this matter, right and left politics.“Students are increasingly violently attacking their teachers, and teachers have a right to protect themselves, argues Ted Nugent in the following viewpoint. To protect teachers and society from serious assaults by juveniles, teachers need to arm themselves” (Nugent). 

These right-wing politicians and conservative citizens want to justify this proposal by stating students and children are not only the main perpetrators of most of these attacks, but were fueled and encouraged to carry out these attacks by the violent media, an abysmal juvenile justice system, and also are convicted murderers and rapists. “School shootings are evil acts committed by monsters. It is futile to try to understand school shooters or to identify the causes of their behavior. Claims that violent video games, television shows, or the availability of guns cause such crimes are unwarranted”(Hagin). 

It’s these outrageous remarks where left-wing politicians begin to question what exactly such a barbaric tactic of arming teachers would really do. But one reason some people want change is that school security or police is not effective enough to stop a school shooting once it becomes active. Another reason is that school protocols are useless as panic and fear causes people to flee the building instead thinking rationally. But my argument to this is that arming teachers is a foolish approach to such a serious matter. 

I would rather have school security which is safer than an armed teacher, since they limit what goes in and out of schools instead of a potential crossfire between teachers and the shooter, leading to more lives being taken. Some school protocols are useful as well such as the “barricade procedure” where students and teachers block all doors and entrances with class-related furniture. 

School massacres are the result of uninformed gun control and bullying. “If you look across all the 26 industrialized democracies, none of these other countries have our gun problems about homicides, about school shootings, about killings of police. And why is that? It’s not because they don’t have mental health problems. It’s not because they have much nicer people. It’s because they don’t give unlimited access to the most deadly of the deadly weapons”(Hemengway). 

If tighter gun control laws exists and came into action, incidents of massacres would happen less. If schools crackdown on bullying, then the socially-challenged wouldn’t think of doing such a crime. “Yes, school shooting would stop completely. According to many testimonies of school shooter in USA, 90% of them are being bullied in school. Most of them are being emotionally and physically bullied but some of them also cyber bullied. They are being beaten,tease on,and harass everyday”(Stephannoi). Arming teachers is not right way of handling such a grim matter. 

My example of proof is the Salvadoran Civil War of 1979. I’m not comparing this crisis to a civil war but what the U.S did is similar except on a larger scale. When El Salvador’s government was being publicly scorned by radical socialist militant groups, violent uprisings and protest left the army suppressed by attacks and the country descended into civil war. To prevent a socialist takeover of El Salvador, and soon possibly all of Latin America, the U.S supplies the Salvadoran forces with guns and ammunition to crush the rebels. 

This lead to a sweep of public repression and mass slaughter of people who wanted change. When the war was over, El Salvador’s economy was scarred ever since and has not yet recovered. My moral of this political problem is that we can’t solve or fix gun-related issues by combating them with more guns. It leads to more bloodshed and the loss of human dignity for other beings. Arming teachers is overall bad in my opinion and it should never become a reality.

Works Cited

“Arming Teachers a Bad Idea.” News, 22 June 2018, www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/arming-teachers-bad-idea/.

“Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal.” EverytownResearch.org, 15 Aug. 2018, everytownresearch.org/arming-teachers-dangerous-proposal/.   

“Do You Think If We Stop Bullying,Would School Shooting Decrease ?” Debate.org, 17 Apr. 2018, www.debate.org/opinions/do-you-think-if-we-stop-bullying-would-school-shooting-decrease/arguments/DDC83FC8-9618-4305-AB63-48D63583ABAA. 

Hagin, Doug. "Arming Teachers and Parents Will Prevent School Shootings." School Shootings, edited by Susan Hunnicutt, Greenhaven Press, 2006. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010190224/OVIC?u=alam21437&sid=OVIC&xid=fddc4ac0. Accessed 17 May 2019.

Mitchard, Jacquelyn. "Arming Teachers Is Not an Effective Way to Prevent School Violence." Juvenile Crime, edited by Andrea C. Nakaya, Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010149285/OVIC?u=alam21437&sid=OVIC&xid=a1d7d74c. Accessed 17 May 2019. Originally published as "What's the Lesson If Teachers Pack Heat?" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9 Nov. 2003.

Nugent, Ted. "Arming Teachers Is Necessary to Reduce School Violence." Juvenile Crime, edited by Louise I. Gerdes, Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010149425/OVIC?u=alam21437&sid=OVIC&xid=06b07a8b. Accessed 17 May 2019. Originally published as "Spare the Rod, Destroy America," Human Events, 8 Oct. 2009.

Prager, Dennis. "Why the Left Opposes Arming Teachers." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/UQUMSP020410348/OVIC?u=alam21437&sid=OVIC&xid=abb05bc4. Accessed 17 May 2019. Originally published as "Why the Left Opposes Arming Teachers," The Daily Signal, 27 Feb. 2018.

Rostron, Allen, and Brian Siebel. "Arming Teachers Will Not Reduce School Violence." Juvenile Crime, edited by Louise I. Gerdes, Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010149426/OVIC?u=alam21437&sid=OVIC&xid=8642f04d. Accessed 17 May 2019. Originally published as "No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby's Campaign to Push Guns into Colleges and Schools," www.bradycampaign.org, May 2007, pp. 9-11.