Teachers Should Not Be Armed With Guns

“It doesn’t matter what pistolero you think you are, or think you are. You don’t need to be in school in charge of children” (Proult). Joel Myrick, a former children’s educator, expresses the distrust he has with allowing teachers to be armed. As of 2013, teachers can already carry guns if permitted by the school and its district. States such as Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota,Utah, and Wyoming already allow teachers to carry firearms with them.

In many cases, people believe that teachers should not be armed because it can get into the wrong hands. Therefore, teachers should not be permitted to carry any firearms, concealed or not concealed, because it is unsafe, teachers are not equipped to use guns ,and it increases the risk factor.

Teachers should not have any correlation with firearms in school campuses. Gun control and gun safety have become a rising hazard in the United States, with over 23 school shootings in 2018 alone.

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Having guns in schools became very controversial. First being, not all teachers choose to be armed and an official cannot force them to carry them if they do not wish to. Secondly, guns can escalate an already intense situation. Lastly,people believe “ the good guy with the gun” argument is flawed because statistics show that it does not back up the argument on the contrary. The statistics tend to show that it either helps the problem very slightly, or other people around them could get hurt because of the heightened emotion during the chaos.

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When their adrenaline is pumping, they may not be thinking straight and all the previous knowledge that they would expect themselves to use, gets thrown out the window. Many people believe that it is for the benefit of all students and staff in school, in an emergency situation when proper authorities can not arrive in time. However, having the weapons on campu at all times, creates tension between teachers and students, as well as fear and intimidation of the unknown. Teachers are not allowed to be armed in many states, yet are not prohibited in others. In addition to the already dangerous risks, teachers are usually just cvillians and are not trained to use any type of firearm, posing an even greater risk of injury and death. Also, bringing any weapons onto a school campus brings about anxiety. Children walk the halls in fear of the firearms being loaded and shot off.

Teachers in schools are not trained to be carrying any type of guns.According to Starr Sacstein, “ most teachers aren’t trained, and even if they are, actually shooting someone is not something they’d want to ever do”. A teacher’s job is to be educators to children and their young minds. If teachers were indeed trained to be able to use these weapons, it would not be such a simple task. The training that would be necessary to carry and use these concealed weapons could take years and who knows what could happens in those future years.God forbid, another shooting happens but children are caught in the crossfire between the shooter and the teacher. Also extremely important, spending money on training teachers to use firearms, would take away the focus of what schools really need to be spending money on. We would be spending more money on firearms when “ our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms” (Chavez). Nicole Chavez explains how the idea of protecting students with guns is becoming an even greater topic, when schools actually need to talk about more school-related subjects.Teachers with firearms may not be the best idea. Having a loaded weapon in a classroom can create havoc, and may end up where it should not.

When having a gun in the classroom, anyone with bad intentions can get a hold of it. Arming teachers and “bringing weapons into school invites more possible harm” (Sacstein). For example, a child who is angry with a teacher or another student, can grab it from the desk or from the teacher and use it against anyone that they’d please. This shows that arming teachers can increase the risk of possible deaths, though this country has suffered enough, and can bring more danger and destruction to any school campus. Sadly, a student may even want to use the gun on themselves. Allowing guns to be at a close proximity with students could cause teenagers with emotional problems to take their own lives. “Knowing there are guns in school will create more anxiety,not less” (Sacstein). It would be a tragedy if a student lost their life in the hands of administrators allowing teachers to carry guns at school. Concealed or not, weapons do not belong where children are always present. Many students have problems of their own and using a gun could, at the time, seem like the only solution to their issues. No teacher would ever want to see one of their students use a gun, that thought they had hidden,on themselves and have a precious life lost right in front of them; or worse, not behind the teacher’s back. Teachers are not put in school campuses to be gunmen or have weapons anywhere on them or near them.

Admittedly, many Americans believe that guns can be used to protect students when authorities can not show up to the school fast enough. However, teachers are at school to teach, not to be guards for students. They do not know or have what it takes to protect the, possibly over 30 students, in each classroom. “ I would rather have a school resource officer….in every school” ( Chavez). Putting teachers in charge of guns would not be an ideal situation if or when an actual shooting were to occur. This is describing how allowing a resource officer to take control would be better than having an ordinary, untrained civilian carry guns. Teachers are teachers for a reason. They are meant to be educators for young minds, minds that are still developing. They are meant to be taught to solve problems peacefully,without violence. “I can’t imagine being in an environment where guns are all around me. Students are prisoners” (Long/Walker). With guns being allowed in classrooms, Cindy Long and Tim Walker believe that students would be roaming their campuses, knowing that there could be a firearms right next to them at any point in time, feeling as though they are becoming some sort of prisoner locked in a jail cell, afraid of what is next to come. They would be anxiously waiting for the worst. With younger children, they would be confused and most likely think that the reason teachers are armed, is because there is school is the next to be shot up. Teachers are not stable enough as it is, with all their students, classwork,homework, tests,etc, to be worrying about what to do during an active shooting on their campus.

Teachers should not be permitted to carry any firearms, concealed or not, because it is unsafe, teachers are not equipped to use guns, and it increases the risk factor. Teachers do not have the ability of acquiring such a large task of protecting so many students. There is a risk of it being stolen and used for something other than protection. They have no official training to use any type of guns or weapons. Training could be introduced to them and faculty members but, it would take away the money that the children need to have a successful school education and experience. Students may even use it on themselves, a risk no teacher wants to have. However, to many students with problems either at home or elsewhere, they may turn to take a different approach:death. The knowledge of having a gun on campus is not a positive attribution to the schooling of younger kids. Younger children may not think that guns are a “just in case” scenario, but a warning sign of a possible horrendous school shooting. Arming teachers is not the way to protect students. It is as simple as this: hire professionally trained officers and guards, not civilians who are only trained to teach children how to read and write.

Works Cited

  1. Chavez, Nicole. “Would Arming Teachers Be a 'Deterrent' or 'a Recipe for Disaster'?” CNN, Cable News Network, 22 Feb. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/us/armed-teachers-views/index.html.
  2. Dwyer, Kayla. “Guns in School? Here's a List of States That Allow Armed Teachers.” Themorningcall.com, 8 Nov. 2018, www.mcall.com/news/education/mc-nws-guns-in-schools-list-20181108-story.html.
  3. Kelly, Peter. “Should Teachers Be Armed? No: Guns Don't Belong on School Campuses.” Sandiegouniontribune.com, San Diego Union Tribe, 1 Mar. 2018, www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/sd-oe-teachers-guns-shootings-20180228-story.html.
  4. Proulx, Natalie. “Should Teachers Be Armed With Guns?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/learning/should-teachers-be-armed-with-guns.html.
  5. Sackstein, Starr. “Teachers Should Not Have Guns.” Education Week - Rules for Engagement, 1 Mar. 2018, blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2018/02/teachers_should_not_have_guns.html.
Updated: Jan 09, 2022
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Teachers Should Not Be Armed With Guns. (2022, Jan 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/teachers-should-not-be-armed-with-guns-essay

Teachers Should Not Be Armed With Guns essay
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