Since Sandy Hook mass school shooting in 2012, almost everyone considers that mass shooting at school is a problem. This shadow has been entangled in us for a long time, but recently a mass school shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and it caused seventeen students and school members dead under the attack. So there are some states already teachers carrying a gun at school, and they are protected by the state law, such as Texas, Utah, Wyoming, etc. At the same time, some educators oppose that campus should have armed teachers to protect students when the mass shooting happen. While mass shooting occurs, armed teachers might have a deterrent to stop the attackers. However, teachers shouldn’t do that because they are not a specialist to react to this situation; also they need to be protected.
In fact, a lot of educators opposed teachers should be armed at school. Teach Plus, a national teacher leadership advocacy group surveyed 1,233 teachers and found that nearly 80% of teachers expressed opposition to armed teachers in schools. Abbey Clements, a second-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She was hidden with her students during the mass school shooting, and said, “We’re not trained shooters, we have no trained first responders.” Clements claims that their job is for caring students, and every educator wants their school safety, but armed teachers would not be a solution.
Some states already had gun control laws and student protector program, but there are still a lot of imperfections. In Texas, the school marshal program does already exist in some schools. The school marshal program, which is a volunteer program for school staff. School marshals receive 80 hours of training and refresher courses every two years. However, that’s not enough for training to overcome the natural panic response and distinguish between threatening characters and innocent people. An experiment aired in 2009 by the news program 20/20, and the experiment proved it is difficult for civilians under pressure in simulated shooting scenes to remove the gun from a holster or shot at the bad guys without being hit.
In contrast, some people argue that armed teachers would have the ability to control the situation during the mass shooting. Donald Trump said at the national gathering of conservatives after the mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. “If teachers can use the weapon to deal with the gunman, that could reduce the number of victims to zero.” Trump repeatedly castigated the armed school security officer who was stayed outside, and he didn’t do anything to protect students. Furthermore, Trump argued that teachers with hidden weapons would be more committed to saving students life, because “They love their pupils.”
Armed teachers, allow teachers to carry hidden guns on school grounds, giving good protection to students when the mass school shooting occurs. “These solutions might work with reduce the number of victims, but some people opposed the proposal because it is useless and insufficient.” Daniel Payne said at Washington Examiner. “We shouldn’t have educators carry weapons of war in places where children are supposed to be learning,” Payne claimed that was an emotional reaction, not a realistic counterargument. Payne opposed that teachers with hidden weapons would cause more gun violence, arguing that hidden weapon carriers are law-abiding people. Schools could set up strict safety rules for teachers who have permission for hiddenly carrying guns, and establish a reliable system to keep the guns where they should.
Many unknown factors have not been confirmed. Starr Sackstein, she has been a teacher for over sixteen years. She didn’t think it would be good to be armed, and potential danger is going to increase if teachers are armed. Students have no idea who carried guns; most teachers don’t want actually to shoot someone; students who have experience with mass shooting may be irritated to them, etc. Those effects would happen when the proposal execute, and that’s not going to work with students feel more safety at school. However, the issue is not the gun itself, but the person is carrying a weapon. Students might feel anxiety when they know their teachers carrying a gun in school, and they would feel hard to focus on study.
