Ted Nugent once said, “There are hundreds of millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period.” In this period of time, it is known for mentally disabled people shooting up schools. It’s horrifying that they are going after defenseless kids, so we need to protect the kids and put a stop to the killing. The kids need to have a fighting chance if they can’t make it out of the building. Because it is impossible to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the most effective way to protect school students is to allow teachers to be armed.
Some politicians want to take away our gun rights by gun control, but this would cause a civil war in the United States. Many people would not allow them to take their guns, and if they tried there might be bloodshed. Everyone has to take a gun safety course, and the five rules always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction if it's loaded or unloaded, always keep your finger off the trigger until your ready to shoot, always keep the gun unloaded until ready to shoot, be aware of what is behind your target, and when using firearms never use alcohol or any drug that might impair your awareness (Agresti). These critical rules are very important, and some people don’t know these safety rules, and they have accidents. The Second Amendment states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (Hand). The Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms to protect ourselves and other people.
The use of guns has changed dramatically since the writing of the constitution was written. Forty-eight percent of US citizens in America use guns for personal protection, and thirty-nine percent for hunting and target shooting. Gun shops, sporting organizations bring gun lovers together to keep them informed about gun rights. In 1995, during violent crimes there were 70,000 gun uses, in 2010 there were 50,000, and there were about 30,000 gun cases against burglars in both years (Hand). There are about 16.5 million people in the US that have a concealed carry. For them to have the right to carry they have to complete a background check and take yet another gun safety course. Usually, if an FBI background check takes longer than three days, a person will be able to buy the gun (Agresti).
If someone comes to shoot up a school, the teachers should get a say if to protect themselves or the kids if they have their right-to-carry permit. In the grand scheme of things politicians, business owners, and lawyers all have the choice to carry or have a bodyguard. We don’t need to force the teachers into this, but this should be their choice. The teachers who are trained in the use of their firearms will help to keep guns out of the hands that shouldn’t have them. In some communities, they should add programs that could prevent a school shooting. If some of the school staff carried a handgun, the students would feel more protected (Dammssi). When students feel totally defenseless it increases the trauma for the children and staff. The children would not feel as helpless knowing that they could cease the shooting. If the children would know that the teachers were armed the emotional stress would be reduced significantly. The next school shooting will happen if we continue as is, and we need to propose anti-bullying and defensive procedures that would help them (Goldberg).
When the teachers are trained for the concealed carry of a firearm they will be able to take a shot at the person before the police arrive on the scene. In some cases, it takes 2-4 minutes or more before the police officers arrive. If they did get trained it could save many lives because the teacher reacted much faster. Many schools are not strong enough to keep out a gun shooter. Sometimes having an officer on a school campus is helpful, but that police officer won’t be in every room all the time. Before allowing teachers to carry a firearm, most schools have at least 80 hours of training in the use of force or first aid certification (Regoli). A single officer will not be able to stop the shooter because once the attacker knows that all they need to do is shoot an officer then they will be able to continue the massacre. Eighty-six percent of police officers believed if there were a legally armed shooter to stop the shooting it would’ve decreased the number of casualties (Lott). Currently, in 28 states teachers are allowed to carry firearms (Spencer). 28,300 schools have armed staff, so that is 54 percent middle schools, and 68 percent high schools (Chen). There has not been a single case of someone wounded from a shooting at a school that lets teachers carry guns (Lott). School teachers should be allowed to have a choice in the matter. If they aren’t comfortable handling a weapon then so be it. We can’t fight about this important matter instead we need to figure out a way to stop these mass shootings fast.
Some people would say that the teachers wouldn’t want to worry about yet another thing. Many of them say that bringing more guns into schools is dangerous and that they won’t ever have enough training to actually carry. It takes a lot of responsibility to handle and clean it routinely. If they even do make budget cuts for the school teachers they will be missing out on their money. They say that it will cause more panic and the kids will fear going to school worried that maybe the teacher that was allowed to carry will shoot them. In 2007, there were 220 unintentional firearm deaths of children under 13 years old. These accidental death statistics we caused by drunks, drug users, and children. Accidents from highly trained people would be less likely (Goldberg). We need to figure out how we can come together to figure out how to stop these shootings in schools.
If the teachers don’t want to carry a gun then they could hire a full-time security guard, but if they can’t afford it they won’t be able to defend themselves. The Sandy Hook school shooting cost the lives of twenty first-graders and eight staff. They wanted to hire a security guard, but one security guard costs $50,000 per year (Regoli). In some states, the cost for a security guard was between $100,000 and $250,000. After this shooting happened Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, and Texas allows school officials to carry concealed weapons on campus (Chen). The Justice Department surveyed incarcerated felons, and they found out that 54 percent of responders on the scene said, “A criminal is not going to mess around with a victim he knows is armed with a gun.” This is why burglars avoid houses when people are at home in fear of being shot (Goldberg). Arkansas realized that they could train 13 staff members for $68,000. Then you could train them up and get them their guns and ammo. You wouldn’t have to spend any more money on it because you would just keep practicing with the firearm. It would be way cheaper to arm the teachers than hire someone every year.
Thomas Jefferson once stated, “Laws that forbid that carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor commit crimes...such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man” (Romani). Schools need to change significantly from a security standpoint. The kids would be at ease and not worry about someone shooting up their school while they are defenseless. We can train them correctly to use their firearm safely and efficiently. Students that were totally defenseless after a shooting took place were traumatically affected. We need to come together as a country to figure this out before more lives are taken innocently. Gun control won’t help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, so we need to keep the kids safe and to have the teachers carry a concealed firearms.
