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The Rider Online | Legacy HS Student Media

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OPINION: Teachers With Guns Will Strengthen School Security

Teachers should be allowed to carry guns at school in order to protect students.
Teachers should be allowed to carry guns at school in order to protect students.

After the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, parents, teachers and administrators have started questioning whether schools remain safe anymore. The only way to ensure a massacre of this size won’t happen again is to arm teachers. Teachers should be allowed to carry guns at school in order to protect students.

Eighteen states across the country already allow adults to carry handguns on school property. Those who are armed remain anonymous and no accidents involving guns have been reported. Officials like Oren Shemtov, CEO of Israel’s Academy of Security and Investigation, say if the two administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary had concealed handguns the teachers could have delayed the shooter for 45 minutes each, potentially saving numerous lives if not stopping the shooter altogether. Governor Rick Perry has urged schools to review their emergency procedures, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) calls for armed guards in schools. Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the NRA, says students stay at risk of danger by having gun-free school zones.

Arming teachers would bring a stronger sense of safety for students. A teacher or administrator with a gun could easily protect the campus and its students. Currently, in case of an intruder, the only way school districts can react is by shelter-in-place drills – in which students and administrators lock their doors and stay out of sight from the hallways. If a trespasser has a gun, the only thing stopping them is a locked door, a door that can only withstand so much. The only thing to stop a gun is a gun.

Some parents and administrators argue that by allowing weapons in the schools, students could gain access to the weapons and use them for the students’ own desired purposes. As well as teachers and students having access to the weapons, an intruder could also gain access allowing them to use the weapon as they please. But the concealed handguns in the school would be kept in a secure area and teachers and administrators would have strict procedures in carrying the gun on school grounds. There would be more responsibility for the teachers and administrators, but in order to protect students teachers would welcome new regulations.

Numerous school districts remain opposed to arming teachers because of all the things possible to go wrong with having guns within a school. In any circumstance, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and in this case teachers should rather carry a concealed handgun and never use the gun than not have a gun but need one. Teachers and administrators should be allowed to carry guns on school grounds to help protect their students.

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  • C

    Cody mulkeyApr 28, 2021 at 11:17 am

    Grace your comment is just dead wrong all together it seems like you have neither the discipline, responsibility, or education to talk on this topic especially where your main “ solution” is to “get rid of guns all together” and in my personal opinion it is ignorant to say “i would be more scared’’ but it would actually make it a safer environment and i feel like it would be more scary to have someone burst into the classroom and start shooting your peers and not being able to defend anyone where as if the teacher could also have a gun and disable or get rid of the shooter it would be way safer. Please educate yourself before you speak on this topic thank you.

  • C

    Contreras GabrielaFeb 22, 2021 at 1:12 pm

    The problem with your examples is that guns were never allowed in those schools in the first place. They’re both completely irrelevant for this particular topic, as they only demonstrate teacher killings under current conditions. When discussing different conditions, you need examples suited to those conditions, and yours simply aren’t. If anything, your examples suggest a need for change

  • G

    graceJun 9, 2020 at 10:49 pm

    I myself am a student and I would be terrified if someone with power over me had a weapon, knowing that they could kill me… its a horrible thought. Even if I didn’t know which teacher was armed, it’s just knowing they could. Schools so supposed to be a free place to learn and grow. I just don’t think that would be possible with even more guns in the environment. the real solution here is to be rid of guns alltogether, not make more

  • K

    Karen PhilipsJan 27, 2020 at 11:07 am

    I strongly believe that teachers should carry guns, this is not to say that we should just hand them out to all teachers but if we had 2 or 3 trained and prepared adults watching over and protecting the students from themselves. 98.7% of school shootings world wide are committed by students, that leaves 1.3% caused by teachers, most of which with a war background and not control over those specific instances. So logically and morally teachers should be armed, prepared, and willing to protect and teach all their students (shooters included) by being taught how to recognize depression, and be able to help them without embarrassing them.

  • L

    Lam RadleMay 14, 2019 at 1:20 pm

    I believe they shouldn’t carry guns because they may have PTSD and shoot the kids

  • M

    Ma'KeraMar 7, 2019 at 10:49 am

    This is just 😢

  • C

    CarmelaFeb 27, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    Yes think that teachers should be allowed to carry guns.I think this because if we did have teachers with guns then we could strengthen school security.This would mean that there would be less school shooting also this means that parents would be able to pick up their kids healthy and well…not dead.I know that my mom would want to see my alive and very healthy.And I know some students in my class who would want to have a longevity,such as myself.I hope that you suggested that teachers should have guns.It ill really save some lives.But never give a gu to an irrisponsible staff memeber who would use the gun for very absurd reasons.I wann beable to trust my teachers with a gun,the same way I trust my dad with a gun to keep me safe.

  • G

    GeorgeMar 1, 2013 at 10:02 pm

    The problem with your examples is that guns were never allowed in those schools in the first place. They’re both completely irrelevant for this particular topic, as they only demonstrate teacher killings under current conditions. When discussing different conditions, you need examples suited to those conditions, and yours simply aren’t. If anything, your examples suggest a need for change. If arming teachers with guns is the change being discussed and is currently not allowed, it would seem you’re inadvertently arguing that teachers should be armed.

  • N

    Nick FailorMar 1, 2013 at 9:51 pm

    The problem with your statement is that you’re saying if the victim had a weapon, they could defend themselves, which would only cause the same end-state as the examples above, that end-state being that one person was shot and killed. So your thought process on this would in turn just cause the same amount of casualties in those instances, thus not making it a better situation at all.

  • B

    BrentFeb 28, 2013 at 11:59 am

    Nick, both examples you cited are perfect reasons why qualified staff members should be able to arm themselves with a concealed handgun. The perpetrators obviously were not authorized to have a handgun on the campus but they took it there anyway for reasons of malice knowing it was a gun free zone and no one would be able to prevent them from causing injury or death to anyone they desired. This could and does happen at any place of business, restaurant or shopping mall. In those cases, if the victims had a handgun to defend themselves would have had a better chance to stop the attack or at least minimized the casualties. It is even possible that the perpetrators would have considered not committing this crime had they known it was possible the victims were armed.

    We are all entitled to our opinion and that is mine.

  • T

    TaylorFeb 22, 2013 at 12:27 pm

    There are so many things not being considered in this advocacy for teachers to carry guns. For example, this assumes that student-teacher conflicts never occur. What of the students safety when one of these conflicts occur and the teacher has a gun and the student has no means of self defense? Speaking specifically of students in inner city schools, its enough they have to deal with police brutality and the possibility of being shot by cops but what happens when teachers too have the power to take your life as well? This assumes teachers only have the best intentions and we’ve seen plenty of situations where that wasn’t the case.

  • N

    Nick FailorFeb 21, 2013 at 8:39 pm

    The problem with having armed teachers is the fact that, in high school, everyone knows of that teacher that all the students liked to make angry. Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. What if that teacher had a weapon, and because confidentiality is involved, the students would never know. There have been several instances of when a teacher/faculty member has shot personnel at school. Here’s a couple:

    1. High school teacher Steven Leith walked out of a staff meeting, returned with a gun, fatally shot the school district’s superintendent and wounded the principal and a teacher. The gunman, identified by co-workers as Steve Leith, a science teacher, was arrested at Chelsea High School, the police said. The shooting occurred about an hour after classes ended, during a staff meeting. The Police Chief, Lenard McDougall, said of the suspect: “I found him sitting in a chair in the classroom by himself. He said ‘Hi,’ and he was taken into custody. He was quiet, very quiet.” A 9-millimeter semiautomatic gun was found outside the building, the police said. Joseph Piasecki, superintendent of Chelsea schools, died at Chelsea Community Hospital of multiple gunshot wounds. Phil Jones, 44, an English teacher, was treated for a stomach wound. The principal, Ronald Mead, 43, was shot in the leg.

    December 17, 1993

    2. School custodian, Jim “James” Underwood brought a .22-caliber revolver to school hidden in a brown paper bag. School principal, T.J. Melton, 49, was shot in the left shoulder, left ear and in the top of his head, according to published reports. He died around 9 a.m. and Underwood was charged the next day with first-degree murder.

    November 8, 1971

    Now, with two scenarios such as these, arming teachers or faculty members is clearly not the option.