Why we should arm teachers?

Question

The State Solution
Like many states, Utah enacted a concealed-handgun licensing law in 1995. Unlike most states, Utah did not make schools an exclusion zone for lawful carrying. Not only a teacher on duty, but also a parent coming to pick up a child from school, can lawfully carry a concealed handgun in a Utah school building — after, of course, passing a background check and safety training. (See Utah Code sect. 76-10-505.5. In 2003, the legislature expanded the law, by allowing principals to authorize firearms possession by individuals who did not have a concealed-handgun carry permit.)

After eleven years of experience in Utah, we now have exactly zero reported problems of concealed handgun licensees misusing guns at school, or students stealing guns from teachers, or teachers using their licensed firearms to shoot or threaten students. During this same period, we also have had exactly zero mass murders in Utah schools.

My proposal, however, is not that other states go as far as Utah. Rather, I simply suggest that teachers and other school employees be allowed to carry if they obtain a handgun carry permit. If a school wants to require special additional training for school carry, that’s fine.

Some people who do not like the idea of teachers being armed to protect students simply get indignant, or declare that armed teachers are inconsistent with a learning environment. I suggest that dead students — and the traumatic aftermath of a school attack — are far more inconsistent with a learning environment than is a math teacher having a concealed handgun.

“Teachers don’t want to carry guns!” some people exclaim. True enough, for most teachers. But there are about six million teachers in the United States, and it would be foolish to make claims about what every teacher thinks. The one thing that almost all teachers have in common is that they have passed a fingerprint-based background check, meaning that they are significantly less likely than the general population to have a criminal history.

We know that school shootings have been stopped by armed citizens with guns. In 1997, a Mississippi attack was thwarted after vice principal Joel Myrick retrieved a handgun from his trunk. The killer had already shot several people at Pearl High School, and was leaving that school to attack Pearl Junior High, when Myrick pointed his .45 pistol at the killer’s head and apprehended him. A few days later, an armed adult stopped a school rampage in Edinboro, Pennsylvania.

Answer 1

Without arms, teachers can't write lessons on the chalkboard.

Answer 2

Is this a troll question, as it's highly unlikely a teacher would bring a gun to a conference and they would't be allowed unless they had a extensive use for it, or if they had a direct reason.

Answer 3

In the Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines schools, it was declared that the constitution rights of AMericans does not stop at the schoolyard gate, that all rights apply in as do outside the school.

If you are in a place that does not allow weapons in schools, that law is unconstitutional and it can be thrown out.

Answer 4

It's fine untill a kid gets his hands on the gun or in some situation the gun missfires, or if the teacher pulls the trigger misses the target and blows away the QB of the football team or something like that.

And as we've seen on youtube....not all teachers are the type of calm and balenced people that I would trust with a gun.

Answer 5

yes we should arm the teachers so when the students are bad and the teacher loses their temper or accidently leaves their weapon in an area a student can find it and get shot Good Plan arm all teachers kill more kids the worlds overpopulated anyway background checks do nothing unless the people doing the checking do the job correctly VT shooter had a background check and passed with flying colors

Answer 6

The Nobel should be as armed as the evil!!
I love to hear it when a 84yr old woman shoots a criminal or a child kills a criminal trying to kill mom and dad.
Educate and arm. last week a 84 yr old former miss AMERICA, before they all became skanks, shoots out the tires of a criminal resulting in his arrest. THAT'S AWESOME!!!

Answer 7

There is simply no trying to reason with people like you. Read some of the answers you received.

Arms in a classroom is about as antithetical as one could possibly get.

What's next? Arming ministers?

You gun lovers are absolutely "out there."

Answer 8

I really sick and tired of this non-debate about packing pieces in schools FOR OUR PROTECTION!

If you're so fargin' intent on having weapons in school then bring cops in to patrol the halls. It's their job to "protect" people anyway. It isn't a teacher's job to take part in a gunfight.

All this is incidental anyway. Guns have NO place in schools. No wonder the American educational system is worse than its counterparts in poorer nations, because here the focus is on "should we bring guns to school for our protection or not" rather than on what schools are supposed to be for.

I won't tell you what schools are supposed to be for. I'll let you guess that one. Let's pretend it's a quiz...

Answer 9

I taught at one of the 10 most violent schools in NYC and never felt the need to arm myself.

Answer 10

Wasn't there an incident in kentucky where a kid started shooting up the school ? A teacher went to his car, got his gun and captured the kid.