Honestly, when I first heard an argument for arming the teachers in schools I thought the person was joking. A chuckle to myself and a few replies later and I realized the opposite. It's so shocking to me that arming teachers in schools is now becoming something many representatives are considering supporting through legislation.
I have maintained relative silence about control and gun rights (though my Twitter and Facebook have sometimes indicated the opposite), but I strongly believe that it would be foolish for us to arm our teachers.
First of all, the argument for arming teachers discounts the ability of teachers to fire at targets which aren't violent intruders. In April of 2011, a New York teacher said she was going to sneak a shotgun into school and "make it look like Columbine". Luckily, she was removed from the classroom following the threats and nobody was harmed. Arming teachers would not only allow teachers to carry concealed weapons, but would encourage them to bring them into a school. Frankly, this is terrifying to me, especially since a teacher has immediate access to her classroom and can easily lock the door. (However, let it be known that I'm not saying all teachers have the desire to do this or have even thought of it, but the possibility of this happening is enough to make it a bad idea.)
Secondly, the argument for more guns leading to less violence doesn't hold for me. More guns does not mean more security. According to 2007 data, the United States has about 88-89 guns per 100 residents, leading the world in guns per capita. The second and third countries on this list are Serbia and Yemen. If one has been reading the news at all over the past five years, she would know that Serbia (58/100) and Yemen (55/100) are not at all safer places to live than France (31/100) or the Netherlands (4/100). Even Harvard School of Public Health has outright decried that "where there are more guns there is more homicide", even pointing out that states follow this relationship.
Third, Mr Lowe and others have advocated for "smart gun" technology to ensure that children don't get a hold of the guns (which is another entirely frightful situation altogether). By my understanding of "smart gun" technology, it requires a computer chip/magnet to be placed under the skin of the wielder of the gun to fire it. Not only is this very expensive (another cost to our already money-starved public education system), but requires invasive surgery and has been known to fail pretty often with current technology - think of laser tag that requires your palm to cover the gun to fire and how often it feels like it doesn't register. If we are going to put guns in schools to protect students, they need to be reliable. The problem is that a more reliable weapon is both too expensive and far too dangerous to be logical to put in a school. (Aside: The Violence Policy Center even criticizes personalized guns stating that the "[reduction of gun violence] would likely be outweighed by an increase in gun-owning households", which typically leads to more gun violence overall.)
As a student who went to public school from first grade until high school graduation (and is now attending Davidson College), I know I would have felt less secure rather than more secure if my teachers were armed. There are probably three or four teachers I could think of I would be comfortable having a gun at school, and I remember one of them saying she would never have brought her gun to school ever, even though she's licensed and has gone through training. A gun in a desk of a teacher becomes a major liability if the teacher leaves to use the restroom between classes or goes to a workroom during her break. A teacher needs to be able to focus on his work, and worrying about a deadly weapon would only detract from his ability to continue teaching. Not worrying about his weapon could be even worse.
I urge you to phone or email your representatives to discourage them from letting similar bills gain support. Be sure to be polite. As someone who has answered phones for a Senator, you'll be much more effective at making your opinion known if you calmly tell the person who answers the phone (who almost never will be the person you're calling to express an opinion to - keep that in mind) than if you were to yell and call names. Remember, raising your voice or getting offended will only discount your arguments in the eyes of the person on the phone. Alex Jones is a perfect example of how we should not have discussion on topics with any politics attached to them; try to act oppositely him.
I wish average Americans would think more thoroughly about consequences before we do things.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. I also wonder about the huge responsibility that this places on the teachers. Don't we already pay them insufficiently and ask too much of them? If I were a teacher, I would NOT want to be burdened with such a responsibility.
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