Is Arming Teachers Really the Best Solution to School Shootings?

School shootings have been happening more and more frequently over the past few months. There’s been many debates on why school shootings are happening, how we could stop them or at least reduce the problem, and overall how we can keep students more safe. However, guns are not the solution.

Many school shootings happen throughout the school day and most of the time the shooter is someone who either went to the school or still attends. Many people say it is the people who kill, not the gun (or whatever weapon they are using).

All of the weapons used to harm another human beings are done by human action. For example, in China a man walked into a school and started wildly stabbing everyone in his path. This was done by his actions, the knife does not control itself. He chose to do this. Situations like these are what many people tend to think about when they argue who is at fault.

People who agree with the statement “” it’s the people who kill, not the gun”” are people trying to address the issue that shooters may have a mental illness. Nickolas Cruz is one of the many people questioned for having a mental illness. Cruz was a student at Parkland Florida High School. Many people around him came to the conclusion that his shooting was being planned for a long time. Some say that he seemed “”off”” but not enough to where it raised suspicion. If they even have a thought that a person is acting odd they should let it be known.

They never know what could be happening in their head so they should try to help out before it escalates. If the person attends the school maybe they could try helping their students by making the environment more comfortable for them so that they could open up tell people their problems. Students are not going to say anything if they do not feel comfortable talking to the staff. They should encourage students to be open about how they feel and the things they are going through and maybe school shootings would not be as big as they are today. It should not take a quart room to find out if the child who shot up a school has mental issues. School is a place to where student should be able to feel safe and not be in fear for their life.

Many people debate on what should be put in place to protect students in case of an intruder. There is a huge debate if teachers should carry weapons to protect their students. This came with many questions. Questions like “”where will the guns be kept?””, “”Will they be in the reach of other students””, “” If they were to be locked up are they accessible quickly””, and “”How will they affect the student’s?””

The answers to these questions were not very heart warming so this idea to arm teachers turned many people away. The only good idea that came out of that suggestion was the actual idea to pay less attention to the shooter and more attention to the protection of the students in the case of any emergency. There were many ideas to increase the number of security guards and police on campus, people said they should add metal detectors to the doors, to practice drill as often as possible. Some people went as far as redoing the windows and making them bullet proof.

There are other ways to solve this problem than adding more guns. Giving teachers guns is like adding gas to a fire. How would know the teacher is in a good state of mind? Anyone is capable of anything and no one should truly be trusted. You never know what anyone is going through when they are not in the public eye. The reason arming teachers is a bad idea is because, depending on where the gun is at, it could prevent the student from focusing in school and affect their grades.

For example, Daniel is going to have a hard time focusing on his test if Mrs. Woods is walking around class with a glock on her the side of her hip. In his eyes he may feel threatened but in hers she may just be watching for cheaters. Another example is if the teacher is not very responsible, or they put too much trust into their students and they leave it laying on her desk or in her drawer. At that point the weapon is then in the reach of anyone and everyone’s life is in danger. Both of those ideas contribute to students lives still being in danger. This is why this is not a good idea.

Instead of arming teachers they should go with the idea of increasing the number of guards at the school and possibly having self defense classes given to teachers. If they can pay to arm teachers with guns, they should be able to pay for the teachers defense classes. Going back to what was said previously, helping students who seem type of off will decrease the number of school shootings, so if that is one solution and increasing security and taking defense classes is another, school shootings will become rare.

In conclusion, addressing small problems early play a big role in the future because if you do nothing when you notice the small things, things could become a lot worse. Since tragic events are always going to happen the best thing we could do is prepare ourselves but not with more weapons.

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