Should teachers be armed in schools?
The White House from Washington, DC
President Donald Trump wants to use an executive order to bar the use of bump-stock devices that allow guns to fire like automatic weapons. This has been the only definite proposal he has made on gun control since the school shooting in Florida, leaving 17 dead.
March 5, 2018
All of the school shootings that have happened since the start of 2018 have caused school safety to be a major priority of the government.
There have been 18 school shootings in 43 days in the U.S. The President proposed an idea that teachers should be armed in schools to protect students from the possible threat of a shooter. Some people argue that teachers should have guns in school so students are protected. Others disagree and think that more firearms would only lead to more danger. It has been heavily debated over all platforms. There is conflicting evidence that supports both sides of the argument and the individuals of LHS seem to be conflicted as well.
“I think that teachers being armed would not only help us in the situation of a school shooter but also help scare people away from committing those types of crime knowing that there are other armed people in the building other than resource officers,” said junior, Bailey Auen.
The idea of firearms in schools scares some people, but not freshman Cameron Rhode. He wants teachers to be armed and thinks that fewer shootings would happen if there were more trustworthy teachers trained to carry a weapon.
“Schools should have armed teachers because 92 percent of school shootings happen in gun free zones,” said Rhode.
It is more than a gun vs. gun mentality though. Emotions and connections also play a major role in using a deadly force.
“Teachers should not have guns in schools because there is a lot of emotional weight that comes with teaching, and even if you are highly trained, I don’t think you could, in all the chaos, accurately use a firearm,” said Amanda Nelson, a speech teacher.
