I was just having a very nice evening, eating some brownies and watching youtube when I decided to look at my news app and heard our President's "solution" to school shootings. And I was so outraged I felt that I needed to speak out. So I'm here to tell you why arming teachers is not the answer to school shootings.
President Trump is insisting that training and arming teachers is the way to stop shootings as they will be trained and the teachers having guns could be deterrent to students trying this again. But the act of placing armed guns into classrooms is terrifyingly horrible! Let me set the stage for you- a classroom, 30 students, any age k-12, (as we've had shootings at all levels) a teacher, and a locked box with a gun. Lets talk just the aspect of the locked box. How is it locked? Number pad? The teachers would have to not be able to write it down, or else children could get their hands on it. Then a student driven to this point could just go to the box when their teachers back is turned and open fire on the room, without ever having to bring the gun into the school. Or, younger kids have the ability to accidentally unlock it by finger jamming, then what happens while this gun is in the possession of a 1st grader. if you follow my train of thought thats the number one way for the gun to accidentally fire which could injure or kill the child, the other children, or the teacher. Okay so no keypads. How about a regular key. This one's simple- students steal keys. And if a student was at the point of deciding to shoot in their school, they would certainly have no issue with stealing the key and unlocking the lock box for themselves. Placing a gun in a classroom under any circumstances is dangerous. Students are smart. If they have the will they will find a way.
Another side point that's less important but still valid is the cost to train teachers and buy guns and lock boxes. Teachers already don't make a lot of money because the school systems can't afford it. So, this would result in budget cuts to other areas like sports and theatre and will hinder their education.
Back to the guns in a lockbox, even if by some miracle none of the above happened, but there was still a shooting at this school, and the trained teacher got to the gun (without getting shot on the way) and managed to shoot the kid- 30 children just witnessed their teacher, someone they see everyday and look up to, murder another student. Regardless that the student was shooting at them, the image of that is going to cause PTSD and that teacher may not be able to work at that school anymore because the students may not be able to handle it. The trauma would be too much. Or, even worse- what if they miss? Yes they're trained but even our best military can miss, and they train every day. Teachers won't be training every day and focusing on how to shoot. What if they miss and hit another student, a scared, innocent, child. The trauma of that could be worse. Why would we willingly subject our children to this?
So, dear Mr. President, arming teachers is not the solution to school shootings. But what is? The answer is simple, gun reform laws. I am not going to say "everyone hand in all of your guns" I get it, people hunt and people shoot in shooting ranges. Even I have. I am saying no one needs a semi automatic weapon of mass destruction. If we leave these laws unchanged, we are telling the youth of this country to be that this is okay. And no more lives should be taken.
How was one not enough?
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