Editorial: Teachers and school staff should not be armed
The Florida Senate passed a bill that would allow administrators, teachers, and support staff to carry guns on school grounds with approval from their local school boards. Staff would be required to undertake a psychological test and a minimum of 144 hours of training, but the bill has bitterly split the state and the country.
In the wake of devastating school shootings around the country, gun rights activists have recommended allowing teachers to be armed to potentially protect themselves and their students against threats. However, more guns in school could add fuel to an already burning fire of school violence and has created a national conversation on how to best protect students.
Teachers in most states have protested the proposed bill. According to a study conducted by the National Education Association, 82 percent of members said they would not carry a gun in school. Even among gun-owning educators, 63 percent oppose being armed in the classroom.
Guns in schools also put students at risk, making them feel less safe and insecure in the school environment. Parents of students of color have expressed concern over the safety of their child, citing evidence that minority students are more likely to be severely punished than their white counterparts, and pointing to the shootings of young minority men. Lawmakers and parents alike have stressed the importance of making sure students feel safe at school and do not worry about minor infractions that might have fatal consequences.
The Stampede Editorial Board strongly believes that the state of Illinois should not introduce legislation to arm teachers in school and should instead pass bills focusing on the well-being of students and overall gun legislation to prevent more school violence.
There are more effective ways to prevent school shootings than putting guns in schools. Hiring more school counselors, expanding on mental health programs, and cracking down on bullying within the school are all ways that schools can create a safer and nurturing environment for students. States should support schools and aid districts in funding these programs for students. 67 million dollars have been allocated towards the provision of the bill that allows teachers to be armed.
At the legislative level, gun regulations can help prevent guns from ending up in the wrong hands. Many shootings are carried out by students who are using weapons that have not been legally obtained, either from their own homes or the black market. However, stricter background checks and a ban on semi-automatic weapons can help to decrease the number of guns in circulation and lessen the possibility that the guns end up in the wrong hands. States also need to stay up-to-date on expired or revoked gun licenses. The gunman in February’s Henry Pratt shooting had a revoked FOID card and should have had his gun confiscated after he was convicted with a felony for abusing his former girlfriend with a knife.
Florida’s bill includes some provisions that are a step in the right direction. The bill raises the minimum age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21 and requires a three day waiting period for most purchases. It also bans bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire automatically, gives officials more authority to seize weapons, and gives resources and funding for mental health services. Teachers who chose to carry a weapon would also have to complete 12 hours of diversity training, a clause that acknowledges the discrimination faced by minority students.
Still, arming teachers in a “Stand Your Ground” state can have devastating consequences. Existing Florida law allows people to use deadly force if they feel that their life is in danger and was referenced heavily during the trial after the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012.
Arming teachers is not the way to prevent school shootings. Gun regulations that prevent students from obtaining weapons, mental health services in schools, and the ban of semi-automatic weapons are all measures states and schools can take to protect their students. Florida’s bill takes a step forward but two steps backwards.
The Stampede Editorial Board strongly believes that the state of Illinois should not introduce legislation to arm teachers in school and should instead pass bills focusing on the well-being of students and overall gun legislation to prevent more school violence.
Mishal Nizar is a senior and is the Print Editor-in-Chief of the Stampede for her third year on staff. She was graphics editor for both her sophomore and...
Hail To The Motherland! • Aug 30, 2019 at 12:35 am
Personally I think it should be a state or county decision on whether or not to arm teachers and to what extent; however, what and how firearms should be and how they should be handled should be left up to the county or school administrator. For example, all teachers who wish or are required to carry a firearm must have a magazine, trigger, bolt, and barrel lock as well as a safety. These could potentially stop students from taking and using a teacher’s gun, heck we could even go one step further and use those biometrically locked handguns. I feel that we should even start relaxing firearm restrictions on certain types of guns yet increase restrictions on background checks, give an mentally stable person a tank and they don’t go on a rampage, but give a abused/bullied/unstable/extremist teen a semi-automatic pistol and there will be blood on the floor. Also it really triggers me that the Armerican classification of a machine gun is just any gun that fires more than one round per trigger pull or when politicians incorrectly describe a semi-automatic firearm as if it was a weapon of mass destruction.
A Concerned Metea Student • May 20, 2019 at 1:12 pm
“Lily” did you think before you typed? This would not make it any easier for the student to retrieve a weapon. Do Do you really believe a teacher with that much training would allow their weapon to be snatched like that?
Lily • May 10, 2019 at 12:33 pm
Even though I’m a conservative and believe that people should have the right to own guns and strongly fight for the 2nd amendment, I definitely don’t think that arming teachers would be the smartest idea. If anything it would make it easier for shootings to happen because a kid or person wouldn’t have to get their hands on one before attending school. Now, they could easily get the gun from the teacher, and then that’s it.
Someone • May 7, 2019 at 10:45 am
I believe some teachers should be armed, but only with the psychological testing and over 144 hours of training. This would provide a more adequate response in the event of a shooter at the school. The students wouldn’t have to know which teachers are carrying, if they were informed that teachers at the school carry. Also, it could be up to the teacher if they wanted to make the choice to carry. I do agree that there are other ways to stop shootings, like get more counselors, and cracking down on bullying more, but it is better and most likely more effective in keeping students alive and healthy by having both armed teachers and more counselors and prevented bullying.
Someone • May 6, 2019 at 7:49 am
I agree with more cops. I mean come on, one cop to defend 3000 kids sounds a little underprotective
someone • May 2, 2019 at 8:05 am
I think firearms in teachers hands are too dangerous. Why not start out with something safer like a taser?
Reilly Koyl • May 1, 2019 at 7:03 pm
I have a couple of points so bear with me. It is the duty of every citizen to protect his/herself in the case that an intruder enters the building. What Florida ruled was that a teacher would be ALLOWED to carry a gun in the classroom, it didn’t say they MUST. Also this notion that a student would feel uncomfortable is valid, however, in order to protect students, we must do things that will make us uncomfortable. I feel for the students, which is why I think that there should be an extremely hard push against this idea that anyone should become a teacher, because some substitutes and some of the teachers hired at this very school are extremely unfit to be teaching kids anything, with their passiveness, pandering, ideological echo-chambers and most importantly a lack of self-control, which is essential to this argument. We need to set a higher bar to be an educator and they certainly should get paid more for this effort. Also, you bring up mental health issues and I agree that they should be addressed, but the problem is that there is no feasible way we can cure mental disorders in a school, none, the only way these people can get the help required is through admittance into a psychiatric hospital, because the people who go out and commit these either racially motivated attacks or plain old shoot-ups have a huge disconnection from caring and loving and thus are extremely manipulative. A school is not a sanctuary and it never should be. Another, Trayvon Martin, while I agree that George Zimmerman was an idiot for trying to apprehend him, Trayvon Martin bashed his skull into the concrete and Zimmerman fired his gun in self-defense because he thought he was going to die. If Trayvon was an innocent kid, then why would he not submit to a citizen’s arrest? Lastly you say in the article that kids who commit school shootings have not acquired guns legally, yet, in the next sentence you prescribe the solution is to decrease the amount of guns in circulation by stricter gun regulations. This will no doubt punish legal gun owners while leaving people who don’t follow the law to continue to get firearms illegally. This seems like a worthwhile experiment, and if it goes horribly wrong, then I will concede. Until then, I would love to talk to anyone who cares about this topic and engage in a discussion.
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Someone • May 1, 2019 at 5:00 pm
How about don’t sell semi-automatic weapons with high magazines to civilians. Our founding fathers created the second amendment so that the people could defend themselves against threats. In time, there have been some other uses for guns that could be seen as normal and perfectly legal, such as hunting or sports. But this was at a time when the deadliest guns fired 3 shots a minute. They never-COULD never- imagined an AR-15 that can shoot 600-700 rounds a minute. I’m having a hard time thinking of a situation where a civilian in danger is going to need 30-40 rounds of ammunition all at once to defend themselves.
Good Idea • May 1, 2019 at 12:44 pm
I believe that there should be more school resource officers to patrol schools and help out in case of a emergency there is more than one officer and this will create more jobs and things for officers to do.
Some Anarchist • May 1, 2019 at 12:24 pm
As a leftist, I am inclined to believe that the world would be safer if people were armed, as this is the only way many people have to defend themselves. However, this is not the case in a school setting. I have witnessed multiple teachers break various laws. Student’s have been expelled for vandalizing school property at the request of teachers; administration constantly breaks HIPAA; illegal search and seizure is highly common; teachers have even been arrested for sexual misconduct. It would not be fair to treat teachers as more trustworthy than students, because they are by no means any more inclined to follow the laws. No one in a school setting should be trusted with a firearm unless everyone is, and allowing anyone and everyone to be armed would be a grave mistake. For this reason, no one should be armed.
To take this one step further, the police officers should not be armed either. Seeing as 40% of all cops commit domestic abuse, and cops have a far higher homicide rate too, they should not be trusted with a weapon, especially in a school setting where they are likely to make large numbers of people feel unsafe.
Dylan McGovern • May 1, 2019 at 11:09 am
Only the cop should be armed, that’s it. Because if a kid does decide to bring in a gun, we’ll be defenseless until other cops arrive..
Communist • May 1, 2019 at 11:00 am
teachers should be allowed to carry guns
cow • May 1, 2019 at 9:48 am
Having guns in the school would not be a good idea. Imagine if someone wants to harm the school, and they see the teacher’s gun. They could get a hold of it and start a school shooting.
Эли ягода • May 1, 2019 at 9:22 am
Gun regulation does not help keep guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous criminals and only keeps it out of the hands of law-abiding people. so many guns are in circulation that regulation would do nothing to stop it, and only limit the abilities of innocent people to defend themselves. Nowadays guns have been vilified as the ultimate taker of life, however, guns serve as a tool to level the field of the defender and the attacker. What is a 120 lb woman gonna do against a group of criminals with no one around to help and no law enforcement in sight? the only situation where the defender would have a chance is with a gun. A society without guns is a society where the strong prey upon the weak only a consistent basis, the same goes inside schools. the notion of not being able to defend yourself or not having someone on hand to help defend yourself inside a school is a notion that is already set up for failure.