With the recent shootings in Oregon, Colorado, and other states, including the catastrophic event at Sandy Hook Elementary, the topic of gun control has become a hot debate. One of the sub topics of this debate is whether or not school teachers should be carrying guns at all times as a protection for their classes.
Rather than consulting Google for the answer to "Should school teachers carry guns?", I decided to open the question to my friends, peers, and mentors on Facebook. The results were twofold: one, I got several answers within seconds that varied from "heck yes and anyone who says otherwise should go to you-know-where" to "I would rather walk on hot coals for the rest of my life than attend/send my child to a school where teachers have guns". The second result was unintentional, and I'll save the whole story for the next post, but there was some crazy mob-mentality going on.
The status I posted read, approximately, this: Okay everybody, I need your input. Please don't turn this into a big political debate or a fight but I would appreciate if you could answer the following questions. Should teachers be allowed to carry guns? Why or why not?
Within a five minutes I had one 'no' and one 'yes'. Within thirty minutes I had four 'no's' and seven 'yesses'. Generally, the teachers were saying yes. I had one teacher comment who said that the Sandy Hook incident is the reason she even got her concealed weapons permit and carries her gun at all times. She made it very clear that the gun never leaves her person and is never put in a place that could endanger any of the students.
Many of the people that said 'yes' expressed that they believed that everyone has the right to a weapon and should be allowed to carry that weapon at any time. However, every single one of them agreed that there should have to be a series of tests that these teachers must take in order to be deemed safe when in possession of the firearm and the teacher should, under no circumstances, make it public that they have a weapon. The teacher that carries her weapon currently said that she did have to take numerous tests both with the gun and without the gun, and continues to go in for tests every few months.
The majority of people that said 'no' to the posed question were students. All the reasons they gave to support their opinion essentially came down to one point: teachers are there to teach. No more, no less. While these students and single teacher recognized that there could potentially be a threat, they stood by the opinion that teachers have no right to try and protect the students in such a way and that job should be left for the law enforcement placed at the schools.
Each side is valid. If the two could work together, I think gun control wouldn't be an issue. It is interesting to see that teachers, for the most part, are pro and students, in the majority, are against the idea of teachers having guns.
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