Educators should not be allowed to carry guns because although their job may be to secure their children, carrying a gun is not the most efficient and effective way to accomplish this. When asked about her opinion towards this topic, Lauren Ouaknine’ 14 said, “Teachers shouldn’t carry guns because their job is not to shoot potential intruders. They don’t have any experience to do so and would be more harmful than useful.” Without any training, the aftermath of any incident could actually be detrimental to the students. As well as this, another danger in mandating teachers to carry weapons is monitoring and regulating their usage. How would the government ensure that teachers would not use the guns for other purposes? If they happened to be extremely aggravated and acted rashly, what would truly prevent them from using their guns and shooting someone? After all, teachers are humans and no feasible approach would be able to stop them from abusing this privilege.
What if all BSGE teachers were required to possess guns and had the right to shoot any potential intruder? With the increasing number of school shootings occurring throughout the nation, pressing questions such as this are being raised to determine what course of action should be taken to prevent incidents such as the Sandy Hook school shooting from happening again.
If all teachers were to carry guns, the entire school atmosphere would change for all students, especially elementary school students who look at school with feelings of joy and excitement. Filip Martinovic’ 14 stated, “Teachers should not carry guns because the school would feel a lot like a prison without an excessive amount of restraints.” School is an open place and should not be filled with people who are encouraged to carry guns and shoot at the sight of an intruder. Students would feel far more restricted and worried at school because possessing a gun has certain connotations; it makes an individual seem threatening and it makes one uncomfortable, often more in danger than safe. It’s hard for many students to imagine being around people who are given the right and freedom to use a weapon and shoot someone they deem to be a threat.
Guns are weapons of mass destruction and are not necessary in a school atmosphere. A plethora of other precautions could be set in to place in order to ensure security in BSGE. Giuliana Videla ’14 stated that, “Other safety measures could be taken to guarantee safety in schools throughout the country.” Her and many other students insisted that BSGE could have more security officers and cameras should be included throughout the school. Many even went so far to say that these guards could carry guns because they could attend police training in order to learn to properly use guns, which would be far more helpful in preventing future school shootings. Therefore, implementing any laws or bills that would allow teachers to possess guns would be impractical.