I'm not usually the one to write a controversial article, but when it affects my major and my future, I felt the need to give my opinion.
School shootings have been a major issue, especially in the past year. In discussion on how to make schools safer, arming teachers with guns has been a huge topic. It would be on a completely voluntary basis, but it shouldn't be an option in the first place.
Students, especially at the elementary age, may not be comfortable being around guns. Students who haven't grown up with a gun in the house probably aren't going to be comfortable going to school where teachers have them. School is supposed to be a safe place for students to go, and where as putting guns in the schools is to help improve safety, seeing a gun may make the students anxious or feel unsafe.
Even if the gun isn't visible, or if the students don't even know about them, imagine if one day the teacher has to actually use it. The students didn't even know there was a gun in the classroom and now all of a sudden there teacher is using one. And what if the teacher actually shoots someone. Now the students just saw their teacher shoot somebody. As a kid, would you want to be around someone you just watched shoot someone?
And sure, teachers have background checks and have to have clearances, but what if something happens one day and a teacher snaps? It has happened, where a teacher has snapped and thrown a chair or hit a child. Can you imagine what would happen if that teacher had a gun.
Most of the time the threat is a student who is already in the school, not an outsider coming in. By putting guns in the schools it makes it "easier" for a student to get a hold of a gun, especially if they know where the gun is in the classroom.
We need to find a better way to protect out students/kids. Bullet proof glass, technology to help lock the doors better, etc. Guns are not the answer.
