Affirmative

As yet another school shooting shakes the country, maybe it is time to consider a different approach.

Following the incident in Florida, President Donald Trump proposed the controversial idea of allowing state sanctioned guns into schools. He clarified Feb. 22 on Twitter saying, “I never said ‘give teachers guns.’ What I said was look at the possibility of giving concealed guns to adept teachers with military or special training experience -only the best.”

On CNN following the latest shooting, they had a Florida teacher and a teacher from Columbine on TV. While they did not personally agree with the proposition, they claimed to know multiple colleagues that did and neither could entirely dismiss the concept. Eventually, they agreed that the subject would need more discussion.

I believe teachers should be able to have a concealed carry if they want to and only so. A training program and subsequent pay bonus have also been suggested to accompany the ability to carry a gun. This makes sense in the long run, considering the extra attention they would be drawing to themselves.

House speaker Paul Ryan says he supports the principle, but claims Congress should not be the one to pass any bills on the subject. He says it is more of a matter for state governments, local governments, and local school boards. I believe this is completely fair because with so much argument surrounding the topic, any decisions should be far more personal.

So, in support of the second amendment, I think any teacher with a concealed carry permit should be allowed to wear or keep their gun in school. For an example, the pastor at my church has a gun in his podium and I never would have known if my dad had not told me. I was never worried, and forget it is there more often than not. When responsibly handled, there is no reason in my mind that there would be any effect on the average school day.

Negative

I do not believe that teachers should have guns. On a surface level, this idea looks good. If a teacher has a firearm, they can use it to defend themselves and their students in the event of an active shooter situation. The teacher can wound the shooter if they threaten the classroom. However, if you look deeper, that is when things get a little tricky.

Are teachers who are willing to carry in school going to use their own weapons? And, if a teacher did bring their own firearm, who is responsible to ensure that it’s a safe, reliable firearm? Furthermore, to make sure all armed teachers had the same training and knowledge, there would need to be firearm safety classes as well as classes on defending others. All of these requirements could potentially cost thousands of dollars. Over the past three years, there has been a nearly three billion dollar budget cut for the education system in the state of Nebraska. Is it reasonable to think that our already diminishing budget handle the deficit of arming teachers?

Another big question mark is the subject of liability. A loaded gun can and will cause serious bodily harm or death upon being fired. If the gun were to misfire and hit a student, injuring and potentially killing them, who is to be held accountable? According to the current law, it is likely that the teacher would be arrested for the negligent discharge of a firearm. Once the teacher has paid their dues for the crime, would the injured party be able to come back and sue the teacher for damages? Or would the injured have to go after the school since it happened on school grounds, or the state since it happened in a government building?

Finally, it’s like no one is even considering the teachers in this equation. They are here to cultivate the minds of the youth and help them have their feet pointed in the right direction upon their arrival into young adulthood. In the case of Parkland and Columbine, the assailants were/had been students at the school. You would be asking a teacher to live everyday for the rest of their life knowing they killed a kid, no matter how mentally ill and deranged the kid had been. From what I have seen online, many teachers have voiced their approval of carrying a firearm. However, many teachers have voiced their disapproval when it comes to carrying a firearm. They did not sign up to carry a handgun in their pocket while teaching quadratic formulas. That is not what they are here for.

I would not be opposed to having more school resource officers on hand. A majority of these officers are trained and supplied with their firearms through the police department, so in most cases, there wouldn’t be any money coming out of the education system. The only money from our education system would go towards potentially paying the officer’s salary. I think this is a much safer alternative than having certain teachers in the school carrying firearms.

I am not oblivious and I am fully aware of the happenings in our country recently and the things that have happened in the past. It’s unfortunate that we have to even have this debate. A major shift is coming in our country. Now, what that shift looks like, I don’t know. I’m a 16 year old junior in high school. It isn’t my job to know. However, I believe that arming teachers would be a waste of time and would just be beating around the actual issue at hand.