Thursday, December 27, 2012

Should teachers carry guns in the classroom?

The trendy answer to the problem of gun violence in our schools has been to put weapons in the hands of classroom teachers or administrators. That includes HB 70, pre-filed earlier this month by Rep. Mike Kelley, R-Lamar, which would allow teachers to carry concealed weapons.

If you would like to send a message about how you feel about that bill and other suggestions that guns in the hands of teachers would be a good idea, take a few seconds and take the poll on the upper right hand side of this page.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would say yes for teachers to be able to carry concealed weapons but they must obtain a permit like everyone else. I think that they should be able to defend themselves as well as their students in an emergency situation.

-Rachel Britt (huddleston)

Jim said...

I am wondering how the teacher associations will weigh in on this subject.

MNEA, MSTA...

Mo Rage said...

No.

In answer to your question, no.

Hell, no.

msblkwidow said...

People who vote 'yes' really don't know the teaching profession. As a retired classroom teacher who recently retired after thirty-four years in the classroom, I can safely say that most teachers would decline the chance to carry a concealed weapon in the school. The teaching environment is so different from other work places. Our precious clients are also different from other clients. They are children. As a teacher, I know that we have to protect our children and ourselves from the start of the school day to its end. So that means that not only are we in protecting mode and teaching mode. What teacher has time to worry about a gun during teaching. Also, too many mishaps could happen. Who would be responsible if a child got hurt by one of these weapons? I know that I would not want to be the person to make a fatal mistake by using a firearm that caused the death of a child or another adult. Finally, we know that judges and attorneys have been shot...some fatally. Nobody has said that Judges and attorneys should come in to court strapped. Why now? I can't imagine working in a school where teachers are carrying guns. BTW, just because a teacher has certification to teach does not mean that that individual is 100% mentally capable to handling, police-like patrolling. I'm pretty positive that it takes more than a couple of training session for police to be handed firearms. Police train to become police. Teachers train to teach.

Anonymous said...

Sidwell Friends, a Washington, D.C. private school where Sasha and Malia Obama attend school, has 11 armed security guards and is reportedly hiring an additional police officer.

I wonder if Obama will weigh in.

Anonymous said...

Each school should have a trained rapid response team with training and access to the necessary items to protect lives of students, faculty and staff.

This can be done without having a police state and classrooms with weapons on teachers. Keeping guns out of classrooms will prevent a fear factor in some students.

Unfortunately access points must be controlled, locked, and improvements into school access may need to be changed. When the student is on school property, only guardians or parents should be allowed on the property. All others should be viewed as trespasers.

Local law enforcement should provide a visual presence before and after school to monitor the outside areas.

Anonymous said...

I am late in giving this clarification, but I think it is needed. Yes, Sidwell Friends does typically employ 12 guards, but that is not for just one campus, that is for their three campuses, each campus has four guards and as they have 24 hour surveillance at each campus, it takes 12 working 40 hours a week to meet that obligation. The only time more than one guard is on duty is during special events. Many public schools across this nation also have armed guards, so it should not be shocking that a private school that is attended by the children of many influential and wealthy people would have one guard at a time at each of it's three campuses. These children are reasonably at a higher risk of being targeted or kidnapped because of their famous relatives. It is disingenuous to act like this number of security personnel is excessive without pointing out the totality of the facts. But I suppose when facts shoot so many holes in your argument it might be more convenient to leave them out.