Protecting America’s Future
Arming Teachers to Better Protect Students in a Potential Crisis
It’s a regular day of school, students progress through their daily schedules and attend their classes furthering their development as scholars when an urgent abrupt message over the PA system indicates an individual took out an automatic gun and shot multiple students and staff. The speaker then informs everybody to enter lockdown protocol until further notice leaving many staff and students trapped in a classroom with only a few staplers and scissors to defend themselves, leading them to question whether they will ever be able to hold their loved ones again. Teachers nobly and willingly sacrifice themselves to defend America’s future, the students, when they shouldn’t have to. Staff and students should feel protected and secure within the sanctions of a school and not fear that it may become their place of death. The reality is that schools’ lockdown and ALICE protocols don’t ensure an equal defensive countermeasure to that of an armed person attacking during a school shooting. Therefore, school staff, specifically teachers, must be armed with legal, semi-automatic handguns to protect their priority, the students.
Existing school security, lockdown, and evacuation plans do not go far enough to repel or halt an assailant once he or she is on campus. The on-campus presence of armed staff would deter would-be attackers from launching an assault on the school, and if an assault is imminent, trained, and armed school personnel could repel and defeat school shooters during an attack. These new defensive implications could even go as far as training students in self-defense tactics that disorient the attacker, which would save lives and empower them to feel hopeful of survival if an attack occurred. Most of the mass murder school shootings in the U.S happen within minutes, which means authorities can’t locate the site of the attack in time to prevent fatalities from occurring. A prime example of this is the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting otherwise known as the Parkland shooting. On Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, FA, Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 24 people in one and a half minutes upon opening fire. He was able to reload his automatic assault rifle five times. The opposing argument may base their claim that the problem itself is the access to the guns and arming school personnel with guns will only escalate the problem, but the number of guns in America and difficulties of implementing adjustments to the 2nd Amendment makes it nearly impossible to control access to guns. In 2018, there were roughly 400 million recorded guns in the U.S with 11 million being AR-15s, which are automatic weapons. Additionally, as of May 2019, more than 1,370 2nd Amendment cases challenged restrictive gun laws of various kinds since the Supreme Court issued its decision in Heller, which ruled the 2nd Amendment guarantees an individual rights to possess a firearm independent of service. Most of these cases had the gun safety law or criminal conviction at issue upheld in its ruling by lower courts. Therefore, it’s more problematic to challenge the 2nd Amendment than to comply with it.
In total, 34 school shootings occurred in 2021 with the most recent being the Oxford High School shooting in Oxford, MI. How many more tragedies need to occur until schools realize they’re not allowing students and staff the best chance of survival during a school shooting due to poor protocol. ALICE and lockdown protocols continue to prove how ineffective they are in deterring and preventing mass murder within schools. Therefore, arming school personnel, specifically teachers, ensures the best chance at preventing and thwarting a school shooting crisis.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/event/District-of-Columbia-v-Heller
Paper View
Plain Text View
Landon Herbst, Grade 12. Interests/hobbies include lacrosse, running, lifting, watching T.V shows, and hanging with...
