In a front-page story Sunday, the New York Times spotlighted teachers training to carry guns in their schools to counter the wave of mass shootings at so-called “soft targets.” Teachers fear that, as the last line of defense protecting the lives of their charges, they may have to employ deadly force, and they want to have weapons on hand to do so.
There are genuine concerns about the security of schools: as Uvalde shows, multiple unsecured access points can provide entry to a malevolent individual; current systems to protect schools like resource officers aren’t 100% effective; and tightening school budgets make upgrades difficult. (And Ted Cruz’s suggestion of having just one egress/entry point at a school is profoundly stupid on SO many levels it doesn’t merit serious consideration.)
Add to that a decades-long campaign by conservatives to demonize teachers, making them targets of conservative culture warriors who view them as “groomers,” “communists” and “anti-traditional family,” and you can see why teachers are worried for their safety both in and out of the classroom.
In that decades-long campaign, teachers have had to personally prepare for the increasing shortcomings created by conservative warfare, whether it be by buying supplies with their own money, caring for vulnerable students, or now, preparing to defend their lives.
The question here, though, is: Does having armed teachers increase the protection of schools, teachers and most importantly, students? In a word, no. Similar to general society, a proliferation of guns in the microcosm of a school will prove to be disastrous for the lives of those they’re ostensibly there to protect.
Allowing teachers and administrators to legally bring guns into schools will change the entire dynamic of the management of the organization. Imagine being a principal having to discipline a teacher for poor performance or for misbehavior with a student: Is the faculty member packing heat as I issue a written warning? Do I need to have an armed security guard in the room for this meeting? I should dismiss this person for poor performance, but is it worth risking my life over?
Staff meetings will change: no serious discussions about teaching about the Armistad in history class with the MAGA-touting, anti-CRT colleague who talked about going to the gun range for his certification.
These plans also overlook another important factor: students aren’t stupid. Even the ones who underperform in classrooms have their own skills, particularly in middle- and high school. They know the school layout better than most teachers. Many are programmed to resist authority; they are teenagers, after all. They try to manipulate and irritate. And many of them are larger and more powerful than the teachers overseeing them; a few thousand are budding Division I football linemen.
Add to all of this one statistic: according to the FBI, in the past five years, only one in 37 mass shootings were stopped by a “good guy with a gun” who was not a security guard or an off-duty police officer. On the other hand, gun advocates claim that guns are used an astonishing 9,000 times daily–3,000,000 times annually–to protect someone. That number is not verified because it can’t be: it relies on the extrapolation of data from anecdotal accounts collected by gun-use advocates.
Put it all together and I’ll guarantee you at least half of these things will happen by lawfully-sanction gun-toting teachers before a teacher will ever use a gun to stop a mass shooter in a school:
- a teacher will brandish a gun when feeling threatened by a student
- a teacher will threaten a coworker on school grounds
- a teacher will injure him/herself or a student with an accidental discharge
- a student will disarm a teacher, leading to a shooting by another teacher or a cop
- a depressed teacher will pull a “Budd Dwyer” and commit suicide in front of a class
- a teacher will brandish a weapon to stop a school fight
- a teacher’s gun will be taken when he/she tries to break up a fight, escalating a situation
- a teacher will brandish a weapon to an enraged parent during a conference after the teacher tells the parent that their child is failing… and given that the states promoting arming teachers are also the ones promoting unlimited gun possession, it’s possible the parent will have a gun, too, leading to a shootout.
Yes, there must be updates to school security, but those measures must be implemented smartly. Different practices should be used in elementary, middle and high schools. As usual, conservatives push toward the most simplistic answer, not the best ones… because the best ones require more intelligence than they have to offer.