By Richard Ray:
Donald Trump, the NRA and other gun loving enthusiasts think part of the answer to protecting our children from gun violence in schools is to actually arm teachers with guns.
I will let this marinate for a second.
I have heard many stupid responses, (unfortunately on both sides of the spectrum), but arming teachers with guns is about the dumbest s*** I have ever heard. Think differently? Let me give a few examples to explain why it is so.
We have issues with the judgment of “trained” law enforcement officers shooting kids, but we want to arm teachers who have the additional burden of being emotionally and mentally affected by these kids that they may deal with on a daily basis? Do we really want to trust people in an already stressful environment, who unfortunately have to deal with disciplining unruly kids already, having weapons accessible? I think not! You open up so many other issues, in having armed teachers in school. Are they authorized to only deal with a person with a gun in school? Are they authorized to shoot a person with a knife, bat or other perceived weapon? Can they shoot when simply feeling threatened by another student either verbally or physically? When applicable, does stand your ground laws work for armed teachers in schools? Can they use their guns if trying to break up overly aggressive fights?
You can see these questions show how problematic it would be to have teachers in possession or with access to guns in schools. There are far more question than answers and the first wrong or questionable shooting of a student by a teacher, of an unarmed student, will not only cause outrage for a myriad of reasons, but imagine how much it will costs taxpayers in lawsuits.
Now I know Trump, the NRA and other irrational gun zealots still see none of this as an impediment to their goal of arming every citizen in the world. So let’s examine the logistics of a teacher having a gun. Are we talking about a teacher having a pistol constantly holstered on their person? That could be problematic in itself. They are an authority figure but fall well short of law enforcement, so would a confrontational and unarmed student, not a shooter, cause issues for a teacher who subsequently felt threatened by that student?
If the teacher isn’t constantly personally armed, where will the gun be stored? In a locked safe or closet in the classroom? If a shooter enters and the teacher is in another room, how will he/she access the weapon? More importantly how do we stop students from accessing the weapons? Anyone that doubts the ingenuity of young people and their ability to get into locked spaces on school campuses simply has forgotten what school was like and being that age. If a student breaks into the locked gun closet/safe or manages to get the keys now we KNOW we have a loaded weapon on campus.
More police on campus may be part of the solution. Teachers having access or possession of weapons is absolutely not. Of course all of these discussions are just ultimately a smokescreen to the real issue of ANY non-military or law enforcement official having any access whatsoever to semi or automatic weaponry and/or ammunition magazines of more than nine bullets. Even fanatics of the 2nd Amendment cannot argue (though they still will) that limiting the type of weapons that civilians have access to fall far short of saying that people should give up guns or their legislated (not god given) rights to possess firearms. There is no clear cut solution to eliminating mass school shootings, but let’s eliminate stupidity by suggesting more civilians with guns is in any way not adding to the problem.
#NRA, #guncontrol, #Trump, #Teacherswithguns, #Parklandshooting, #Schoolshootings, #Parklandshooting, #Republicans, 2ndAmendment
