Yeah arming teachers as a solution to this is nonsensical and insane IMO.
First, where is the firearm going to be stored so the teacher can access and use it immediately. If they can access and use it immediately, that means a student likely can too. Either by opening a drawer or overpowering the teacher. And are we really at the stage where we want students to have to be in a class with an armed teacher? With a gun in a holster? What does that tell our babies about the world we live in and how to survive it?
Second, people make mistakes on a daily basis with dangerous items like cars, chemicals, tools, fire. People also make deadly and dangerous mistakes with their firearms, daily, leading to him deaths. Now we want to throw millions more guns into the schools, at the hands of millions of teachers so that there are musslions of more oppruntities for someone to make a horrendous safety mistake with the firearm they brought to school for protection.
Third, you can't just shove a gun in an adult's hand and think they're prepared. To be able to use it properly requires a lot of training. Will training be mandated? What kind? Many of the 3.2 million public school teachers in our nation have never fired a gun. But we are going to arm them all?
Fourth, even if they are gun users and know how to shoot, unless you are a soldier with a loaded weapon cocked and ready to go, or LE with a loaded weapon aimed and going into a dangerous situation ready to shoot, the weapon in the safe or even in your holster may be of little use. I remember a terrifying situation I rolled up on, not expecting it, which involved a psychotic young homeless guy screaming the most blood-curdling scream and lunging toward me as I pulled up into my office drive late one night to grab a file. In shock I could barely get my car into reverse and then once I did, and this guy SLOWLY followed me into the street where I had reversed, I was shaking so bad it took me several tries to dial 911.
Being able to react quickly with a weapon is something only highly skilled soldiers and LE are able to do typically and even then, if you're not in battle mode and the bad guy comes in unsuspecting, as they usually do, it's too late by the time you can reach for your gun.
Fifth, like in tests of crowd shooting situations where others were armed and engaged the shooter, they mostly just shot each other on accident. As someone else said, adding guns in the hands of people who aren't professional gun users, even if they think they are, increases the possibility of casualties. It doesn't decrease it. And when first responders show up during the heat of a shooting, how can they know who the bad guy is and who the good guy is if everyone is armed? That's a fast intense, adrenaline-filled situation.
As a result of the fourth and fifth points above, despite armed people being in close proximity to the shooter during the Oregon community college shooting and the Fort Hood shooting some either did not use their weapons or did but unsuccessfully. Civilians have never successfully stopped a shooter from killing many people. Only one, who had a ton of reaction time, was able to use firearms to disable a mass murderer, but only after he already killed 26 people including 26 children:
According to a study of 62 mass shootings over 30 years conducted by Mother Jones, not a single case includes evidence that the killer chose to target a place because it banned guns. Many of those mass shootings took place in areas were guns where permitted, but not a single one was stopped by armed civilians.
Parkers interview revealed the practical difficulties of armed civilians trying to stop a mass shooting. By the time he became aware of the shooting, a SWAT team had already responded. He was concerned that police would view him as a bad guy and target him, so he quickly retreated into the classroom.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thinkp...-campus-at-time-of-massacre-1410b3cad225/amp/
Instead, it is non-civilians who have been the most effective at ending the carnage or stopping a shooter.
Finally, sixth, not every teacher across America is stable themselves. Some are actually suicidal, mentally ill, homicidal. And we want to arm them all?
This seems like a terrible plan and an ineffective means of protecting our kids. I would be scared to send my child to school with armed teachers.
