Should teachers be allowed to conceal carry? That questions triggers a gut-wrenching “NO” from many people. For others, the response is as overwhelming, “Absolutely!” For arguments sake, let’s create 2 different situations.
A Public or Private School Teacher – I am talking about your everyday K-12 teacher. Let’s look at the pros and cons.
- Cons
- It is another weapon in school. Any weapon in school could potentially be used to cause harm.
- It makes people uncomfortable. Many people are against guns, and would not feel comfortable knowing that there is a gun in their kids school.
- In the case of a shooting, it adds more bullets into the mix, risking more people being injured.
- Pros
- It is another weapon in school. If an individual walks into a school ready to start shooting, who is going to stop them? How many people will they shoot before the police arrive? A teacher with a weapon could potentially end the shooting far sooner than waiting for the police to arrive.
- It makes people uncomfortable. People are a lot less likely to pull a gun if they think someone else has a gun. That is the areas with the strictest gun laws have the most violence. The criminals know that people can’t fight back, so they make easy targets.
- It gives teachers the ability to defend themselves. If you are a teacher in most states, you are helpless against someone with a gun. Even if you have your conceal carry permit, only 9 states allow you to carry on school property. So, while you own a gun, and you are hopefully trained on how to properly use it, you are defenseless at work……..in a school……..where there are far more shootings than there should be (because there shouldn’t be any).
- Cons
- You are on a College Campus – Let’s take this one beyond teachers. Let’s include students too! After all, we are talking about young adults here.
- Cons
- It is another weapon in school. College campuses are a place for learning (although many are about hugs and cuddles and unicorns right now). Adding weapons to the school creates more opportunities for violence. Students looking to learn should not need to worry about violence.
- It makes people uncomfortable. Many people are brought up being taught that guns are bad. The simply do not feel safe around them, and to many of those people, their right to feel safe trumps your right to protect yourself.
- Pros
- It is another weapon in school. Lots of bad things happen on college campuses. Knowing that people can’t carry a gun makes committing crimes that much more tempting.
- Women’s Rights! – Last year roughly 200,000 sexual assaults were stopped because women carried guns. How many rapes happen on college campuses?
Shouldn’t those women be able to protect themselves just like the 200,000 women that protected themselves off college campuses?
- Cons
For me, it is a pretty simple argument. If someone wants to start killing people, they are not going to second guess themselves because there is a no gun law. There is a law against killing people, and they are still planning on doing it. If someone is to the point that they are ready to take someone’s life, gun zones mean nothing to them. They do nothing but create areas where law abiding citizens cannot legally defend themselves. Some people say that schools are too risky, and that they are no place for any guns. Have the school shooters gotten that memo? The laws say they can’t bring a gun to school, but they do it. Why shouldn’t teachers at least have a fighting chance to defend themselves and the students that they care for?
Don’t get me wrong, there are risks with anything. What if a student steals the teacher’s gun? What if they drop it, or somehow leave it around? I should emphasize that teachers should be trained on how to handle a gun, and there should be rules to follow, such as keeping it concealed, nothing in the barrel, safety on. 9 states currently allow teachers to carry. When is the last time you heard about one of them having a problem because teachers carry? I’ve never heard of it.
