Arming teachers is NOT the answer to stopping school shootings, for several reasons:

First, law enforcement officers go through extensive training before being issued a firearm. They also go through extensive physiological examinations, not only to ensure that they are stable enough to be given that responsibility, but to be sure that they have the ability to remain calm and in control during an actual emergency. It’s one thing to know how to fire a gun on a gun range; it’s a completely different experience when one is required to fire during an emergency, especially when they are being fired upon themselves. The last thing we need is a teach that panics and fires randomly, and ends up hitting other teachers or children by mistake. Don’t forget, law enforcement personnel must regularly practice at gun ranges to keep up their skills. Our teachers are already overworked and underpaid, when exactly would they get this ongoing training?

Second, if we are going to have guns on campus, they must by secured when not in use. These are schools, with hundred of young children, many of whom are too young to understand the dangers of guns. Therefore, it is extremely important that the guns be secured in a way that no child can easily get access to it. If a gunman were to suddenly burst into the classroom, the teacher would not even have a chance to access her gun in time. In cases where the teacher does have some advanced warning, that’s time that would be better spent securing their classrooms and/or evacuating students instead of spent trying to access a gun.

Third, what do we want an armed teach to do when there is a report of a school shooter? Barricade their door and remain with their students, or leave their students alone in the classroom while they go out to confront the shooter? I don’t recall ANY incidence of a school shooter breaking into a barricaded classroom. And do we really expect teachers to go out and confront a shooter? Let’s remember, that even fully-trained law enforcement officers have failed to confront the shooter when alerted to a shooter on campus. The SRO on duty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland did not even enter the building to confront the shooter. And it appears that the two law enforcement officers first on the scene this week also chose not to engage until back up arrived an hour later. Here is an article from MS-NBC explaining just how bad of an idea this is: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-school-shooting-shows-why-arming-teachers-wouldn-t-have-n1295693

Finally, there are almost four million teachers in the United States. Even if we armed just 10% of them, that would be 400,000 guns inside our schools. With that many guns inside schools, we are certain to see more kids dies from accidental shootings that are now dying at the hands of active shooters. Let’s not make the solution worse than the problem.

Arming teachers is not the answer. There are much better solutions to be considered.

P.S. If a teacher is also an active or retired law enforcement officer with full training, I would allow that teacher to carry a firearm while in the school.