Guns in School Article Essay Example

Guns in School Article Essay Example Guns in School Article Essay Guns in School Article Essay l A bill currently in the Florida Congress would, if passed, give counties the ability to designate school employees to carry a firearm. In an obvious response to the Sandy Hook shooting, legislators are using this bill to try to increase safety in schools, and prevent more school shootings. National Rifle Associate spokesman Wayne Lapierre claims that â€Å"the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun,† but who gets to decide who is good and who is bad? Merely having a teaching license in the state of Florida does not necessarily make someone a â€Å"good guy†.The 40 hours of training that will be required for any arm-bearing teachers, is not nearly enough to ensure good gun conduct. Unfortunately, public schools are not exactly known for weeding out the dregs of society when hiring employees. All across the nation teachers are arrested every day for various crimes, oftentimes felonies, involving drugs and sex crimes. Just this year Polo Par k Principle Scott Blake was arrested for soliciting sex from a fifteen year-old boy. It is difficult enough for anyone to expect a fifteen year old to defend himself against a 46 year old teacher, even when the teacher is unarmed.Now giving teachers weapons, and further empowering them over their defenseless students, could increase the frequency and scale of these sick and disturbed acts. Even teachers that normally would not exploit students can sometimes lose their cool. Often students and teachers can get into physical fights. These conflicts could escalate quickly if guns are added to the mix. Not only could a frightened teacher draw and fire on an aggressive student when lethal force is not necessary, students could potentially overpower teachers to seize their weapons.Furthermore, a public school teacher is a low-pay, high-stress job, and certain teachers may be vulnerable to a breakdown. Some of these scenarios may seem rare, or even farfetched, but they are very possible in the multitude of schools across the nation. While this bill may limit the damage of mass school shootings by students or outsiders, is it worth the potential of teacher’s harming their students? That said, schools do need to be made safer. Students should feel secure when they go to school n order to succeed, but armed teachers do not necessarily increase that security. Perhaps instead the government could reallocate some of the money spend on senator’s pension plans to paying for school security guards. These out-of-classroom guards would provide the security against outsiders while still keeping students safe from any potentially unstable teachers. In addition, having multiple security guards would protect against any possible breakdowns by any one guard, as opposed to having one teacher, one gun, and thirty children in the same room.