The Right of Teachers to Bear Arms and Consequences of Bad Gun Policy
On May 8th, 2019 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that arms teachers in the state who undergo the necessary training. The policy allows districts who approve of allowing teachers who undergo training at the sheriff’s office to be able to bring guns to school (Metler). The vote in Florida was largely passed along party lines in both Florida state legislatures, with a majority Republicans supporting the bill to arm teachers and all Democrats opposed. This shows a strong partisan divide on the issue and the proposal. This was also consistent with the results of my survey, which found that support for arming teachers was 75 percent amongst self described Conservatives as opposed to a 28 percent rate of support amongst overall poll takers. With this law signed, Florida becomes the ninth state in America to allow school staff members to openly carry guns, joining Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Missouri, Idaho, South Dakota, and Tennessee (Dwyer). Every state who has passed laws arming teachers have had conservative majorities in the state legislature.
This policy has been largely endorsed by Conservative lawmakers and voters. President Donald Trump has endorsed the idea, saying in a tweet “Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them” (Landers). Trump is essentially saying that arming teachers will be able to stop school shooters if they have guns because they will be armed. The NRA supports the policy as well, with the NRA president in 2012 saying the now infamous quote “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”. Public opinion is strongly against arming teachers, with a survey of 1,000 public educators in 2018 finding that 74% of educators opposed arming teachers (Walker). Education advocacy organizations are strongly opposed to the idea of arming teachers, with the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the National Association of School Resource Officers all coming out opposed to the policy of arming teachers, saying the focus should be on school safety measures and that increasing the number of guns on school campuses will make schools less safe (Spencer). This shows a massive disparity in who supports the policy, with conservative lawmakers and pro second amendment organizations supporting the policy while liberal lawmakers and education organizations opposed. Ultimately after researching the policy of arming teachers I believe that arming teachers is a bad idea because of the increased rate of gun-related crimes following reduced gun laws, the bad precedent this policy sets, and the fact that arming teachers diverts money away from other school policy.
The first argument against arming teachers is that statistics show an increased rate of crime after the passing of concealed carry laws. Arming teachers is essentially concealed carry for teachers. Stanford Professor Jonathan Donahue conducted research looking at crime rates before and after concealed carry laws were loosened; what the data showed was that crime rates increased after concealed carry laws were loosened, with some instances the rate increasing as high as 15 percent (Donahue). Donahue also questions if the policy would be effective, citing how in Columbine twelve officers fired 141 gunshots at the shooters and missed every single shot (Donahue). If trained law enforcement officers who had years of experience were unable to hit a shooter why should anyone expect that a teacher with less experience and only basic training be able to kill the gunman? Plus a study published in Scientific Journal in 2017 showed that people who carry their guns outside of their homes are three times more likely to have that gun stolen, with those who improperly store their firearms being most susceptible to gun theft. To properly store a gun can cost up to $150, which for a teacher is a lot of money, which means that there probably will be cases of teachers improperly storing their guns, leading to their gun being stolen. When that happens the school likely goes into lockdown, which disrupts the learning environment that school is supposed to provide to the kids attending and puts all of the school’s students and faculty in danger, all of which could have been avoided if there were not guns on campus. Also armed police officers rarely are able to hit their target in an active shooter situation. According to the Violence Policy Center, “Trained law enforcement officials have only an average 20 percent hit ratio in armed confrontations meaning that only 20 percent of shots fired hit the intended target” (“Arm teachers? The Facts are Against It”). These statistics are in the case of police officers with years of training to deal with these situations. The teachers who will be armed will have only basic training and would have never had experiences of dealing with high stress active shooter situations.
Another great example of the dangers of arming teachers are the statistics about guns that went missing. According to the Violence Policy Center “300 guns used in the federally administered program to arm commercial airline pilots were lost in one 60-day period in 2004 according to pilot organizations” (“Arm Teachers? The Facts are Against It?”). These stats show the failure of instituting a policy that increases the number of armed civilians who do not properly store the guns. Statistics from the United States Department of Homeland Security also found that in a two year period of 2006 to 2008 there were 289 guns either lost or stolen from law enforcement agencies due to improper firearm storage (“Arm Teachers? The Facts are Against It?”). This shows that even properly funded law enforcement agencies have instances of guns being improperly stored and as a result stolen. If law enforcement agencies that are better funded than public schools have instances of guns being stolen because of improper storage then there will be cases of guns being stolen from schools where guns are not being stored properly, compromising the safety of the school and the thousands of students and faculty who are at the school.
Those who are in favor of arming teachers claim that having armed teachers will reduce the amount of deaths in mass shootings because teachers will be able to shoot the shooter dead. This is what Florida Republican state senator Dennis Baxley argued when voting in favor of passing the law arming teachers, saying ““Who is first during that first three minutes is key — somebody who could respond” (Mazzei). The reality could not be further from the truth. A trained police officer will only hit their intended target in confrontations with someone who is armed and dangerous only 20 percent of the time (“Arm Teachers?. The Facts are Against It”). That means that 80 percent said of the shots fired in an armed conflict will not hit their intended target. There is no reason to expect that 20 percent rate of accuracy to increase with teachers firing the gun instead of police officers and that 80 percent inaccuracy rate is dangerous when considering that the classroom will be full of children who could easily get caught in the crossfire. Arming teachers will also put teachers at an increased risk of being shot. According to FBI statistics, 47 percent of the time when police officers fired on school shooters, they ended being shot (FBI). If we replace police officers in this scenario with armed teachers, a teacher who decides to attempt to shoot the gunman will almost half of the time, and unlike cops these teachers will be wearing no protective gear that can possibly shield the bullet. Plus that/s assuming that the rate will stay the same and not increase. Arming teachers puts the lives of those teachers in danger.
Finally I want to show that arming teachers is a bad idea by presenting the precedent that such a policy sets. The passing of the law arming teachers sets a precedent that increasing guns is a solution to gun violence when the statistics i have presented overwhelmingly show otherwise. Plus the passing of this law could make states less likely to pass gun reform that has been proven to reduce mass shootings and instead choose to arm teachers which has no direct scientific evidence saying that it reduces casualties in mass shootings but with scientific evidence that suggests that such a policy will only put the lives of teachers and students more at risk of gun violence. Then there’s the fact that instituting a policy of arming teachers will cost school districts that choose to do so money. Florida has the lowest per student funding of all fifty states (Solocheck) and this policy will only divert money that could be used to help better fund school programs. The primary debate surrounding schools should be the education of students, not whether or not teachers should be armed with guns.
Overall my research leads me to believe that arming teachers is a bad idea that should not be implemented. I think that Florida’s decision to arm teachers sets a dangerous precedent that more guns is the solution when research shows that the opposite is true. I also worry that this shifts the discussion away from common sense gun reform that has been shown to lower the number of mass shootings. The only way we the people can block these policies from going into effect is to write to our local politicians telling them that we are against the policy of arming teachers, that schools should not be politicized, and that voting in support of arming teachers will be political suicide.
Works Cited:
“Arm Teachers? The Facts are Against It”. Violence Policy Center. http://www.ncdsv.org/images/VPC_Arm-teachers-the-facts-argue-against-it.pdf
Mettler, Kate. “It’s the law now: In Florida, teachers can carry guns at school”. The Washington Post. 9 May 2019. https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/05/09/its-law-now-florida-teachers-can-carry-guns-school/%3foutputType=amp
Dwyer, Kate. “Guns in School? Here’s a List of States that allow armed teachers”. The Morning Call. 14 February 2019. https://www.mcall.com/news/education/mc-nws-guns-in-schools-list-20181108-story.html?outputType=amp
Donahue, Johnathan. “Does Increased Gun Ownership Help Decrease Crime?” Stanford University. 7 November 2017. https://law.stanford.edu/press/increased-gun-ownership-help-decrease-crime/
Landers, Elizabeth. “Trump tweets support for arming teachers, says ‘up to states’”. CNN. 24 February 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/24/politics/trump-tweet-arming-teachers/index.html
Spencer, Terry. “Education Unions Oppose Calls to Arm Teachers”. APNews.
11 February 2019. https://www.apnews.com/a6239079b84a459291b69d3c17c0e455
Solochek, Jeffrey. “Florida rates poorly in per-student funding, in new Education Week report”. Tampa Bay Times. 6 June 2018. https://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/2018/06/06/florida-rates-poorly-in-per-student-funding-in-new-education-week-report/
Mazzei, Peter. “Florida Moves Toward Arming Teachers, Despite Opposition From Parkland Students”. New York Times. 23 April 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/us/florida-teacher-armed.html
“FBI Releases Study on Active Shooter Incidents”. FBI. 24 September 2014. https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-releases-study-on-active-shooter-incidents
