Armed Teachers? No. Armed Guards? Yes.
Arming teachers, tactically speaking, makes absolutely no sense. The entire argument for it comes out of a narcissistic fetish for violence. Americans seem to be in love with the idea that a good guy with a gun is what stops a bad guy with a gun, and that this mythical good guy could be anyone. They see CPR—a life saving maneuver virtually anyone could learn in a very short period of time—as the best way to stop a mass shooting.
In reality, it’s closer to open-heart surgery. Police train intensively and continuously to develop the ability to effectively use a gun in such a high stress situation. The idea that our underpaid, overworked teachers should be spending months undergoing some of the most high stress gun-training there is is nonsense. I don’t think any job description should include both teaching geometry and going toe to toe with a mass shooter.
An argument that does make sense, however, and which has not gotten enough recognition, is that schools should have armed guards. And just as the right wing argument for armed teachers comes from the good guy with a gun fantasy, the left wing case against armed guards comes out of a fantasy of omnipotent gun control. While our gun control can certainly do much more than it’s doing now, it cannot do everything. Raising the age of purchase for an AR-15 from 18 to 21 would have only a limited effect; all of the five most recent mass shootings were committed with an AR-15 style rifle, but only one of these shooters was under 21.
Moreover, although the AR-15 has consistently proven itself to be the most effective weapon for mass shootings, it is far from the only one. One need only look at the case of Virginia Tech or San Ysidro, with body counts of 33 and 24 respectively, to understand that pistols can be almost as deadly. And barring a constitutional convention, I certainly don’t see pistols being banned in this country. And even if they were, there are simply too many guns (almost one for every man, woman, and child) in this country to count on a pistol or rifle never ending up in the hands of a mass shooter.
Finally, school shootings unfold with terrifying and incredible speed. Columbine took place in less than 40 minutes. Sandy Hook and Parkland happened in well under 10. Even if the police are capable of stopping a shooter, and I do believe they are, they’re not much help if the shooter has already killed 10, 20, or even 30 people by the time they arrive. Quick action is necessary to nip these massacres in the bud, and only a force that’s already on campus can reliably do that.
There are of course arguments against armed guards at schools, mainly that they will create a bad atmosphere. But many institutions have armed guards, and I have certainly never felt uncomfortable at a museum due to the presence of armed guards. Moreover, even if a slightly worse school environment is what it takes to reduce school shootings, then I think that is well worth it.
