I'm a teacher who owns guns, but I DON'T want to be armed on the job.

[D23MIURG23]

There are a bunch of reasons why it would be dumb to arm me, even though I enjoy shooting targets in my spare time.

- I don't want the risk of accidental discharge.

Guns are dangerous and can be discharged by accident, and I don't want the responsibility of making sure that mine isn't accidentally triggered. My job is difficult and stressful without worrying about whether I remembered to clear the chamber and put the safety on, or worry about whether one of my colleagues who isn't a marksman remembered these things.

-I work around kids, and kids make bad decisions.

Kids get angry, get in fights, and don't always think their decisions through (not that adults always do either). I do not like the idea of responding to a fight between students with a gun strapped to my body. It increases the chance of an angry kid trying to take it from me and escalating the seriousness of the situation by orders of magnitude.

-I work around kids and I don't want the psychological effect that wearing a gun around them will have.

If I'm wearing a gun, and they know it, then it will change my relationship with them. I will go from being a mentor to being a person in a position to kill them if necessary. Its fine for cops to be in that position, but I don't think it is conducive to maintaining a healthy relationship with one's students. I don't want my students to fear me or to have any pretense for worrying about their physical safety if they push me too far. I also don't want them to feel unsafe in their own school, and if the school sends them the message that I need to be armed for them to be safe, then they will feel unsafe.

-I don't want the responsibility to know how to use a gun.

This one probably sounds weird since I already said that I shoot in my spare time. Nevertheless, I don't want extra responsibilities on my job related to maintenance of and efficacy with a firearm. I already have a bunch of diverse responsibilities as a teacher, and none of them are going to go away because the state now mandates that I take a gun safety class and prove I can hit a target with a handgun. It will be extra stuff for me to do during my limited free time that I won't be compensated for. I'm not police or military and my work-from-home time would be better used grading or planning than shooting at human form targets at the police station.

Arming teachers is a bad idea. Teachers are not military, guards, or law enforcement. If you want more people capable of responding to a shooter in schools, you need to hire more cops or more security guards. Teachers have plenty to worry about without weapon handling requirements, and the requirements would interfere with our ability to do our jobs effectively and safely. The idea that you could re-purpose teachers into some kind of paramilitary security force is a spartan fantasy from right wing bizarro world. It's a stupid idea and would only cause problems.

[Lee-Lee]

1. No one should force a teacher, but if one of your peers was properly trained would you object?

Of course nobody who doesn’t want he responsibly or doesn’t feel they are capable should ever be forced to carry.

But for those willing and capable, if properly trained with safeguards to ensure guns are secure (like fingerprint operated safes and similar measures), would you have a problem with it.

A good parallel would be the Federal Flight Deck Officer program. It take pilots, trains them to be able to handle using a firearm inside an aircraft in flight, as they keep the firearm locked in a safe in the cockpit unless needed.

The pilots who do it are all volunteers who are screened and then trained at Federal law enforcement training facilities and must annually be rescreened and qualified.

Would a system modeled after that be acceptable to you and an educator?

[D23MIURG23]

5. I don't think it's compatable with the job description and I don't think you'd get many takers

Also there is a lot to unpack in the phrase "trained properly". Teachers need a lot of training and professional development to do their jobs as it is. How much additional training would be necessary for them to safely carry a gun in school and be effective in an active shooter situation?

I think if you want more guns in schools you should bring them in on the hip of police officers. Police aren't without their problems, but they are more specialized to the use of force than teachers would be, and I think having more school liason officers would carry fewer potential problems than arming teachers.

[Lee-Lee]

10. Not as much training as you might think is reauired

Here in NC a new police officer gets 80 hours of training in firearms and firearm tactics before hitting the street.

After that every officer required 24 hours of “in-service” or continuing education. But that’s in all subjects, we usually got about 4 hours a year or less related to firearms tactics.

So a cop with 4 years on the job might have 96 hours total firearms training, and maybe 50-60 of that handgun specific.

So if you say cops are the gold standard that is best, that means 80 hours training meets that goal. And that’s 80 hours split between pistol, shotgun and rifle in a much wider variety of situations many oriented around being in or near a vehicle.

So if you eliminate the shotgun and rifle part and only do pistol, and refine the scenarios used to just what is likely in a school, you can get a teacher better prepared for that specific scenario in 40-60 hours.

To underscore those above numbers, the Federal Flight Devon Officer training program trains pilots in 6 days. Trained and qualified to use handguns ON AIRCRAFT IN FLIGHT in 6 days.

So it’s more doable than you may think.

[LanternWaste]

6. The mere presence of a firearm increases the odds of a tragic mishap.

"but if one of your peers was properly trained would you object?"

The mere presence of a firearm, regardless of whether carried by a trained professional or a semi-trained teacher, statistically increases the odds of an accident.

Provide, contrast and compare for us the objective disparity in numbers between what would be prevented versus the increase of accident.






And then rationalize as your narrative demands...

[Lee-Lee]

11. So what standards are we using?

I am talking about a situation where firearms are locked in secure safes, inside desk drawers or otherwise out of sight, that only open with a fingerprint swipe. Only removed in a confirmed active shooter situation.

I’m not sure where you would gather statistics for how often a gun locked in a safe kills somebody.

Can you point me in the right direction for that?

[samir.g]

2. Get rid of your guns

Please

[world wide wally]

3. If they want a wild west show... let them go to WestWorld

[logosoco]

4. -I work around kids and I don't want the psychological effect that wearing a gun around them will ha

THIS!!!!
My grandsons are in 4th and 2nd grade. What are we teaching them when we tell them people have to be armed at a school!!!!???!!!!! That is not the world I want them to grow up in. I did not grow up in that world. I have made it 53 years without a gun. I think this comes to close to telling them problems can be solved with guns. The only problem that can be solved with a gun is getting food during hunting season.

Yes, the world is a cruel harsh place sometimes, but I think it would be better with LESS guns, not more.

[moriah]

7. Without specialty holsters, even carrying is a risk, I agree.

May I repost, or would you like to edit and/or put this out yourself? I think you make compelling points that the "arming teachers" camp needs to hear.

[D23MIURG23]

8. You are looking to republish on other sites?

If so, you can feel free. Just do me a favor and link to my OP when you do so.

[moriah]

9. I was considering FB. I like what you said that much.

If you don't mind being publicly associated with this personal belief, though, this post would be a great start for an article/post yourself, if you really wanted to make the point.

The gun nuts need to hear from people who they are assured aren't just speaking from zero knowledge of firearms. They seem to automatically think everyone who is against firearms being the solution to everything has never fired one. The perspective of a teacher who shoots would be helpful.

Plus, I remember having a teacher who was also in the National Guard who was called up during the first Desert Storm. I know there's hardly a better person than that insofar as qualification to be an armed teacher. But I really do believe you are correct that it would not encourage safety, and even if I probably would have trusted him just as much because he was a great teacher, it would certainly change the dynamic of teaching to put that burden on them instead of on resource officers. Teachers do enough.

And *they*, the resource officers, need to have the specialty safety holsters, etc. Because again you don't want kids to escalate a fight by stealing the gun.