You are suggesting that any teacher that isn't willing to carry a firearm in the classroom is somehow unstable? Or are you suggesting that anyone who isn't willing to carry a firearm because "they don't trust having one around" is unstable?
If you do a risk analysis of the situation, there are far more reasons not to have a teacher carry a firearm in the classroom than there is for a teacher to carry a firearm in the classroom, and most of those reasons have to do with the teaching environment, rather than the stability of the teacher or the risk of being shot by someone with a high-powered rifle or high-capacity handgun.
1. The reality for most people is that just the presence of a firearm is both distracting and intimidating. And despite the occasional discipline problem, most kids do not learn well while being intimidated. Knowing that your teacher or a classmate can shoot you if he or she gets angry and gets a hold of the firearm is not conducive to paying attention to the course or enthusiastically listening to the lesson. And ultimately, an elementary to high school teacher is not there to be a firearms familiarization and safety instructor, especially to the majority of children who are growing up in households where there are not firearms present in their homes or their friends homes.
Whether or not s/he is qualified to carry, that's not the teacher's principle job, and that's not what the students are there for.
2. Having a firearm is a responsibility. If there's going to be a firearm in the classroom (and I'm not talking about the trained public safety officers), it is critical that the first few day of class cover firearm safety, so that no kids think it will be cool to get into the teacher's desk, purse, or briefcase when s/he is concentrating on helping someone in the back of the room, or what to do if the firearm goes off if the teacher is carrying. And especially to teach the class what to do if the teacher's distracted and the firearm is out in the open somehow.
There's a lot of bending over and bumping into things that happens in a classroom of kids. Carrying a loaded weapon is a daily risk; how many times has the average policeman or sheriff's deputies had a firearm drop out of the holster while running around - or hell, got caught just getting in and out of the squad car? I've known a few, and they were always complaining that getting the holster caught was a regular pain...
And being a teacher is just as high stress as being a cop. And risky, too. Teachers are beat up by kids all the time in class.
You're going to ask a teacher, paid far less (considering the overtime they put in) than pretty near every member of whatever police department in the locale they are teaching in, with fewer benefits and having to supply their own materials on top of that, who have to pay for their own training and credentials, to buy a good firearm and ammunition, and add a requirement for regular firearms training on top of the strain of teaching?
Most teachers just want to teach. To expand their student's minds and to help them not be fearful of subjects they might be having difficulty with or not understand.
Teachers don't go $50K - $100K in debt to be baby-sitters, prison guards or ad-hoc police.
Now, the NRA and other "gun hobby/lobby" groups want to arm stressed and underpaid teachers who are constantly under financial attack by their own administrators and "taxpayer associations" who want to cut their pay and resources, and emotional attack from parents with agendas who think they're either not doing enough for or unfairly punishing their "sweet little angels". One more thing they have to be responsible for.
How many stressed cops have gone and shot people "by mistake", using the excuse that "oh, I thought my life was in danger...", or "it was an accident". Thanks, Police Unions, for protecting those poor stressed cops from the population and the local governments and taking the responsibility for the actions of their emotions and hands off their career records...
I strongly doubt the Teacher's Unions will even try to protect a teacher from the witch-hunt that will ensue from a "it was an accident" incident in class...
Finally - "I'm amazed how unstable and incompetent may people seem to feel police are...and they're supposed to go through firearms training on a regular basis. "
Haele
Or how about Parent/Teacher conferences and the parents are mad that you gave their child a poor grade that they feel was not fair or deserved? The parents may think, "If the teacher is armed, than I can bring my gun too". I taught for almost 20 years and parents are very threatening and scary sometimes.
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