Arming Teachers? Yeah I’m not too sure about that one.
Sadly here we are again dealing with another school shooting in America. No other nation upon God’s good green Earth has this problem like America, but Hell we’re No. #1, right? Understand that I can take no joy in making that statement, by the way. Going back to the issue at hand, what can be done to reduce the frequency of these horrible events? It is clear to me that “thoughts and prayers” aren’t working (for full disclosure I am a Deacon at my church), I am all for praying but I am equally all for some action.
In the wake of the latest shooting an idea has arisen that arming school employees would be a viable solution in order to protect students from mass murders, and well, I am not too sure about that one. After listening to that being said on national TV it sent several chills down my spine for I thought of over ten ways how that could go terribly wrong. There’s a part of the human heart that may think this will work in the actual moment of an active shooter; however, the potential for disaster is extremely high.
To start off, where can the gun be located at or in the school or classroom that students won’t be able to access it? Ask any parent or guardian they will tell you that it is very difficult to keep things away from children. Children have a way of figuring out locking mechanisms and such more quickly than parents anticipated. In the case of school, students are constantly accessing areas and items that they are not supposed to; what if one of these students gets hold of a gun sanctioned by the school district?
Something else is to consider how will the cops know when engaging in that moment of crisis who is an active shooter threatening the school and who is the one defending the school? All of us know of plenty high profile police shooting incidents where a cop or cops prematurely beat or fired at a suspect not fully knowing the details of the situation. With quick split-second decisions being made how many of us are willing to gamble that an innocent life will be lost and it will be ruled justifiable? Are we willing to accept such collateral damage as a tradeoff here?
Fear causes people to do some irrational things; however, our laws have used that as justification. What happens if a school employee fearful of a student, either because of an actual threat or a perceived one, takes unnecessary action? What then? Seriously, many students are physically bigger than these employees and although they may look like a fully grown adult they are still a child; do we as a nation want to put that temptation into the hands of fearful school employees? Let’s just go ahead and come out with it; how many times if a teacher, or the like, shoots a student that student would most likely end up being a male and Black? This is a not a pretty reality we are looking at here.
There is a sound way to greatly reduce this problem in American, all of us heard of it before but we lack the moral courage to do it. Bring back the assault rifle ban, expand background checks, if one has a history of domestic violence then outlaw guns for them, stop demonizing mental health and treat is as it is, fully fund mental health, ban anything that will turn a gun into a high power weapon of war and, lastly, begin to care for each other. If we start to treat people like they actually mattered then that will turn them away from such acts in most cases. I am reminded of that library secretary who talked a would-be shooter out of committing the act just by showing him that she cared. And there’s a new story going around about another potential shooter who changed his mind after he realized that he isn’t alone in this world. So I’ll end with this quote from Christ “Love ye one another”.
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