There have been a lot of issues in America today with school shootings and gun violence. After numerous encounters with these instances, what can we do to stop it? People have been racking their brains looking for solutions to solve this, and nothing seems to work. Obviously, if we made guns illegal, the people using them for violence would find a way to get them regardless of any laws. Just as a drug dealer gets his illegal drugs for money, someone who wants to shoot up an establishment will find their guns for destruction. Then what are we to do for protection? Nothing can beat a bullet ultimately, and that’s why this idea has been brought up amongst school administrators in Texas. Nothing has been made official, and this is not a topic of discussion in McCracken County let alone Kentucky. The question being: Should teachers bear arms? To understand the opinions of our next generation of teachers and parents, MCHS students were interviewed. They were asked the question, “Would you feel safer if our teachers and administrators were taken through Concealed Carry classes and taught how to bear arms properly so they could keep one in a locked safe inside their classrooms that was hidden from students? They would also go through heavy background checks to assure protection.” The data was split directly in half, which makes this discussion harder to evaluate. 50% said that they would feel safer if our teachers were armed simply for protection purposes, each making good points when asked to evaluate. The other 50% were asked to evaluate why they do not feel safe with that idea, and they also made good points. Two responses from both sides were very similar. Both are anonymous for safety purposes.

“I will explain to you why that is absurd: Guns are the issue; therefore, adding more guns into the equation will only increase school shootings. The ones committing the school shootings are typically students, so why would you make it even easier for them to access a gun?” This was for the con side of the argument. 

“Guns are not the problem. If we took away gun rights, the people who are shooting up schools would still be able to access them, and then we would be left with no defense except hiding which clearly doesn’t always work. I would feel much safer if the right people had access to weapons.” 

No matter what side you’re on, we all ultimately just want the safety of our students and teachers to be guaranteed.