Lately there have been a lot of school shootings resulting in the death of many children. Some people believe that teachers should be armed with weapons in order to defend students in danger.

The idea of allowing firearms to be used by teachers in school is absurd. Students would feel terrified at all times because there are guns near them, and if a student became disgruntled they could seize a teacher’s gun and threaten or kill people. If a madman actually walks onto campus with a gun, the best option is to hide students in classrooms and perform a lockdown drill. Arming too many people could end up with a firefight that would ultimately result in more innocent people being shot. Amidst the confusion, it would be easy for a teacher to accidentally shoot a student instead of the attacker.

Instead of arming teachers, we should put more focus on school security. There should be only one entrance open to school once school hours start and there should be someone who watches it and can lock the door and set off an alarm if a suspicious person attempts to come through. Certain schools require that students use clear backpacks to prevent the sneaking of weapons into school, which is an option preferable to arming teachers. Other schools require students to wear IDs around their neck at all times which allows faculty to tell when someone is on campus who does not belong.

In many poor cities, kids are surrounded by guns on a daily basis, and school can be a sanctuary from that. If the amount of guns in schools increases, such a sanctuary would no longer exist for kids in high-crime areas. It is important to protect children, but we should also not promote a dystopian society of paranoia, which an armed campus would cause. If anyone on campus has a gun, it should be a hired local officer, like the SRO, who could detain a possible attacker quickly.

There is no reason for teachers do not need to be armed with guns. Instead, schools should focus on better security to protect students from possible harm.