Guns In Schools

 Ahhh, guns.  One of the most hotly debated topics in Murica.  I am just going to throw this out there – I HATE GUNS.  I hate them, I hate the loud noise they make, I hate the thought of killing anyone or anything with them, I hate the way they look and the fact that the NRA has so much power over our legislature that we can’t get basic background check laws passed even though majority of our country supports them (because the NRA represents gun manufacturers, not gun owners.)  HOWEVER, I respect and love many people in my life who do like guns.  Some of my friends hunt with them.  Some family members feel safer because they have them.  And a few I know are just stocking up ammunition for the zombie apocalypse.  Everyone is different.  But what I wanted to address today is the possibility of arming teachers in schools to protect against violence.  

 I have a sister, cousins, aunts and friends who are teachers. They work hard, they care about their students and they decided to be teachers for a beautiful variety of reasons.  But none of those reasons has anything to do with wanting to protect the students in their classrooms from violence or terrorism.  People join the army to do that.  They enlist in the Marines or join the Police Force if they want to serve and protect.  Someone who feels called to protect the citizens of the United States rarely feels called to teach fifth grade math at the same time.  Kindergarten Cop is not a real thing.  Is that what proponents of guns in classrooms are picturing?  Arnold Schwarzenegger types running through the hallways of the school with a 5 year old in one arm and a machine gun in the other, blasting all the bad guys in a storm of glory?  

 My sister shouldn’t have to go through SWAT training to teach children how to read. She shouldn’t have to worry that she did the wrong thing in a crisis or that she might accidentally shoot a student in the process of trying to defend the classroom.  “Defense of Classroom” is not a class she took in college when she was taking all the required courses to get her Master’s Degree in Education.  She should have the choice to hide behind the desk with the children during a dangerous situation because she has not taken an oath to protect anyone.   If you arm her, you are telling her that you expect her to be a hero.  How many teachers will we have left when they are expected to be both police and teacher in one?