Diverse Sources

Students of Texas State have many different opinions on the decision of the US to arm teachers in grades K-12

Raegan Babb

R_b250@txstate.edu

SAN MARCOS, Texas – On Thursday, March 22, Texas State students shared their views on gun control in America and their response to the thought of teachers being armed in schools.

With all of the mass shootings today in our country there has been many ideas proposed to help prevent the tragedies that are happening in schools. One of these ideas is to arm teachers in grades K-12 with guns. This discussion has caused controversy in our world and has many Americans divided based on their opinions of the issue.

Sarah Ferrell
Photo by: Raegan Babb

An article from CNN talks about how arming teachers can be useful if the teachers undergo proper training. The article suggests that sometimes officers are not able to make it to the scene in time and that school employees should have a chance to do everything they can.

Education major Sarah Ferrell agrees with this statement. Ferrell said she would want to have a way to protect herself and students if she were ever faced with a school shooting.

“Personally, since I’m going to be a teacher, I feel that guns should be allowed for teachers just because … say something happened and we did have a shooting. I would want to have some way to protect my kids in the classroom and not just be helpless,” said Ferrell.

Business major Kyle Frugoni said that allowing teachers to have guns could be helpful in the future.

Kyle Frugoni
Photo by: Morgan Lewis

“I personally I think our second amendment right grants us access to weapons. I don’t think gun control should be restricted. I think policies should be rewritten, but that’s really tough … I think in the long run if the training was good … it could do nothing but help prevent shootings like this … statistically speaking there’s less crime where there are more guns … gun control really doesn’t really help with crime necessarily,” said Frugoni.

Mark Villanueva
Photo by: Carlos Mercado

Mark Villanueva, exercise and sports science major, said that arming teachers is a good idea so that more people can be protected.

“I do believe that arming teachers could result in less violence in schools. Security guards and officers can’t always be on watch 24/7. Having a teacher with the right knowledge and experience can better the whole situation and can lead to quicker decision making when in a crisis,” said Villanueva.

A report from the National Education Association explains that arming teachers is not the correct approach to solve this issue because teachers do not understand how to handle weapons in the way that trained officers do. A poll in this report shows that a large majority of people believe in banning assault weapons and issuing background checks on all gun sales.

Student Katrina Greggs said she agrees that arming teachers may not be the right thing to do, but she isn’t sure if the other options are sufficient either.

Katrina Greggs
Photo by: Cole Sanchez

“My personal thoughts on the issue are its more of a mental health issue than an arming students and teachers issue … but it seems more like the people in the mass shootings are a cry for help more than anything. I don’t know that more guns are the solution … I’ve seen videos of shelters in classrooms and I think that’s terrible having to practice drills like that … assuming something like that is just going to happen one day,” said Greggs.

Danielle Kelly
Photo by: Dymond Sam

Danielle Kelly, theatre production major, said that there are many other alternatives to be considered to keep children and teachers safe.

“Restricting the age limit for guns, restricting who can buy guns, [federal] background checks … there is so many! No bump stocks, no AR-15s, no mass destruction of war that civilians can get a hold of. Just basic things like that,” said Kelly.

Evan Brieden
Photo by: Dymond Sam

Student Evan Brieden said that the recent shootings haven’t exactly changed his views on our gun control in America, but he believes in having tighter regulation on guns.

“I just think we need to have more regulation on who can get them, but I mean that’s just like the problem. If someone wants to get a gun they’re going to get a gun. They can get them through back allies and stuff like that so it’s just hard to regulate. It’s hard to come up with a process to fix that,” said Brieden.

Be encouraged to get involved and learn more about the debate on gun laws today!