Should we arm selected teachers or allow teachers to carry who have gone through specific training?

The question of whether or not teachers should be allowed to carry their firearms while at work is always an interesting one to me. Where I understand the obvious dangers, there are obvious advantages as well. As we allow them to shape and mold our children’s minds and mindsets for a high percentage of their youth, I feel that we have already entrusted them with a large enough responsibility to justify trusting some of them with the responsibility of safeguarding our children in the case of some kind of terror. Is carrying responsibly more difficult then teaching responsibly? I understand the amount of training one goes through to teach, can we train to carry as well. I think we can and have.

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We should allow each teacher to make that choice on their own. No government-mandated training.

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No government mandated anti 2a agenda.

Rationale and responsibility, what a concept.Unfortunately, I don’t have that much faith in our educational system allowing that.

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My sister has been a teacher the last 12 years and she is all for it. The old school teachers- just about to retire or are retired that substitute think it should be up to the teacher and nobody else. A few of them think it’s silly “ school teachers with guns”?! I agree that should be a the sole discretion of the teacher. Not any state or federal agency, Not the dept of Ed, not the school board…Don’t force teachers into something they are not comfortable with. With some of the kids and or parents nowadays they already have their hands full!

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I haven’t seen any talk of forcing teachers to carry, which makes total sense to me. What I have seen is teachers who want to cc in school, and be able to defend their kids, not be allowed to. Instead, it’s yell “gun” (note, don’t tell the description of the despicable POS holding the gun) panic, and wait to see what fate is in store.
Preaching to the choir, but most mass shootings are in “gun free zones” and it seems, at least in my state (Blumenthal/Murphy say no more :roll_eyes:) the teachers union in their idyllic fantasyland want to keep them “gun free.” Newtown/Adam Lanza was our wake up call, and my states response was…ban AR’s, and now Remington is paying out 30 mil, 'cuz it was the guns fault. Meanwhile, covid/pharma gets a free pass. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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I would never advocate for making anyone carry. NJ can’t even join the USCCA. It’s crazy! King murphy is one of the worst!! Anyway, Lord knows we can’t be relying on under paid security guards. I’ve heard stories of kids bringing in their little 22 rifles for show and tell way back in the day. It’s not a new thing it’s just been systematically vilified for decades now. The good news is a lot of citizens seem to be coming back around. I seen a story not too long ago talking about a football player who tested positive for the china virus but because he’s double stab jabbed, he may still be able to play. The comments where like 95% confused and angry with all of this. People are coming around.

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Teachers with a CCP already can here in Utah and a lot of them do. There are a lot of teachers with permits and enough of those that actually carry. In fact, the guy that taught our class was an 8th grade history teacher.

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I think capable teenagers should carry too.

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Absolutely not. The Constitution applies to adults, not children.

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Didn’t stop them in the old west.we used to keep our guns in our trucks in high school.

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The lack of mature decision-making abilities in teenagers is well-documented.

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I’m not sure what the age requirements are being that I’m slightly beyond those years. I do know that many teenagers are also adults. 18 and 19. I’m also confident that those same teenagers can join the military. Either way I’m happy to see that in some states teachers are allowed to carry at their job.

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Yes, teenagers are in the military. They are not making many decisions, unless they are in controlled environments.

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Very true, based on fairly recent observation. My son quit a free ride to college and joined the Corps because he “didn’t want to have to think any more.” He got a bit of a mental reprieve :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:, then went straight into that (literally) controlled environment you mention.
In hindsight it was the best decision he could have made, though the decisions leading up to it were not…but paralleled my own 35 years previous.

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Quick YES.

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This is not going to be a popular sentiment here but I think teachers and/or staff carrying in a classroom need to be held to a higher standard than other people carrying for personal defense.

The potential negative consequences of a poorly trained and armed citizen in a dynamic school situation are just too big to ignore. I’m all for my son being protected by well vetted, trained and armed school staff who have a coordinated response plan with local law enforcement. I am not at all comfortable with someone who may or may not even know how to safely handle a firearm carrying one around a bunch of kids every day. The school has a responsibility to me and my son to ensure his safety.

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I agree mostly with the sentiment of what you’re saying. However, teachers that carry would certainly be a deterrent provided students are aware but don’t know which teachers.

@OldGnome takes everything I say as serious. I would only support mature and proven adult students to carry at high school. But if you arm teachers capable of handling it that is best. They need training. Soldiers receive training. Police receive training.

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Is that an oxymoron?

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Arming teachers is going to require more than just firearms training. It’s going to require an entire cultural shift. In the community that I live in (55+ retirement); there is a very quiet “divide” in political and cultural circles. From rural to big city past lifestyles, from different professions.

One of the professions is the retired “educator”. And almost every one of them that I have interacted with is vehemently and rabidly anti-gun. There is absolutely no room for discussing the rights of gun ownership or the benefits of personal protection of having a firearm in the home. The majority of my clients are retired who are either re-discovering or discovering for the first time, firearm ownership. And at this point in our lives here, there’s probably no cultural shift for those who are holding fast to old, heavily ingrained “indoctrination” that they received in their past professional lives as educators. (Caveat - If you are reading this and you are an “educator” and you feel slighted or that this doesn’t apply to you, good for you!)

Until the culture changes, I’m afraid that the idea of having armed teachers in the schools is a far away goal that I probably will not see in my lifetime.

Stay safe out there.

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Arming teachers and staff.

It is not just teachers that can be real first responders, There are administrators and maintenance staff that are capable of protecting students lives and they have keys to everywhere.

The training can be more specific than LEO’s get to real situations in the school. Trauma care can be added to include the staff that don’t want to be armed. Stopping blood loss is the first step to helping shooting victims and medical personnel will be held back until the site is safe. (So much for the first responder label). All school employees can be part of the lifesaving team.

PS - This would be a good time to give students basic firearms training based on Eddie the Eagle: Don’t touch, Tell an adult, etc.

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