by Gabriella Grimando, staff reporter
Mournful to say, another school shooting has taken place, this time at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington on Friday, October 28th. This tragic event has opened a door for millions of people across the United States debating whether or not teachers should or shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns, in case of an attack.
According to the article “A closer look: How many Newtown-like school shootings since Sandy Hook?” , there have been 74 school shootings since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, NJ on December of 2012. There have been shootings one after the other, and clearly nobody has a good solution that would put a stop to this.
Although it is not right, there are still many people who believe guns should be permitted.
“This is a very difficult question, but I believe guns can be permitted if there’s circumstances. If the weapons are under lock and key, and if the teacher who has the gun is trained and has a license to have a gun. Only those teachers should be able to have a gun during school hours,” geometry teacher Mrs. Johnston said.
Then there’s the disagreement that guns should not be permitted.
“I don’t think teachers should be allowed to have guns on them on the school premises. There’s no need to bring weapons to school unless something happens and it becomes necessary. There is security for things like that,” global teacher Mr. Gembara said.
There are pros and cons to having armed teachers during school hours. The reason for this being, anything can happen and some things may not end so positively. God forbid a student gets injured, who’s to blame? A teacher could be considered a hero by saving a students life in the event of an intruder being inside and becoming a threat.
There are currently 28 states that allow teachers to be armed. The other 22 states have not yet made this into a law, and hopefully it doesn’t become one in New York.
“I don’t believe in bringing unnecessary forces into a school where there are children and other innocent people all around,” PS 21 teacher Mrs. Grimando said.
Certain people who agree with this potential law may not think about all the things that could happen if teachers were armed. Imagine if a student got ahold of a gun during school hours, if it wasn’t locked up correctly. That could create several problems if they didn’t know what they were doing with the guns.
Maybe if they were faced with a situation, they would realize guns in school classrooms is never and never will be, a good idea.
