In the wake of last month’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School voices from all parts of the political spectrum have offered their perspectives on resolving the issue of gun violence. While many of these proposals have both merits and flaws, one frightening suggestion would directly harm students across the nation: arming educators at schools and universities.
The proposal to train and arm teachers has received support from, among others, President Donald Trump, and has since generated controversy between the idea’s proponents and critics. A law permitting some school staff to undergo training to carry guns recently passed in Florida alongside several gun control measures, in response to the tragedy in Parkland, Florida. Not only would this misguided plan drastically increase the risk of accidents, but it would cost an obscene amount of money and change the nature of the student-teacher relationship.
Introducing more guns increases the risk of accidents. Compounding this with the chaotic environment of an active shooter situation leads to an unacceptable chance that this policy would result in more deaths than it might prevent. As an NBC story puts it “even with proper firearms training, to expect a teacher to be able to shoot down an attacker — and not accidentally injure anyone else — is unrealistic.”
Guns in a school setting can cause injuries even in nonemergency situations and in well-trained hands. A recent incident at a Northern California high school led to a teacher — who also served as a reserve police officer — injuring one student after accidentally setting off a firearm during a public safety class.
A classroom ought to be a positive environment for open discussion and effective learning. Adding a firearm could undermine students’ sense of security and degrade the relationship between the class and professor during a lecture. Beyond this, many teachers feel uncomfortable wielding a gun. A poll by The News and Observer and Elon University found that 78 percent of North Carolina educators disliked the idea of putting guns in teachers’ hands.
Beyond these significant human costs, putting this proposal into effect at NC State would strain the university’s already limited budget. There are 2,336 faculty at NC State; providing all or even 20 percent of them with arms and training, as the president suggested, would be far too expensive. A recent piece by The Washington Post estimates a range from $350-$1500 per person to cover both a pistol and training, which would correspond to $160,000-$700,000 for one-fifth of NC State’s faculty.
The consequences of arming teachers are far too high, given that the proposal does not attempt to prevent shootings, only shorten their duration. Rather than add fuel to the fire by arming more people, our university ought to prioritize safer and more realistic measures to help prevent shootings and reduce their impact.
Educating students on how to react in a hostile situation would be a crucial step. Campus police’s crime prevention unit has conducted trainings for students in exploratory studies. Although the unit aims to expand these trainings to more students, the decision to require it for all students, along with the delegation of more resources, would be left to administration.
The police advise students to take a “run, hide, fight” approach, prioritizing getting away from danger, then hiding if that is not possible and finally engaging with the shooter as a last resort. NC State University Police also recommends that students report disconcerting behavior to 919-515-3000, their non-emergency line, and ensure they are registered for WolfAlert so they can see timely information during an emergency.
The debate about firearms will continue to become more pressing each time a shooting occurs. More research is necessary to pinpoint the most effective strategies for resolving gun violence. However, it is clear that in schools, fighting fire with fire poses far too great a threat to our education to consider it as a solution. NC State must put its students first and offer every resource available to help prevent an attack from happening on our campus the next time.
The unsigned editorial is the opinion of the members of Technician’s editorial board, and is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief.
