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Travis Roberts
Professor Bolton
ENG 101
21 July 2014
Arming Teachers
The protection of individuals while attending or working at schools and colleges, have
become a major issue of late. With the recent campus shootings how are you to ensure your own
security on a campus that doesnt allow guns? Last I checked, individuals intent on violent acts
didnt regard the sign stating, NO WEAPONS ALLOWED. Though allowing every student
the ability to carry a firearm, I agree is risky. Arming the teacher work force would greatly deter
criminal violence on campus, and offer an option of stopping a mass shooting before too many
lives are lost.
Its true that those who wish to kill will try and do so with no regard to current law
policy. The current laws preventing people from carrying on campus do not apply to them. A
firearm will be brought into the campus by them and it will be deployed in a violent manner with
loss of life. A police response although helpful is time consuming. Every second wasted in not
taking action directly against the active shooter is more lives lost. Students who have concealed
weapon permits are allowed to leave firearms in their vehicle on some campuses. I myself have a
CWP, and always have a firearm available. This is a great step in the right direction of allowing
this. But, a firearm that isnt on your person is useless in a shooting scenario. Your life could be
lost while trying to retrieve your weapon, and most would argue if you are at your vehicle out of
harms way, that you should not try to reengage the shooter.
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However, if the teachers were allowed to carry firearms onto the campus, this would give
direct protection to the teachers and their students under campus lockdown, to defend themselves
in their classroom. I myself have been a victim of a shooting. Ive been shot at and received a
gunshot wound. The only thing that saved my life was quick thinking and direct deployment of
my own firearm. In a shooting scenario there is no time to stop, think, and go grab a gun from a
vehicle 70 yards away, thats how people die. According to John R. Lott Jr., PhD, "when states
passed concealed carry laws during the 19 years we studied (1977 to 1995), the number of
multiple-victim public shootings declined by 84%. Deaths from these shootings plummeted on
average by 90%, injuries by 82%." Allowing teachers to carry on campus could follow this
positive correlation of this study to greatly improve survival chances if a shooting was to take
place. Arm our teachers with guns; we should not spend the rest of our lives waiting on the
police to bring theirs.

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Works Cited
ProCon.org. "ConcealedGuns." ProCon.org. 29 May 2014. Web. 21 July 2014.