What has happened in Parkland, Fla. and countless other schools across the U.S. is a tragedy. Students shouldn’t have to go to school in the hopes of achieving an education and fear for their lives at the same time. School should be a place where you learn and grow while also meeting new people and socializing with your friends. However, these recent events have caused more and more students to be afraid of what may happen on any given day. It has also sparked a nationwide discussion about how to address the problem. One solution that has been proposed is to arm teachers who wish to carry a gun at school.

We, as The Journal staff, feel that this is not a solution and would only make the problem worse.

When something is on fire, you bring water to put out the fire, not more fire. Arming teachers would be no different than fighting fire with fire. We understand why some teachers want to be armed, but we feel that their reasoning is flawed. Some might feel that, if they’re trapped, it provides a means of self protection, or that if the shooter was near them, they could take them out. However, we feel that teachers being armed would actually put more students in danger and cause further issues

According to the Giffords Law Center, “The risk of dying from an unintentional gunshot injury is 3.7 times higher for adults living in homes with guns, with handguns in the home posing a particular threat.” The presence of a gun in the home increases the chance of dying by one, either intentionally or accidentally. It would be naive of us to think that this wouldn’t also happen in our schools. If students found out where the teacher kept the firearm or if the teacher kept it on them, a student could figure out how to obtain the weapon and then do who knows what. Also, in the heat of the moment, a teacher could fall into an adrenaline rush and make a poor decision and accidentally discharge the firearm and possibly harming an innocent student.You cannot fight fire with fire.

Also, who would provide the firearm and the ammunition? Would there be training provided by the township or the Board of Education? Would every teacher be forced to be armed, or would it be a volunteer basis? Would students know who was armed? If so, wouldn’t a school shooter know to avoid those specific teachers with guns? Also, if the teacher leaves the classroom to pursue or find the shooter, who will watch over their students? This policy proposal has too many unanswered questions.

Teachers went to college and into education to teach the next generation of Americans. Leave protecting students to police officers and other security officials and let teachers teach.