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There is no right answer on whether this is a good idea or not.

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There is no right answer on whether this is a good idea or not.

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There is no scientific evidence on whether or not armed schools are beneficial or not. Those who are opposed to teachers and staff being armed highlight their worry for more elevated risks of accidents happening with having more guns in a school. It is hard to determine whether or not a teacher can be expected to return gun fire in an incident like a mass school shooting. Teachers being armed also can increase the risk of a gun being improperly discharged or loosing control of the weapon. In differentiation, many states have passed laws that allow teachers and staff to be armed. All schools retain different policies on determining who can have control of attaining a gun on school grounds. Some schools allow teachers to posses a gun and other schools only allow security guards to carry firearms. There is no answer yet to if this could be right or wrong.

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The Effects of Laws Allowing Armed Staff in K–12 Schools

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Analysis of the impact of gun regulation in K–12 schools on gun-related outcomes in the United States

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32 schools allow teachers and staff to posses firearms on school grounds. Having an armed guard or staff on school grounds can help protect students from a catastrophe. It takes a few minutes for law enforcement to arrive at a scene, and teachers and staff being armed can help lessen the vulnerability of schools being threatened by an active shooter. There have been many school shooting tragedies and something they all have in common is not having any teachers and staff equipped to defend themselves.

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The question of whether or not armed guards can prevent a school shooting is something we can not answer for sure. There is potential that an armed security guard could end an attack on a school. Although it should not be assumed that armed security guards could end a school shooting. Mass shootings are hard to anticipate and security guards would have to be trained to stop an attacker. It is ideal to think armed guards should deter attackers but it has been proven that it has not in past cases.

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In much of America, the response to school shootings has been to put more guns in schools. In line with the National Rifle Association's position that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," an increasing number of police - usually known as school resource officers - have been assigned to guard students. Florida is considering legislation to allow teachers and administrators to carry guns on the job, bringing to the number of states that allow school staffers to go to work armed. One Florida town hired to keep watch with assault rifles.

In moments of extreme crisis like when an active shooter attacks, it's true that an armed guard could potentially end the terror. But the presence of security hasn't definitively deterred attacks in the first place.

"We don't have any rigorous causal evidence that says armed guards reduce school shootings or school violence," said Matthew Mayer, a professor at Rutgers University who studies violence in educational settings.

And in any case, active shooter incidents make up a very small part of overall gun violence: Despite the prominent media coverage of mass shootings, and school shootings in particular, only about of all firearm fatalities each year occur during such incidents. Last year there were 24 shootings causing injury or death in K-12 schools throughout the entire country, whereas there are more than 100,000 K-12 schools. Meanwhile, the choice to put people with guns in schools comes with costs that are mostly borne by students.

Guns have stopped some mass shootings - but not usually in schools

In the 25 shootings in the ALERRT study that targeted schools, none were brought to an end by armed staff, guards or police officers returning fire. These shootings most commonly ended when the shooters were restrained by unarmed staff.

In the broader group of gun attacks, ALERRT found that 52 ended after an exchange of gunfire with the perpetrator. Armed police responded in 45 of those incidents, while in seven cases civilians, security guards, or off-duty cops returned fire.

But advocates of guns in schools should not assume armed security would stop such attacks, said Peter Blair, the author of the ALERRT study. "It's within the realm of possibility to think an armed guard could stop an attacker," he said. "But they need to be trained to do that, including considerations of when to get involved or not, how to deal with crowded rooms or buildings."

Moreover, the majority of the shootings Blair analyzed ended on the perpetrator's initiative. That's not surprising, since mass shooting events are rare, difficult to anticipate, and usually end within minutes. It's unusual for armed bystanders or police to be in the right place at the right time.

Armed guards don't deter gunmen

But the record usually doesn't back up the deterrence theory - gunmen have often targeted schools with armed guards. In four high-profile 2018 school shootings - Kentucky's Marshall County High School in January; Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February; Maryland's Great Mills High School in March, and Santa Fe High School in Texas in May - attackers stormed campuses despite the presence of armed guards. In all four of those cases, guards failed to stop the gunman from killing.

More generally, active shooters do not favor "gun-free zones." Louis Klarevas, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, analyzed 111 shooting attacks between 1966 and 2015 for his book Rampage Nation , and found that only 18 took place in areas where firearms were banned.

Armed guards can have unintended consequences for schools

The current vogue for safeguarding schools with deadly force is a response to atrocities like Parkland. But school shootings remain relatively rare. Most of the guards hired as part of the recent trend will never encounter an active shooter. But they will carry guns around students every day on the job. And experts question whether this makes schools safer.

Instead, the push for armed security in schools is "perception based," according to Mayer, the Rutgers professor. "The parents and the administrators feel good about having police officers in schools, and they perceive improved school safety." However, the students themselves don't necessarily feel comforted by police or other armed security. Instead, kids may just feel policed.

One published in the journal Justice Quarterly found that as schools increasingly rely on police for security, administrators refer more students to law enforcement for nonviolent infractions. Police in schools may also end up using force against students. An investigation by HuffPost found that, from January 2016 to September 2018, police in schools had pepper sprayed students at least 32 times and body slammed, tackled, or choked students at least 15 times.

A new report from the gun violence prevention group Giffords also found that police have mishandled guns or allowed students to get their hands on weapons more than 60 times. School security officers have left guns in bathrooms. One third-grader managed to pull the trigger of a gun still in an officer's holster.

"It creates a mindset of fear," said Mayer, about the increasing reliance on armed security guards in schools.
Correction: an earlier version of this story erroneously stated that Florida had passed a law allowing teachers and administrators to carry guns in schools.

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Do Armed Guards Prevent School Shootings?

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In much of America, the response to school shootings has been to put more guns in schools. In line with the National Rifle Association's position that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," an increasing number of police - usually known as school resource officers - have been assigned to guard students.

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The topic of guns in schools is very controversial for many reasons. For those who believe teachers or guards should be armed, only want to protect children from harm. Mass shootings happen in 5 minutes or less. If the school is armed, this can help stop a gunman sooner than later. Time is so precious when an event like this is taking place.  The desperation the entire school is in can be prevented with giving armed schools a chance of defense when under attack.

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Trained, Armed and Ready. To Teach Kindergarten. (Published 2022)

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More school employees are carrying guns to defend against school shootings. In Ohio, a contentious new law requires no more than 24 hours of training.

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Guns in school are a major no to some. They often question why teachers should be carrying guns, when their occupation is to strictly teach students. There are worries about the likelihood of students having access to guns and someone being shot outside of an active shooter incident. Although this is possible, this is a matter of responsibility that teachers and staff will have to be certain on, and will keep away from children and them having any access.

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We must implement strong school safety solutions to prevent tragedies and keep children safe, but arming teachers is not one of them.