Dear Next President:

I am a student at West Albany High School and I have heard many stories about the past school shootings around the United States. Many people believe that to solve this problem, there should be guns in the schools for the tragic situations. This is not the case though. Guns in schools will just make these situations worse and likely more common. Examples on why guns would be worse than they would be helpful include: anyone who shoots a gun, concealed or not, would have to be investigated, teachers would need to go through training which schools would be obligated to pay for and most likely could not afford, and the guns would need to be in no way accessible by students or anyone else whom the firearm does not belong to.

For example, according to cnn.com, a school shooting happened just a few weeks ago in Southern Carolina, and a 14-year-old teen boy was responsible. The boy was at home and murdered his father and then went straight to the local elementary school and open fired at kids who were on the playground during their recess time. Now even though this shooting happened, teachers being armed would not have helped the situation. This is because if guns were allowed, an adult could not shoot a 14-year-old child even if they were a threat to other students. This is an example of anyone shooting a firearm being under investigation; no matter the circumstance. This is because you cannot shoot at anyone without avalid reason, so that is why they would they would have to investigate the event.

One of the biggest arguments is that guns would help with not only self defense, but would also help with the safety of other students in the school. With colleges, some people believe the students should be able to carry concealed weapons for self defense during school shootings or any other unsafe situations. In the article “Does Concealed Carry Make Sense In Schools and On Campus?” by Desiree J. Hanford, they state that, because teachers deal with students regularly, they are as qualified as police officers to carry a firearm. However, police officers are tested about the types of situations where a firearm may or may not be needed, whereas the average person carrying a gun, including a teacher, isn’t. This shows that teachers do not have enough training or knowledge about gun safety to be carrying one around campus.

If schools began the law to allow concealed guns on campuses, the teachers would need to go through training and be taught not only how to work a gun, but they would need to learn the safeties of the firearm and know when it would be appropriate to use one. Chances are that on campus, there are not many opportunities where it would be okay to fire any weapon. The teachers that owned the guns would also need to be sure that there is no possible way for a student or anyone else to get ahold of their gun. Not only would the training for each teacher to go through a gun safety be extremely expensive for the schools, but so would each firearm.

Guns should not be allowed in schools or on campus. Tragedies like the shooting in South Carolina should be prevented, and we need come up with a way to make schools a safer environment. Schools shootings must be stopped, but guns on campus are not going to solve this problem. There are many ways to make schools safer but bringing deadly weapons on campuses is just going to make matters worse. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mykayla B.