That still doesn't address anything but my least important point.   It changes the role of teacher in a way which reduces their effectiveness as a teacher.  Schools are already safer than about any other place you can put a kid.  Any program which increases the presence of dangerous weapons which can be accidentally discharged to protect against a threat which is largely illusory is foolhardy.  Gun accidents kill far more people than the sensationalized but astonishingly rare school shooter.  Safety at schools can be increased more by any number of other methods which don't involve packing heat(for example a defibrillator at school would likely save more people without the potential for harms your "solution"  introduces).  This sounds more like the plot of a cheesy Hollywood thriller than sound policy.

Many schools already employ rent-a-cops and professional hall monitors (security guards). Why not arm them rather than the teachers?

Why the fear of teachers having guns? They don't do the job for the money, that's for sure.  They do it because they love it and they love the kids.  Teachers are some of the most sane people around.  (yes, there are exceptions as with anything else)  Should we just require the teachers to use their bodies as a sheild between the shooter and the students?  Or should we give them the chance to protect themselves and the kids?  Crisis training, gun training and licensing are a must, of course.  Teachers are the biggest influence on kids other than parents.  Most take their job very seriously and care deeply for these students.  In all the shootings at schools, I have never heard of a teacher trying to run away and protect themselves only.  Instead, most stay and try to protect the kids knowing that they will be the first ones to get shot at.  What other professionals would do that for our kids?  I woud trust a teacher far more than anyone else to do the right thing where the students are concerned.  The argument that school shootings are rare doesn't hold up.  It is happening more and more every year.  I looked on www.schoolsecurity.org and found 64 school related shootings which no deaths occured and 28 shootings that resulted in death, all from the 2006-2007 school year.  That doesn't seem very rare to me.          

Laws restricting access to guns cannot prevent the criminal minded from obtaining them. If more limits are imposed, teenagers will find guns elsewhere. Firearms are quite prevalent in your country.

I agree. It should not be required for teachers to carry guns, as it is not their responsibility, however should a teacher legally be able to if they choose?

Kids who shoot friends at school aren't "criminally" minded. They're insane.

If we don't address the real problem, adding more guns to the mix really doesn't do anything but make it worse.


Can students? In some states you only have to be covered by "Conceal-Carry Laws" 18 .

And you forgot to address the point that some teachers with guns endangers all the others. Is it fair to do that?

Um, I don't think they are exactly shooting their "friends."  I thought it was spite that motivated these school shooters.

I think this whole idea is supposed to save money.  If security was important, schools would buy it.  If you can't, well then you come up with clever schemes in giving teachers the right to bring their own. 

I couldn't imagine, being in class, knowing that my teacher has a holstered gun.  I wonder what that would do in terms of discipline.  I don't fuck with a cop not because I don't want to go to jail or get fined or whatever.  Its because he has a gun.  Giving a teacher that kind of power could backfire.

Now, now.  No need to get touchy.  I just thought it looked silly thats all. 

It certainly makes me uneasy.  Usually teachers are not the ones who love to take up the opportunity.  But I grew up in a liberal hot spot.  No one who would have even remotely voted conservative.

My sister went to school in NC for a year and said that half her teachers were crazy, spouting "Pro-Right" propaganda and talking about Jesus.   Them with guns would scare the "bejesus outta me."  They certaintly hated her for being a psuedo-hippy.  I couldn't imagine what they would have done if they had a gun.