In the past couple of months, throughout America there have been many suggestions on how we can prevent school shootings from happening. President Donald Trump suggested the idea that we arm teachers. Many were shocked by this idea and believe that teachers should not be given the responsibility to carry a gun in case of a life-threatening event in the classroom.

Students Racquel Gonzalez, Emily Pottebaum, Isaiah Rono, Dakota Jones, Kylie Hauf and Bret Howard participated in a friendly conversation sharing their viewpoints on the situation. As you see in the video some students were for teachers being armed and others against. After listening and taking in everyone’s opinions on the idea, I have found my opinion and where I lie on the issue.

The first major point that I agree with was said by the anti-arm teachers side. Racquel Gonzalez brought up how the first protocol police have while coming into a school shooting scene is to take down anyone who is seen with a gun. In the situation of a teacher being armed, the police have to go after them even if they are the shooter or not because in this situation everything is happening so fast and they have to take down anyone who appears to be a threat.

One thing many people believe is that just any teacher will be armed and have a gun. On the pro-arming teachers side they made a point that this is not the case. Dakota Jones and Kylie Hauf explained how “You’re not just giving a gun to any teacher.” The students would not be aware of what teachers are armed and they would go through serious training before even being considered being armed in a school setting.

A major issue is the funding aspect of everything. Many schools throughout the country can’t even afford to buy new books for their students let alone a gun. How will we pay for this? Emily Pottebaum and Racquel Gonzalez argued that schools cannot pay for these simple materials. Dakota Jones explained how not every school will need to arm their teachers. Smaller schools with police officers at them already and schools with high security wouldn’t feel the need to arm their teachers. I can see both sides arguments on this topic.

The question of if this will affect students is always going to be a lose-lose situation. Some students will feel more safe knowing their teachers are armed, while others will feel less safe knowing that there are more guns around them.

“If you fight fire with fire you’re are just going to get more fire. If you are trying to combat gun violence with more guns you’re just going to create more gun violence,” stated Emily Pottebaum. I agree with Emily in the aspect that if you bring in more guns, the results will end in more gun violence.

“If you have bad guys you don’t want to leave the good guys with nothing to defend themselves. The bad guys are going to come for you whether you have a gun or not. If you have a gun, you can fight back and have a better chance,” Kylie Hauf said. Hauf’s point is the most arguable point in my opinion. A bad guy is always going to come no matter what the situation is, so having something to prevent yourself from getting killed is an easier solution than doing nothing at all.