Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses? Ricardo O. Elias II Maylene Cazares Vincent Holden Steven Acevedo May 20, 2013 BCOM/275 Lynda Sohl

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses

Protecting children is one law every parent can agree on. However, how to achieve this goal many parents disagree. Because of recent events many law makers, educators, community leaders, and parents have taken guns into their own hands. Team A believes law-abiding citizens have the right to own guns, but concerning protection in schools, guns belong in the hands of trained professionals. The following are pros and cons of this heated debate. Despite the right to own guns there are many reasons for not possessing guns on school campuses, according to views of a 25-year school safety expert (Trump1996-2013) there are several concerns from teachers and school staff members. It is a firm belief of the president of the national school safety and security that teachers and school staff typically do not have the expertise, experience, or professional capabilities that involve placing them in an armed situation concerning safety on school campuses. Not only that the infrastructure for responsibility and liability is not in place or ready to implement.

The concern of teachers and staff is there are no adequate policies concerning firearms held by school staff. Traditionally there are histories to learn from, and there is a need to implement policies that will prevent history from repeating itself. The problem is that every school campus is different making a global school firearms policy a huge debate regarding what would be acceptable and what would be too much. The use of Force Continuum is another example of not prepared to implement. Does the nation allow school staff and teachers to

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses

have the same rules equal to law enforcement? To do so would convert teachers and staff into teachers/law enforcement agents. This would require a whole new set of rules and policies. Other questions that have arisen and pose a policy debate are accidental school shootings what are the policies and ramifications for the school and state? What if a weapon is lost or stolen when on campus? Whose responsibility is that? What are those policies and ramifications? One of the easiest ways that was discussed to remove many of these questions is to employ Law enforcement options. Then there is the question of how far does the school system push the law enforcement options. With this new thinking of adding Law enforcement the questions for skills development come into play. What type of training is adequately to fulfill this position; what are the specifications for qualifications. Does the person require prior law enforcement experience, etc.? The worst questions for cons of guns in schools come when evaluating the worst scenarios. Teachers and school staff are human and have his or her limits. What if a teacher or school staff member loses his or her temper or in fear shoots a child? There was an instance in which a teacher fired blanks at the students. There is one where another school staff member taking a training class to be armed at school shoots himself in the foot! Acquiring greater control of dangerous situations in the school systems is a must, but how to implement guns into schools has many cons of which are still not listed here. An ethical con of arming teachers and school staff would be that doing so would turn educators into law enforcers, is that ethical? Why should

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses educators who did not choose this career of law enforcement be forced to choose between their morals if the time should come to use that weapon? The

legalities of arming schoolteachers and staff are many to mention but a few have been listed above in the discussion of policy making. There is still a long way to implementing the type of laws that would work for the majority of all. Not all views of guns on school grounds are negative. There are many positive aspects of teacher and school administrators who are armed to help protect against possible assailants. Most schools are at least five minutes away from help by a law enforcement officer and that could be a few minutes too late for some unlucky children and educators at the school. Having a teacher or official armed possibly could save lives in this time frame that it would take for a law enforcement officer to arrive on the scene. This was the case by one brave assistant principle in Mississippi. Joel Myrick the principal retrieved a handgun from his truck when he discovered Luke Woodham had just killed two students and was on his way to kill other students. Joel blocked the road and ordered Luke to the ground at gunpoint until the police arrived. If this person still had a gun in his possession many more students would have been harmed that day as Luke still had 36 rounds for his weapon left in his pocket. Educators with guns would be a deterrent to aggressive crimes as the people trying to commit these crimes would know that someone on the campus would have a gun and possibly could use physically force to stop the crime. Giving people who threaten others tactical consequences to think of vs. a campus waiting like sheep for the slaughter will deter many crimes that would

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses

otherwise sweep through a school campus without a second thought. Although it is not guaranteed there will be no more deaths on school campuses; it is believed the amount of deaths and gun promoted tragedies on school campuses would be minimal compared to today`s statistics. Students will feel safe in an environment in which to learn without the fear of possibly being shot while studying. Students do not have to know who has the guns, or how many there are, they just need to know that weapons are on campus for their protection to give them that warm feeling of safety. Law makers, Community leaders, and Educators are slowly coming onboard to support laws that allow educators to carry guns on school campuses. South Dakota became the very first state in the nation to enact a law explicitly authorizing school employees to carry guns on- the-job, under a measure signed into law by Gov. Dennis Daugaard. It is hard to ignore the tragedies that schools have had to endure in recent years. Schools and educators need to perform their responsibilities without fear of how they will protect their students. Little by little more communities are coming to this final realization and implementing laws previously unheard of. Nashville has followed suit at least a few teachers and other school personnel could take their guns to class under legislation approved Thursday by the State Senate, but their identities will be kept secret. Again pros for having guns in school will have ethical, moral, and legal issues. Is it ethical to make students aware of guns in their immediate presence? Do the schools or Educators have moral responsibilities to put their lives in danger by pulling out that weapon in time of need? How many loop holes would

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses have to be discovered before the legal system gets the correct set of laws in order? Many considerations will be taking place here in the near future. One thing is certain and a point that all can agree upon. The safety of all on school campuses is a must. Team A have considered the facts and concluded, including the majority of the nation that new steps need to be taken to ensure the safety of school campuses. Guns should be allowed on school campuses with stipulations in place they should be carried by trained personnel, possibly even people with a law enforcement background. In reading it seems that pros for having guns in school have been more persuasive versus cons against having guns in school. The fact is educators with guns on campuses have already saved lives and will continue to do so as new laws are passed, according to cons against educators carrying guns. There would remain questions of accountability and who will be responsible for certain actions, but it cannot be denied that guns in the right

hands could be a powerful deterrent to anyone wishing to do harm to students or school employees. Most educators would be willing to take on this responsibility. The question becomes should they have too? They are there to educate. They have not chosen this career path to become law enforcers or protectors. This discussion will always have fierce debates on who is right or wrong. The positive that remains from both sides of the argument hopefully will continue to be all about keeping schools of the nation safe.

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses Cultural Evaluation: Japan

In many ways, Japans gun laws differ from that of the United States Japan has the second to lowest homicide rate in the world and has had only two gunrelated homicides per year (Fisher, 2012). For gun control advocates, Japans prohibition of civilian gun ownership is a blessing and gun control model the United States should follow. For gun advocates, Japans strict forbiddance of civilian gun ownership cries of a police state, which the United States Constitution protects United States citizens from. In the United States virtually anyone can own and in many instances, carry a concealed weapon. According to Kopel (1988) this accounts for the 200 times higher murder rate the United States has over Japans two to three times lower homicide rate. Japans gun law allows police, military, and hunters to own guns with possession strictly policed. Gun registration is vague and leaves the police with broad discretion for rejecting applicants Kopel (1988). Arguments for guns in schools would need to be presented from a necessity point of view, and even more from a societal viewpoint. Japan has a low crime rate virtually without the use of guns because of its social controls that are absorbed in the citizens from birth (Kopel, 1993). So an advocate for guns in school will have a hard time approaching Japanese culture by simply presenting statistics of crimes committed with guns. The argument would have to come from the standpoint of a lack of societal control and gun regulations that foster high gun-related crimes and thus the need for gun possession by school authorities. Even Japans police use hand guns in the rarest of instances and spend more time training in martial

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses arts (which they use as a first defense) than in firearm training. So to argue in favor of educators carrying hand guns to protect school children would seem

absurd in Japanese culture. Statistics presented that proved simply owning a gun was not the problem but the attitudes of those who own them are, a presentation or argument for guns in schools may be won. For instance according to Kopel (1988) Israel and Switzerland have more guns per capita than the United States and yet they have almost no gun crime and less violent and murder crime than Japan. Japanese culture has worked in favor of developing that country into a gun free society, but that has not translated into a suicide or homicide free country. Gun advocate can point to a higher murder rate Japan has over Great Britain as leverage but gun controllers can point to the gun as a preferred choice for suicide attempts in males in the U.S. There are many pros and cons in the concealed weapon debate. Japan has no right to bear arms as do the United States. The argument for the use of or possession of a fire arm by an educator would be hard to argue with a Japanese national and requires a complete understanding of Japans culture.

Should Guns be allowed on School Campuses References: Kopel, D. B. (1988). Japan: Gun Control and People control Fisher, M. (2012, July 23). A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths. The Atlantic, Kopel, D. B. (1993). Japanese Gun Control. : Longman Asia LTD. The New York Times (Eligon J. 2013) (National School Security and Safety (Trump, K.S. 1996-2013) http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/28/justice/connecticut-father-kills-son

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/virginia-teacher-arrested-allegedlyfiring-blanks-students-164758793.html http://americablog.com/2013/03/texas-school-employee-shoots-self-attraining-class-to-arm-teachers.html http://americablog.com/2013/03/texas-school-employee-shoots-self-attraining-class-to-arm-teachers.html http://newsone.com/2131976/california-school-shooting/ http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/guns-have-already-saved-livesat-school Billhttp://www.davekopel.com/2a/othwr/principal&gun.htm Passes becomes State Law