The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida was something of a wake-up call for America. It was an occurrence that made everybody, especially students, finally say something needs to be done. One of the most debated ideas was giving school faculty and/or staff guns to use for defense if something were to happen on campus.  

There are the pros an cons within this option, but the cons seem to stand out more.

The financial aspects to begin having faculty keep guns add a lot to the cons. Schools would have to pay another hefty amount of money to supply the weapons. At Academy, the cheapest pistol they have is currently $149.99. If you were to give every staff and faculty member on campus a handgun, the money would start to add up. Before you know it, the district, state, and national governments have to find room in the budget to fund all of it when school district’s funding is already strained because of those same politicians’ policies.

All of that money could go to better things for classrooms, like textbooks, new computers or calculators. The money could even supply a higher wage for the teachers.

As for teacher’s pay, if you are going to require them to keep a gun in their classroom or office and possibly use it, they deserve a raise. A significant raise. It is a huge responsibility and puts a lot of pressure teachers, who already have pressure from all other directions in their job. They already do so much without that responsibility, so giving them another job for them to do only piles on the stress.

Using a weapon, such as a gun, is obviously not a typical job for a school teacher. When they decided to make this their career, they did not have shooting someone in mind.

A study held by Gallup showed that 73% of teachers do not want guns being carried on campuses. If so many teachers do not want or like the idea of it, then their unsupportiveness and discomfort should be considered by politicians.

There are also the chances of what could happen if they were to use the gun. According to The New York Times, in 2006, the NYPD Firearms Discharge Report showed that their officers shot their target 28.3% of the time. If someone whose job has always required them to shoot a threat… cannot make their shot even ⅓ of the time, how can people expect teachers to make their own?

Guns for staff members is not the only option to protect schools. There are other measures people can take to protect the schools.

Better check in systems could be implemented, trustworthy and prepared police officers could be hired (the only school members who should have a gun are the on-campus officers), all outside and classroom doors could be required to be locked, bulletproof architecture, such as windows, could be funded.

Many schools have some of these in place, so they are already one step in the right direction.

One thing everybody can and should do for school safety is to report any suspicious or threatening behavior. It keeps administration aware of anything that could happen and could prevent anything from happening. It could also get the reported person the help they need to put them in a better state of mind.

Even with all of the cons, the purpose of giving faculty or staff guns is understood. Everybody only wants our schools to be safe, and guns may be able to do that. If a shooter walked onto campus, the staff could defend themselves and anybody else with them. But there are so many what-ifs, possibilities, and other aspects to take into account.

Unfortunately, all the unknowns shouldn’t be at the expense of our student’s lives.