It is time to face the harsh reality of the society we live in today. We live in a world where we are surrounded by crime, poverty and violence. Recently, however, we have been reminded once again of the consequences of firearms being in the wrong hands, such as when an armed gunman entered the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 16, taking 12 lives before being killed by local police. The severity and frequency of senseless and tragic gun violence is, if anything, increasing. Violence has taken its toll with a vengeance in cities across this nation, even in places presumed to be the safest of all: our schools.
The saddest truth of all is that the presence of guns in our schools has been somewhat of a “new normal” in America. Men and women yielding guns –boys and girls even– have wreaked havoc or created disturbances in places such as the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Century movie theater in Aurora, Co., McNair Learning Academy in Decatur, and even Atlanta Public Schools Price Middle School and our very own Grady High School.
Here’s a statistic to consider: Guns are the second leading cause of death among children and teens, and the No. 1 cause among African-American children and teens, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. Even though this is the case, groups such as the National Rifle Association have called upon school districts to arm teachers in case of an emergency. If you consider this idea to be inconceivable, think again. According to the Associated Press, the Arkansas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies not only voted to allow each of the state’s 13 school districts to arm their teachers, but also to train them as volunteer security guards so that they can be licensed to carry concealed weapons. An idea of this caliber is foolish and a mockery of the true meaning of safety in schools. Not only will arming teachers not solve the problem of guns in schools, but it could also potentially worsen the issue. Arming teachers with firearms would require training for all teachers at an additional expense, while also increasing the number of guns in schools. Providing guns to teachers would make guns more accessible to anyone with negative intentions within the school, thus creating a more dangerous environment.
After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in which 27 innocent children were killed out of spite, President Barack Obama posed a set of questions to the families of the victims, as well as the American public as a whole.
“This is our first task: caring for our children,” Obama said on Dec. 16 in a prayer vigil for the families of the victims. “It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?”
Unfortunately, the answer to each of these is no. The number of gun incidents since Sandy Hook, since Aurora, since Columbine even, is proof that we are not meeting our obligations, and we are not doing enough as a country to keep children safe. Arming teachers will not and will never be justified until gun control is enforced and our gun laws are reviewed as a whole and improved significantly, even if it takes just one step at a time.
