School Protection Officers? Posted on September 23rd, 2014 by

I stumbled across an article recently about Missouri’s newest law regarding teachers carrying concealed weapons. The law says that schools can designate and train staff as “school protection officers” and allow them to carry concealed guns and/or mace. It also allows anyone with a concealed weapons permit to carry guns, even in locations that have their own bans on concealed weapons.

I’m not entirely sure if this is a good idea. Personal opinions about gun control aside, are schools really a place we want to allow guns, regardless of who’s carrying it? School security is a really important issue that needs to be resolved, especially in the wake of Sandy Hook, but is this really the best way to prevent/respond to school shootings? While I understand the urge to allow teachers to defend themselves, I also feel like there is way too much potential for this to backfire, whether it’s in the form of accidents, a false sense of security, or paranoia. And if schools do allow certain staff to carry guns, who can be armed? Is it limited to just teachers and administration? What about paras, custodians, etc.? Obviously it’s a complicated issue. Thoughts?

The article is here, if you want to check it out:

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/11/missouri-guns-schools.html

 


One Comment

  1. Megan Allen says:

    Morgan, this is an interesting article, definitely something that is a hot button issue right now. Is adding more guns to the problem solving it? I don’t think so. I agree with you that allowing for teachers and school staff to carry weapons in school simply increases the chances of gun involved incidents in school. It’s so disappointing that in this day and age teachers feel that they must arm themselves at school in order to feel safe.