At my college I had the pleasure of hearing some different views on what our country should do next when it comes to guns laws and restrictions. Going into this discussion I had my mind made up that teachers and principals should be armed within the classroom, creating a mindset that the teacher can be a protector. I am proud to say that my mindset has changed pretty drastically. After hearing not from one professor, but three, they all enlightened me that they wouldn’t want to bear arms but instead give them up.
One professor even said that he wouldn’t nominate himself to bear a weapon let along shoot one. A teacher who served in the military said that he recalled being tested and missing the test shot dramatically. I guess my thought of arming teachers to be trained killers was ignorant, and dare I admit it, wrong. They don’t want to kill, they just want to teach and return peacefully to their homes.
Though my idea was wrong I stand strongly behind my new one. I believe voting is a huge action we should take when it comes to making it harder to bear arms. With that said, who knows how long it will take Congress to pass a bill for it. Knowing they just passed a bill to make it easier to bear arms tells me no one knows how long that will take. So I think its best to emphasize education about the right to bear arms, and the signs and signals of possible perpetrators; how to spot them and how to help them and what to do next. And educating the public on why the common good is more important than individual wants.
With that said, I also believe that for the time being. until everything calms, there should be more protection in schools, at least metal detectors. Though some schools may have various procedures for protection, I think it varies too much throughout the country. Becoming proactive is America’s best bet right now, for a short-term goal. This also applies to the mental health. Most of the violators have been mentally ill in some form. Simply put, it is way too easy for them to get guns like AK’s and AR-15’s. Throughout this discussion I was able to understand the complexity of this argument.
