DOES THE POLICY OF ARMING TEACHERS HISS THE HARK? Is it true that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"?

AuthorSchildkraut, Jaclyn
PositionLAW & JUSTICE

IN THE AETERMATH of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fia., a number of proposals aimed at improving school safety began circulating in public and political discourse. Among the most controversial is the suggestion to arm teachers.

Advocates of the proposal--including (but not limited to) the National Rifle Association, Pres. Donald Trump, and the majority of the Florida legislature--suggest that increasing the presence of armed civilians will be beneficial in active-shooter situations like Parkland because "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Individuals who support the presence of armed civilians often point to the 2007 shooting at a church in Colorado Springs, Colo., as a case where this has been effective. When a gunman entered the church, parishioner Jeanne Assam retrieved her concealed weapon (for which she had a permit), fired, and wounded him; he then committed suicide. A point that bears noting, however, is that Assam was not an untrained citizen, but instead a former police officer with a considerable amount of tactical firearm training.

Those in opposition to such a policy assert that guns have no place in the academic setting, citing concerns over impediments to student-teacher relationship building and potential increases in gun-related injuries and deaths at school, among other considerations. An often-cited example is the 2012 shooting at the Empire State Building in New York, where a man shot and killed his former coworker near the entrance. Responding law enforcement officers were able to engage and kill the suspect, but they wounded nine bystanders in the process. Opponents of concealed carry by civilians argue that, if law enforcement cannot hit their targets (and only their targets) as expected, it is unreasonable to expect that the average citizen could do so.

Anecdotal debate aside, there remains a significant void in the discussion--whether such a policy would be effective based on the evidence. While no data exists to support the assertion that the presence of armed individuals has been or would be successful in stopping school shootings, there is evidence which indicates that such a policy would fail to meet its intended goals.

An important starting point to examine the evidence and the viability of such a policy is the research that has been conducted on law enforcement officers' accuracy rates in firearm discharges. One study, for...

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