Arming the Teachers

Another school shooting means more debate about guns, gun control, mental health, and all of that stuff. It is pretty exhausting and fairly predictable. The arguments are old and tiresome. However, there is one that I always hear and figured it was time to address. This idea that students would be much safer if we just armed the teachers. Let us put aside the first problem: maybe teachers do not want to be armed. Instead, I want to look at this from a practical stance.

The Cost
If we make it a requirement that all teachers carry a gun, how much would it cost to buy a brand new Glock 9MM (you could probably argue for a different handgun, but for the sake of this argument, I want to stick with one that most people are familiar with–I mean, a Sig 40 is probably the cheaper and perhaps better option, but whatever) for every teacher? Well, on average, a new 9MM costs about $550. I would imagine that buying in a huge bulk shipment, you could negotiate the price down to $400/gun. According to the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), there are about 3.2 million teachers in the United States. So to arm each teacher, it would cost $1.28 billion. I will be even more conservative and drop that number to $800 million (figure that some teachers will absolutely refuse and maybe they can negotiate a better deal).

Then you have to consider that the teachers will need to be trained. Looking at this training website, it would seem that about 60 hours of training would be required to have teachers proficient enough to actually be effective during an active shooter emergency. I am sure you could tailor the course to get it down to 50 hours. Who trains that many teachers? My guess is that we use law enforcement, which means they will need to be paid. To train each teacher (that is to pay them, pay the instructors, pay for ammo, etc), we are looking at another $1000/teacher (I honestly think that is conservative–I am basing it off that training website and combining a few of the classes, however it does not seem like those classes provide the bullets, so I think you have to factor them in). Again, I will lower that to $500/teacher and with those 3 million (since we are rounding down a bit to account for some refusing to participate), that brings the cost $1.5 billion. So now we are at $2.3 billion in spending.

And what about the costs associated with any fees such as permits, registration, etc? We should probably add those in as well. So another $30 million ($10 per teacher). Ammo? $.16 per round, how much rounds would you think to give each teacher? Again, the training rounds will be provided by the trainer. Do you think 20 rounds is enough? If they want more to continue practicing, is that an out-of-pocket expense? 20 rounds=$9.6 million. Also, you need to consider things like holsters, storage spaces in schools. Are the teachers going to carry the gun with them while they teach? Or do they keep it locked in a special place? Do they have to take the firearm home with them at night or does the school have a special armory? If the guns are left on the property, will a security guard be employed to monitor the school after hours? I mean, if a criminal wanted to steal a bunch of guns, it seems that schools would be ripe for the picking. So with all of those added costs, where does that bring us? Conservatively figure $2.5 billion (once you add in all of the little things I mentioned or may have forgot).

Who Pays?

The Onion has the best picturesSo who pays this $2.5 billion? The federal government? Well that would really go against that large government spending approach that conservatives always talk about. This definitely does not seem like the type of program that small government folks would like. Republicans freak out that we spend too much on public broadcasting (a paltry $450 million). No, I do not think the federal government is the answer.

That leaves us with the the schools themselves. According to NCES, there are 13,600 school districts in this country, which means that each one would have to spend about $183,000 for guns and training. You honestly think schools have that kind of money? Teachers already have to buy some of their own supplies for their classrooms because budgets are stretched too thin. Schools are constantly having to cut art programs (music, theater, etc). I swear once a week there is another kid banging on my door, selling me something for a fundraiser for a different sports program. Baseball team needs new bats–sell those discount cards; the swim team needs new goggles–having a bake sale; the cheerleaders need pom-poms–Yankee Candle time. It never ends. I honestly just wish the area would raise my taxes $100 per year. Honestly, where would these schools find another $100,000+ to buy guns and train teachers how to use them? The money is not there. And when property taxes go up, people have a fit.

I guess we just force the teachers to pay for all of this themselves. Maybe we allow them to deduct some of it from their taxes. What could be the harm of forcing teachers to pay close to $1000 to better protect themselves and their students. Well some teachers may not be comfortable with it. This might cause teachers to quit. I feel like there is already a shortage of teachers out there (probably because we do not pay them that well considering the long hours they put in, and the vital role they have in our children’s lives). If you are a college kid, the prospect of becoming a teacher may sound even worse when you factor in the handgun scenario.

What Could Go Wrong?
“I was afraid for my life.” This is what we hear from police officers who shoot unarmed people (usually black men). You honestly think giving teachers guns and very little training is not going to result in a few accidents? There was just a story of a teacher assaulting a student for not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. A teacher in Pittsburgh punched a student in the face. It would only be a matter of time before a teacher feels threatened and pulls their gun and either threatens to shoot, or actually shoots a student. They will claim they thought the kid had a weapon and that they and the rest of the class were in imminent danger. We have already had a cop assault a student in a classroom.

I remember reading about this story and the teacher called the cops because the student was being disruptive. Now imagine that teacher feeling empowered by the fact that he has a gun. I can just hear a teacher trying to sound tough say something like “I have Mr. 9MM here if you want to test me.” Or something else equally stupid.

Or maybe we go down another route. What if the teacher panics during an active shooter event? What if they are nervous and accidentally shoots the wrong person, or just freaks out and starts shooting wildly at anything that comes by. What happens when a cop shoots a teacher because they saw a gun? Whose side do we take on that one? Training someone is great, but you have no clue how they will behave in an actual crisis.

Conclusion
Arming teachers is a bad idea. From a cost perspective and from a safety perspective. I know that conservatives and especially Second Amendment Supporters, hate hearing the words gun-control. I am not even suggesting anything like that, so do not bother giving me a bunch of reasons why liberal ideas will not work. I honestly want to hear your suggestions on how these mass-shootings, especially inside our schools can stop. I took one of your suggestions and gave it a look. Time to go back to the drawing board. Just like I tell my liberal friends that disarming the entire country is just impossible, so stop making stupid suggestions. But this is how we try to find solutions. We actually take the time to break them down and see if they could work.

Author: Ngewo

2 thoughts on “Arming the Teachers

  1. I wrote on Twitter that this is a very well thought out piece, and I wanted to add two things here. First, there are regularly substitute teachers in every school. Do all of them need to be training too? How much more would that cost?

    My even bigger concern is the safety of guns during the day. What if a teacher doesn’t properly secure them? They are responsible for 20-30 kids and have a lot on their mind. A fifth grader could easily get access to a gun. I can see dozens if not hundreds of accidental shootings occurring by kids.

    1. What? Accidental shootings…those never happen in people’s homes. Has there ever been a single case of a kid shooting someone because they found their parents gun? Please note the sarcasm

      I would say that subs have to be trained and armed as well. I mean, what good does it do if a kid can just wait until there is a substitute to go in and start shooting. So maybe we need to budget for $3 billion.

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