Hallie Colbert
SAN MARCOS, Texas — San Marcos residents expressed conflicting opinions on arming public school teachers K-12 with firearms and discussed how to prevent future gun violence in light of recent school shootings.
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| Jacob Seabolt Photo by Hallie Colbert |
Jacob Seabolt, a criminal justice major at Texas State University, said that he opposes tighter gun control because the protection guns provide may save lives.
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| Garret Hanson Photo by Rachel Lauten and Sierra Tyler |
"I don't think there should be any gun control at all," Seabolt said. "I think if you just take off the signs that say 'gun-free zone' and you let people just have freedom I think they can take care of their own problems."
Arming teachers across America would also be costly, and it is undecided whether guns and firearm training would be funded privately or by taxpayers. A Washington Post study found that arming teachers could cost between $43 million and $1 billion.
Garret Hanson, a finance major at Texas State, said that arming teachers could be a good idea but the option should be voluntary and require staff members to personally fund the purchase of their weapons and necessary training.
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| Casey Sigerman Photo by Casey Sigerman |
"As long as they go through with the normal training process everyone else has to have a Concealed Handgun License," Hanson said. "It should not be on the taxpayers' dime to arm teachers or administrators."
Schools in Florida that have already introduced firearms into the school system require gun-carrying staff members to receive 132 hours of firearm training, which is less than what a basic police recruit is required to receive.
Casey Sigerman, a high school English teacher, said she would not be comfortable at work knowing there were multiple firearms in the area.
"You can have gun safety training all you want, but unless you have specific training for combat I don't think it would really help you," Sigerman said. "When I went into education, never did I think that this was something I would deal with in my profession... I would have to figure out something else for me to do because I would worry about it all the time."
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| Nyssa Norman Photo by Hallie Colbert |
Nyssa Norman, a high school junior, said she would not feel safe learning in an environment with weapons.
"It makes me scared to come to school every day," Norman said. "It would put everyone more on edge... We wouldn't be able to fully learn and focus on our work."
Chloe Butler, a psychology major at Texas State, said that states could consider alternative methods of protecting students other than arming just teachers.
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| Chloe Butler Photo by Corey Hammonds |
"I think they could implement ex-military, veterans, local volunteers, police officers or citizens that go through the right amount of background checks and are reliable to protect children and whoever is inside the schools," Butler said.
A study from the Pew Research Center found that 55 percent of adults in America would oppose arming public school teachers while 45 percent would support the idea. These differing opinions ran parallel with party lines, with Republicans and gun owners favoring the proposal and mainly Democrats and people who do not own guns in opposition. What both sides seemed to agree on, however, is that changes need to be made.
Brittany Matt, a communication disorder major at Texas State, said the Parkland shooting has been a turning point in how America views the Second Amendment.
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| Brittany Matt Photo by Zach Smith |
"In today's society school shootings are spontaneous, oversaturated and students are becoming desensitized to these tragic events," Matt said. "I know the right to bear arms is an amendment we have as citizens to protect us from a potentially war-hungry government, but the current problem that needs to be solved is that we're using guns as a means to kill each other instead of using them as protection of a larger entity."
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