San Marcos responds to American gun laws

By: Zach Smith - zjs22@txstate.edu

SAN MARCOS, Texas -- The shooting that occurred at a Parkland, Florida high school has started a national debate about guns and arming teachers K-12. There are many different ideas that have been proposed to protect students such as building safe rooms in classrooms to arming teachers in the classroom.

According to CNN, seven out of 10 people currently believe that there should be stricter gun laws made in the United States. This could look something like raising the minimum age to buy a gun to 21.

Chloe Butler - Photo by Corey Hammonds

Chloe Butler, who is a special education major at Texas State, believes that arming teachers may be a possible solution.

“Personally, my thoughts about guns in schools is that they could possibly be a good alternative for protection for students and faculty, so they can be safe. I think there is a

lot of questions and laws that go into that and it could be very difficult and touchy subject,” said Butler.

Garret Hanson Photo by Rachel Lauten and Sierra Tyler

Garret Hanson, a finance major at Texas State, had a similar point of view only that he believed that it should just be seen as teachers being able to carry guns they personally prepared themselves with.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with teachers being armed, I think it has to do with just them practicing their rights and the second amendment like everyone else that already has the CHL does. The only difference is that right now teachers aren’t allowed to carry a gun on campus and some places they are,” said Hanson.

Jackie Aguilar - Photo by Zach Smith

Not everyone on campus agrees with this point of view when it comes to arming teachers in school. One student, Jackie Aguilar, is planning to be a teacher herself and had a different perspective to share.

“I think it’s a vast problem, and of course I'm not for guns, it’s such a mess with politics and everything that people are going to be like, yah ban them. I don't know. You've heard that in Australia they had one mass shooting and they band guns and it hasn't happened again. You'd think that common sense would be to have strict gun laws but…” said Aguilar.

Dr. Donald S. Inbody - Photo by Sarah Atterbury

Dr. Donald S. Inbody, a professor at Texas State, spent 28 years in the navy and was able to share his thoughts. He broadened the problem to more than just school, but all of the United States.

“I think they’re going to have to, one, harden the schools. That’s expensive and it’s sad that we have to do that. Two, I think we just have to be more aware of the kind of individuals who might be inclined to do this and pay attention to them. I’m not convinced that the effort to control the sale of certain types of guns is going to fix the problem. I do think we have fundamentally an anger problem with young, white males,” said Inbody.

Gabriel Newton - Photo by O’Bryant Muralles

Outside of the university setting, students of all ages are talking about this issue. One high school sophomore, Gabriel Newton, shared his perspective on how to solve this issue.

“I think a lot of minorities would be scared in class if they saw a teacher walk by with a gun on his or her hip. If I was minority and I see all this stuff on the news and I see a teacher with a gun on their hip, I would be a little nervous and I think students would not want to come to school. I just think that, if they really want to do something about it, just put more cops on campus,” said Newton.