Research Paper Info Cards
"The teachers had come to take part in Faster Saves Lives, a voluntary training program run by an Ohio-based nonprofit that has taught more than 1,300 school staff members to carry and use firearms since 2013. (Faster stands for Faculty/Administrator Safety Training & Emergency Response.)" (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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"'There is no evidence to show that arming teachers will see a reduction of mass shootings — we've seen them occur on campuses where there are armed security personnel,' Winkler said, adding that he hoped there was not an increase in accidental school shootings." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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"In some Ohio districts, uniformed and armed officers cost $100,000 per person to insure, according to The New York Times. It is unclear what it will cost to insure trained teachers." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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"'We protect things of value with armed security,' he said, 'and our children are our most precious resource.' (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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"After shootings like Parkland, and as a way to further their 'guns everywhere' agenda, the NRA takes every opportunity to push for policies that would arm teachers. There is no evidence that arming teachers will protect children in schools. To the contrary, research indicates that arming teachers will make children less safe." ("Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal." everytownresearch.org)
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"This is why school safety experts—including teachers, school resource officers, and law enforcement organizations—oppose the policy. If lawmakers want to prevent school shootings, they must adopt proactive, commonsense solutions to prevent people with dangerous histories from obtaining guns in the first place." ("Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal." everytownresearch.org)
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"""As with their parents' firearms, students may be aware of where and how teachers keep their firearms, and how to obtain access. A recent study shows that the majority of children are aware of where their parents store their guns, and more than one third reported handling their parents' guns—40 percent of them doing so without the knowledge of their parents.1 Access to a firearm, irrespective of age, triples the risk of death by suicide and doubles the risk of death by homicide.2 And the vast majority of fatal unintentional shootings of children are self-inflicted, or are by other children and involve an unsecured gun found in their own home.3 Easy availability of firearms play a fatal role in child firearm suicides—in over 80 percent of youth gun suicides, the child used a gun belonging to a family member.4 This body of research showing the increased risks to children posed by the presence of a gun suggests that introducing guns in schools would have similar tragic consequences."" (""Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal."" everytownresearch.org)"
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"'Guns have no place in our schools. Period. We must do everything we can to reduce the possibility of any gunfire in schools, and concentrate on ways to keep all guns off school property and ensure the safety of children and school employees. Lawmakers at every level of government should dismiss this dangerous idea and instead focus on measures that will create the safe and supportive learning environments our children deserve.'" ("Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal." everytownresearch.org)
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"""The FBI found that in 250 active shooter incidents, there were only seven successful armed civilian interventions. In contrast, unarmed civilians successfully intervened in 22 incidents. Research casts significant doubt on the idea that civilians can shoot as well as trained police officers in active shooter situations."" (""Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal."" everytownresearch.org)"
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"Following the shooting of 12 police officers at a demonstration where dozens of open carry activists were present, then-Dallas police chief David Brown said, 'We don't know who the good guy is versus the bad guy when everyone starts shooting."' ("Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal." everytownresearch.org)
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"Schools that have allowed employees to carry guns have had difficulty obtaining insurance coverage. Some liability insurance providers have declined coverage to these schools while others have increased annual premiums, stretching already tight budgets. Proposals to arm teachers will likely result in additional costs for training teachers, firearms, ammunition, and other costs, putting an additional financial burden on school districts and, ultimately, on taxpayers.1" ("Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal." everytownresearch.org)
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"Despite concerns from insurance companies, gun-control advocates and many teachers who say that arming educators will make schools more dangerous, the number of trained teachers is likely to continue to grow." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
2
"At the end of the course, another middle-school principal asked something that had been troubling him. 'What if you are in the cafeteria and a student would raise a gun, and he points it at people, and you take him down and it ends up being a toy gun?'Mr Sonewald answered. 'No, no, you are defending everybody else and in that case you have identified what would appear to be a clear threat. There is already case law established like that for police officers,' he said. There were other moments during the course when the teachers were encouraged to shoot rather than do nothing, and talk of the protection offered by US law. Speaking to the head teacher later, it was clear he was still troubled. 'If we are going to pull the trigger we want to make sure it is worth everything. It is tough to think about that it might be a kid that you know [that is the attacker]. A kid that you see every day,' he told me." (Maqbool, Aleem bcc.com)
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Case studies of gun training for teachers who passed the course
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"I have worked in the field of teacher preparation for over a decade, and arming teachers would change the work of teaching even more fundamentally than many may realize." (Charles, Jessica hechingerreport.org)
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"Unlike police, whose job it is to quickly determine when force is necessary to constrain dangerous behavior, teachers serve the public best when they see the human potential in each child and actively work over time to remove barriers that prevent children from growing into their limitless selves. In my research, I learned that the role both teachers and police adopt as a result of their training is profoundly shaped by what Charles Goodwin called 'professional vision,' and it determines how police and teachers view problems and the steps they take to solve them." (Charles, Jessica hechingerreport.org)
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"Often, new teachers (and some experienced teachers) treat students in deeply inhumane ways, through public humiliation, exclusion and punitive consequences. In part, this is because teacher-training programs generally focus on the nurturing side of teachers' work, but rarely acknowledge fully the very real expectation that teachers regulate student behavior." (Charles, Jessica hechingerreport.org)
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"As we've seen, this regularly results in tragic consequences for African-American men and boys who are shot by police officers who say they felt threatened and are then contradicted by video evidence of the event. The professional vision of the police is ultimately, and unfortunately, narrow — they are taught to look for danger, make decisions based on limited information and act quickly. These decisions primarily defend a sense of security for dominant groups and preserve current social norms." (Charles, Jessica hechingerreport.org)
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"I didn't want teachers to become more like police — far from it. Instead, because teachers and police are both asked to assert authority on the public's behalf, I wanted to learn how police trainers help novices don their positions of power and how they teach them to make decisions that reflect that power." (Charles, Jessica hetchingerreport.org)
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"Teachers also need to get to know their students over the course of many months, develop strong relationships with them, and make decisions about how to teach as a result of systematic reflection. Traditionally, teachers' work has not entailed life-and-death decision-making, which gives teachers an opportunity to take chances, build rapport and change course." (Chales, Jessica hechingerreport.org)
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"To prepare U.S. teachers to respond to school shooters, teacher-educators would likely be driven to cultivate a very different professional vision in new teachers. Rather than a hopeful stance, teachers would be taught to assume a fearful one. Rather than dismantling their biases, teachers would likely fortify them. Teachers would need to remain vigilant and see their classrooms as potential battlefields at all times. Potential threats would need to be swiftly assessed, and teachers — 80 percent of whom are white — would likely draw on the same problematic social frameworks that police do in determining who is good and who is bad." (Charles, Jessica hechingerreport.org)
27
"This would increase the likelihood that children of color, who are already disproportionately and harshly disciplined for minor infractions at school, would become the metaphorical and literal targets of underprepared teachers relying on their implicit bias to wield firearms. Equipping teachers with guns will add to the dangers that students face rather than reduce them." (Charles, Jessica hechingerreport.org)
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"Despite Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones' public campaign to convince local schools to adopt his idea of arming some teachers - to better protect students from horrific attacks like that recently at a Parkland, Florida high school - some Lakota school board members are wary of the idea." (Clark, Michael D. journal-news.com)
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"'Even people who say, "We don't want guns in our schools," well, when an event happens, you're calling the police and you're hoping they bring guns,' said Jim Irvine, president of the Buckeye Firearms Foundation, a pro-gun group that runs the Faster training in Ohio." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
3
"'I would be for more armed security officers in the school but not for letting the teachers have concealed carry in the schools,' said Sensing." (Clark, Michael D. journal-news.com)
30
"Jones has long lobbied for local schools to hire former police or military veterans as armed security guards in local schools. Lakota School Board Todd Parnell said 'I am not opposed to possibly arming some, highly qualified, educators - ex-military or similar.''However, I would be concerned about how to control firearms in a school plus I believe most teachers would have nothing to do with it. That being said, I think the board needs to consider all options to increase student safety and we will,' said Parnell." (Clark, Michael D. journal-news.com)
31
"Talk of arming teachers began shortly after the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999, and intensified after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012, according to the Education Commission of the States, which tracks education policy." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
4
"After the Parkland shooting, the debate heated up, particularly after President Donald Trump came out in favor of arming teachers. As of last week, at least 17 bills related to arming school staff had been proposed in 10 states over the past four months, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Of those, only one bill in Florida has been enacted. Most of the bills have failed, while two remain still pending." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
5
"In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, announced a wide-ranging school safety program less than two weeks after a gunman killed eight students and two teachers at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas. His proposals included expanding mental health screenings, increasing school protections and expanding a marshal program that allows school personnel to have a firearm." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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"Some districts, like Sidney City School District in the western part of the state, requires firearms to be kept locked in biometric safes, until they are needed in an emergency. The Ohio special needs teacher who completed the Faster program this spring said she's hoping she'll be able to carry a gun with her as she moves from classroom to classroom throughout the school day." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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"'Teachers don't want to be armed, we want to teach,' Weingarten wrote. 'We don't want to be, and would never have the expertise needed to be, sharp shooters; no amount of training can prepare an armed teacher to go up against an AR-15.'" (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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"Adam Winkler, a professor at the UCLA School of Law who specializes in the Second Amendment and gun control, said he believes that bringing guns into the classroom 'will have a severe impact on learning,' but will not have any effect on the number of mass shootings." (Rosenblatt, Kalhan nbcnews.com)
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