Essay on A Matter of Safety: School Shootings

“Are gun free zones worth having in American schools?” Through the recent struggles in policy related to mass school shootings in gun free zones, I believe that we should evaluate current policies and if need be, propose new policies, to limit or eliminate mass shootings in schools, which can and should be prevented. A common misconception when talking about ‘gun free zones’ is that Gun free zones can easily be misunderstood as meaning zero guns, but rather (usually) means that an unauthorized person cannot carry in that area (which may vary from state to state). But the issue isn’t with the misconception, but more so with the lack of safety that schools have or so we think.

For example, in 1999 thirteen people, including a teacher, were murdered at Columbine High School. Nine years later tragedy struck again at Virginia Tech University where 32 people were gunned down including five staff members. Most recently, a gunman killed 20 innocent elementary students along with six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut (Rostron 439-440). LSUA cannot be the next school to be added to this list. Schools are supposed to be a safe place for everyone and not a high risk danger zone. These school shootings have sparked debates whether or not teachers should be allowed to carry guns in schools to protect themselves, as well as students (Rostron 440). Although guns can do bad things, they can do good things like saving lives. National Rifle Association Vice President Wayne LaPierrce says “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” (Rostron 441-442). Politicians and the media want us to believe that more harm is done with guns than good and make us believe it’s the gun’s fault it killed someone, not the person who shot then gun (Rostron 454). My solution to fix LSUA’s small amount of security around campus and the

My initial reaction after reading the article, Teachers With Guns by Wade Livingston, struck me furious. I recall thinking out loud and trying to explain to myself the reason as to why schools, which I had always thought to be one of the safest places throughout my childhood, had become projecting danger zones throughout our nation. Schools are supposed to be a place where a child can go and learn and not have to worry about being put into danger. I am not in anyway blind to the dangers of today’s society and with the amount of school shootings on the rise; I am in agreement with the argument that something has to be done. However my early response was that arming teachers was NOT the way to protect the campuses.

During the past few years, the number of school shootings has increased markedly. In 2013, there were 19 school shootings that occurred, taking so many innocent lives. Some may remember the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14th, 2013. It was the second deadliest massacre shooting in United States history, behind the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre. Adam Lanza shot twenty children, six staff, his mother, and himself that day. School shootings are tragic. Violence continues to increase with these shootings, as well as with violence within the schools among the students. The big question is, how do we protect ourselves from these horrible occurrences? How do teachers protect the innocent lives of their students? One common suggestion is for the teachers and administration to be armed. The premise is that if the school staff has possession of firearms this would discourage shooters, thereby making the schools much safer. However, it is my belief that teachers should not be able to have access to weapons. There should never be any type firearm on a school property, excluding trained security personnel, such as police officers and security guards.

“Shooting massacres” in school settings, a new phenomenon within the past 50 years, are extremely rare events. Over 23 years, 1990-2012, 215 fatal school shooting incidents resulted in 363 deaths, equivalent to 0.12% of national firearm homicides during that time period …… Among these, just three shooting rampages – Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, and Sandy Hook Elementary School – accounted for 72 (53.3%) of these 135 deaths. The frequency of random/ rampage shooting incidents in schools has remained within the narrow range of 0 to 3 episodes per year.” (Shultz, et al., 2013, p. 84)

School shootings have become well known around the world due to the coverage by the media. . These shootings are a serious concern and have parents constantly concerned about their child’s safety when they are at school and also have students thinking twice about any unusual or suspicious behavior. The media appears to play a large part in school shootings and it is important to analyze the deviant behaviors of the shooters in these horrific instances and the fear they create in schools. Does the media play a large part in school shootings or does the media play a large part in the sensationalism of school shootings and the fear they create both in schools and with parents?

Numerous studies have been conducted to determine if teachers should be in possession of a firearm while on school properties and if this will decrease the number and magnitude of school shootings. Many scholars believe equipping teachers with firearms will be costly and end up unnecessarily endangering more students, but many scholars claim that a teacher should be the last line of defense against a school shooter. The question this paper hopes to answer is how can equipping teachers who teach grades K-12 help to prevent school shootings in the United States. This paper will attempt to answer that question by examining the perspectives of school administration and law enforcement, the impact on student’s safety and education, the

School should be a place of peace and opportunity, but gaps in the system of gun control threatens the safety of faculty and students. School shootings have killed a total of 297 lives, young and old (Slate Magazine). Gun control has been a continuous nationwide debate for many years. It seems that no one wants to take a stance against guns unless they are personally affected. In order to take control of the matter and prevent more incidents from continuing schools need to change. To achieve a safe environment in schools need to educate faculty, safe and students, heighten security, and assess mental health issues.

As anyone in the nation knows mass shootings are becoming more common and are becoming very predictable. In fact stats from the Crime Prevention Research Center show that over 98% of mass shootings happen in schools that are gun free zones from 1950 to july 10 of 2016. Although Nebraska has not had any reported mass shooting there has been one that took place in the parking lot of fort calhoun elementary school. We should be prepared to defend what place would most likely to be put in a shooting situation.

Soon after the 1999 massacre, school lockdowns became widespread and ushered new security measures in school across the U.S. The effort of installing Lockdowns were strengthened after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Instructors and staff members applied these safety procedures to protect students at the school. Students were swept into the storage closets and behind bookcases where they would hide until the situation is fully resolved. Today, instructors are advised to snap off the lights, lock the doors and usher students into closets and corners while the school officials contact the police. In this locked room, students' text one another, play cards or board games or just wait until they are told everything is back to normal. Indeed, since the Columbine shooting, 32 states have enacted laws demanding schools to perform lockdown drills to keep students safe from intruders (Muschert 11). However, over the years, in the past decade, shooting has increased. The introduction of lockdown drills has not materialized in today’s setting as gun control laws have failed. The massive ownership of guns allowed in the Second Amendment of the U.S Constitution has promoted school shootings. Today, students have access to guns from parents and there is no minimum age for owning a long gun. It means even a child can own a rifle. The weakness of legal ownership of guns in the U.S is clear. So, even with

School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in.

There has been an average of one school shooting every week in America since the Sandy Hook shooting. On the fourteenth of December, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, 20-year-old Adam Lanza not only killed his mother in her home, but also twenty children and six members of staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. This was to be the third deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The Huffington Post reports that as of 2014, there have been over 200 school shootings. These have resulted in at least 94 deaths and over 156 serious and minor injuries. And, with an issue as emotive and contentious as the murder of school children, the question has been frequently asked: why do school shootings happen?

The school shootings at Westside Middle School were orchestrated by two juveniles. On Monday, March 30, 1998 two boys ambushed students and teachers outside Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Andrew Golden a youth of 11 years and Mitchell Johnson who was 13 years old were responsible for this hideous tragedy. Apparently, Mitchell Johnson hid in the woods while Andrew set off the fire alarm causing the students and teachers to run out of the building. Armed with three stolen rifles and four handguns, the documentary explained that the two youth flushed kids and teachers out of the school by means of a false fire alarm then opened up on them. When they stopped shooting, four students and a teacher lay dead and 10 students were

Unfortunately, the notion of schools being a safe place is no longer a trend across American schools. Disturbing mass shootings in the U.S continue to shock the media. A school shooting is when someone attacks a school using a gun. The Secret Service says these shootings are "deliberately selected as the location for the attack". The reasons massacres occur in schools is because of poor security, violence in video games/media, and bullying. Shockingly the U.S. has the most school shootings than any other country in the world. According to the FBI, mass shootings occur, on average, every 2 weeks in the U.S. While the cause of school shootings are sometimes unpredictable, it is a growing issue and they need to be prevented. Most shooters don’t have mental issues, they have a plan to kill, so there is no singular cause that creates violent people. On April 16th, 2007, the most deadly school massacre occurred. Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two students at Virginia-Tech. As Americans, we no longer should turn on the news and witness these gruesome murders. We try to make sense of these murders, but it’s ineffectual. There are measures we can take as a society to help. The number one question in a school massacre is, "why would a person that has a capable sense of mind even do that?” It is our moral responsibility to fix these issues. In order to stop this problem, we need to find its roots.

In the past decades there has been an increase of violence in the schools. This increase causes fear among students, teachers, parents, and all Americans. The deadliest act of school violence was the massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, when a student opened fire and killed Thirty-two students and teachers while wounding seventeen. On April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho, opened fire on two students killing both of them. He then fled the building. Police responded to the first incident and determined it was an isolated homicide and that the gunman fled the state. Two hours later, Cho returned with two handguns and entered Norris hall which was filled with classrooms. He chained