The idea of me walking around a classroom with a side arm is funny in a way that it should not be. The thought of me coming to school in a carpool or sitting in a staff meeting of individuals with enough hardware to spontaneously pull off a bank robbery, borders on the absurd. The people that even entertain these thoughts are dangerously delusional and have zero idea about what goes on in a teacher's day, and are basically saying that they would rather plant the seed of an even bigger problem than talk/compromise on a more realistic solution.
Outside of the armed forces and law enforcement can you think of any area where people are subjected to staring at someone with a gun walk around in front of them all day. Despite what movies may show, even in jails corrections officers do not normally walk around armed. Do you truly believe that when armed teachers, en masse, walk into classrooms that these guns will just stay holstered until such times that an armed shooter engages the school.
I've been involved in breaking up fights, I've been threatened with violence on numerous occasions, and I have seen the glasses get squarely punched off a teachers face. I've seen several of my students get jumped by large groups. A gun has been discharged outside of a school that I was working. I have stood back to back with a security guard as we tried to separate two fighting girls that would not let go of each other's hair. Many schools moved to having teachers meet in a communal room for report card parent conferences not because of convenience, but because teachers were being assaulted by parents over their kids grades at times.
Does fire alarm now mean hands on holsters and deployment of SWAT tactics? Have you walked through a school during passing period recently.
A teacher friend of mine the other day said "I have 180 micro-interactions a day. Just based on percentages I'm not going to get all of them right." This conversation had nothing to do with armed teachers btw.
As an aside this argument is not congruent with your mental health argument. Threat of counter violence, as far as I understand psychology, is not an effective counter measure to dealing with mental illness.
Do you truly believe that if people started being expected to carry weapons at your job that things would be the same. Think back to your days in school. Then imagine 20% of your teachers with handguns. #Idontwantyourgun
