Wow. So apparently some folks out there think the solution to school shootings is to make the teachers carry guns. Speaking as an educator let's be absolutely clear about one thing: We. Are. Not. Soldiers.
I didn't spend 6 years in college to have guns added to my job description. I didn't plunge my hands into human cadavers and snake cameras down people's throats to deal with armed men as a normal hazard in my dayjob.
Would I die for my students, if push came to shove? Damn straight I would. Is forcing me to handle a gun, or forcing me to work with heavily armed coworkers, a good solution? Well, bless your everloving hearts.
I come from a military family. My dad and grandfather were soldiers. My brother and sister went straight to boot camp when they turned 18. As for me? I'm a pacifist. I very specifically chose a career where I could wage peace.
Gun owners and 2nd Amendment people, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER. Your children's educators should not be put in a position of being your children's de facto bodyguards because you just love your hobby so much.
And to my wonderful students: I'm so sorry you have to grow up in such a horrible society. I know you learn best at the intersection of wonder and safety. I know my wearing a gun in the classroom won't help you learn.
I'm sorry we've had to do speech therapy under a table together during the lockdown drills. I'm sorry this is your normal.
Whatever else we do, I promise I'm not going to deliberately carry weapons into your personal space. Because that isn't a solution at all. It's just the same problem, writ bigger.
Apparently the gun nuts have found this thread, so an addendum: if a so-called "maniac" with a gun comes at me, I won't wish I had a gun. I'll wish the "maniac" the didn't have one. So let's do that option instead.
Oh, and if you @ me with your half-baked gun love or absurd defense of the idea of teachers-as-supersoldiers, I'll block you. So don't bother.
As a writer, I've never understood this logic anyway, perhaps because I have a good imagination for all the far-fetched disasters that could happen. "When someone in alien-tech power armor marches into your school, you'll wish you had power armor too!" wheeeeeeeee
"When the dimensional portal holding back the Gray Swarm of Zzzzzzt opens up, you'll wish you had mandibles and twenty stingers too!"
