No Child Left Behind
December 14, 2012 marks the day of the Sandy Hook massacre. December 14, 2012 marks the day that Adam Lanza murdered his mother, and then proceeded to the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, killing twenty innocent children and six brave teachers. One year later, there have been twenty three mass shootings. Over 100 more innocent lives have been taken. How many of these deaths could have been saved had they been protected? Currently, guns are not aloud in or around any school In the United States by law.
By keeping guns away, we think we are protecting Americas future, the students, the children. However, guns themselves are not bad things, so why are we hiding them? A soldier with a gun is not perceived as a bad thing, neither is a police officer with a gun. If a criminal gets ahold of a gun, then yes, that is bad. So what do we do when the enemy is armed, and invades our schools, endangering everyone inside? As the National Rifle Association put it, “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”(LaPierre 5) Would it really be so appalling to have an armed good guy protecting our schools? Some people thing that if guns were aloud in school, it would lead to an increase of violence and create an uneasy, tense environment. Paul Helmke stated, “If students and teachers start carrying guns in campus, we can anticipate the increased dangers and risks that follow: greater potential for student-on-student and student-on-faculty violence, and more lethal results when such violence occurs; an increased risk of suicide attempts ending in fatalities; and gun thefts and subsequent harm to people on and off campus.
“(Helmke) It is a law that you must be a minimum age of 18 to own a rifle, and 21 to own a hand gun. Students already should not be permitted possession of such a weapon, let alone carrying one on school grounds. It is very plausible to not give that privilege to the students and/or faculty. However, if the students can not protect themselves, then they need to be provided someone who can protect them. A school is supposed to be a safe haven for the kids.
Eric Rossen of the National Association of School Psychologists clarified, “We know that students who feel safe, supported, and connected in school tend to have better social, behavioral, and academic outcomes.”(Rossen 1) So let us make the schools gun free, so the children don’t need to worry about being shot. By eradicating the guns, we think we are keeping the students safe. We hang up signs and make it known to all, “We’re a safe school! No guns!” However, what we are really saying is, “look! We have nothing to defend ourselves with! Attack us!” The only one being protected by gun free school zones are the intruders. We are letting them know that our gunless, defenseless schools are their safest target to attack without being defied. As Larry Prat of Gun Owners of America put it, “The only people guaranteed to be safe in gun free zones are criminals.
They count on the law-abiding citizens being disarmed. In reality, gun free zones are nothing more than criminal safe zones.” (Pratt) Polls in the past have proved that there was a significantly less amount of violence in armed school, but the guards cannot stop all crime. In 1999, there was a shooting at Columbine high school. Even though there was an armed officer, two students still managed to shoot one teacher and 12 of their peers. Armed guards cannot possibly prevent all of the tragedies, but they can greatly decrease the amount of fatalities.
Even though the guard couldn’t save those 13 lives, thank God he was there to save the rest of the students and staff. To understand a mass murderer, one must think like a mass murderer. First , let’s reiterate what we already know. Criminals are capable of breaking the law. They have proved this, criminals don’t care that they are breaking the law. Obviously, it is already illegal to commit murder, yet it happens all the time.
The criminals don’t care. If they are already planning to break the law and gun someone down, would they really stop at a gun free zone just because the law tells them too? What is breaking one more law? Money seems to be a huge issue in today’s world, and this certain situation is no exception. Having armed security in all of Americas schools would add up the a lot of money, it would be expensive. The National Rifle Association would like to point out, “The NRA knows that there are millions of qualified active and retired police; active and retired or reserve military; security professionals; certified firefighters and rescue personnel; and an extra ordinate corps of patriotic, trained, qualified citizens to join with local school officials and police in devising a protection plan in every school.” (LaPierre 7)There are so many people willing to help. Look at all of the volunteer firefighters we have across the states.
It would be far from impossible to put a qualified, armed guard in every school. The Bible says in Nehemiah 4:7, “I stationed guards down below, behind the wall, near the exposed points, assigning them by family groups with their swords, their spears, and their bows. I made an inspection, then addressed these words to the inspection, then addresses these words to the nobles, the magistrates, and the rest of the people: ‘Have no fear of them! Keep in mind the LORD, who is great and to be feared, and fight for your brethren, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes.’ ” We need to protect our children! We must shelter our sons and daughters as the Bible tells us too. We need to get our priorities back in line.
Here they are, the future, the children. They are so innocent, fragile, and vulnerable, yet we leave them defenseless with no protection what so ever. How is it that we protect things like banks, airports, even sports sports stadiums with armed security, yet we leave the children out in the open. As the church stated, “The church has always help that it is legitimate to defend ones life and/or property against an unjust aggressor, and it is equally legitimate to defend someone else’s life and/or property on the same grounds, even if that defense were to result in the loss of the aggressors life. Contrary to the assertion if the anti-gun folks, ‘gun-free zone’ legislation is actually counter productive and potentially lethal to those it is designed to protect.
“(Liewehr 1) Let’s get our priorities straight. Let’s protect our children. Let’s put armed guards in every school across America.
