Throughout my K-12 Education, I have generally had good teachers. Of course, there was the occasional "Mr. I don't know, CAN you?" and the other few annoying or less helpful teachers, but I was blessed to have lived in a district where the standard for education was pretty high, due to the area being part of a higher-income, diverse town. However, even when I've had 'bad teachers,' like those who take forever to grade, or those who seem a little more detached from their students, I've always tried to see things from the teacher POV, since it is the field I am going into. And believe it or not, whenever I try to see things from the opposite point of view, my understanding of a situation deepens - shocking, I know.

Teachers work insanely long hours. No, I don't just mean the hours they spend in school, physically teaching. Aside from leading a classroom, teachers devote their lunch hours to helping out students and spend lots of time before and after school at their desks grading, helping students, or planning for the next day. Additionally, teachers spend a hefty chunk of their vacation days prepping for the upcoming school semester -- they have to create lesson plans, teaching supplements, homework assignments, and additional resources for their students. And as if that wasn't enough, many teachers coach sports or sponsor after-school clubs.

Yet, many teachers are still not able to make ends meet. According to this article, 20% of teachers have to get a second job in order to make ends meet. It begs the question, why aren't we paying our teachers more?

Teachers are the most essential workers in this nation, in my opinion. Pre-school and Elementary school teachers deal with snot-nosed buggers for 6-7 hours a day, essentially raising them and teaching them values, ethics, and the fundamental knowledge they need to get into the world. Middle school teachers deal with kids going through puberty, 'nuff said. And high school teachers are the ones who expose you to the world so that you can go out and get a job which you're passionate about (and then send your kids to preschool to go do said job.)

So now, you want to tell me, that there are people out there who want to arm teachers and continue to pay them the same wages? That's simply outrageous.

Forget the monetary aspect, arming teachers is in and of itself a ballistic (pun intended) idea, simply because that's not what we're signing up for. According to this Harvard article, arming teachers would not be beneficial because most teachers aren't trained to respond to conflict that way. If a threat is in the building, there is a lot of adrenaline and fear coursing through everyone's bodies, and though trained militia would be able to respond to threats calmly, teachers would most likely panic. The psychological impact is far too heavy. Additionally, if a student or teacher has a breakdown and finds themselves with access to the 'classroom gun', who knows what kinds of disasters could take place.

The answer to gun violence is not to turn our country into a militant state.

I've heard the argument that "if everyone had guns, then the mass shooting could've been stopped sooner." NO. If everyone had guns, especially in a bar, like the recent shooting in California, then it would result in more casualties, and it would be more difficult to identify the suspect because everyone would be holding a murder weapon.

What this country needs is stricter regulations, psych evals, and frequent checkups on gun owners. What this country needs is reform. What this country needs is proper education (ahem, properly compensated teachers!!!). What this country needs is empathy.