After the February 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida, lawmakers responded by passing a bill in the Florida Senate that would allow teachers to carry guns in schools.
Along with this, the minimum age to buy a rifle increased from 18 to 21. The Senate thinks this is the best option for keeping students safe, but high school students in Florida have other ideas.
Elena, a senior, says that she would feel unsafe with a gun in the classroom.
“I look at what happened in Georgia, and I know that this would cause more problems than it would solve.”
Two weeks after the Parkland shooting, a teacher fired a gun in his classroom in Georgia. Nobody was harmed, but it is being used as a prime example of why teachers should not have guns in their classrooms.
She also says that she will not be voting for anybody who supports legislation like putting guns in classrooms. This is similar to what survivors of the Parkland shooting have said.
Amanda, a junior, agrees with Elena about the safety.
“I feel like if students know, okay, there is a weapon in the room, maybe they might feel uncomfortable and wouldn’t feel as able to learn.”
Kiana, a senior, thinks that “guns as a solution to gun violence is a terrible idea” and that it would provide a distraction from the learning environment.
A 2008 poll suggests that 73 percent of Americans believe that the second amendment allows them the right to own guns.
Darian, a senior, is one of those Americans.
“I believe that Americans do have the right to have guns and have firearms and to be able to protect themselves. But there’s a time and there’s a place for everything, and now is not the time. And schools are not the place to have firearms.”
Lauren, a senior, believes that we need to make it harder for people who want to do bad things with weapons to get them. So does Zach, a sophomore.
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Sophia, a junior, says she has no idea how anybody thinks this is going to help anything.
“Introducing more guns into a school setting, allowing kids to have access to these things when they might not otherwise, is only going to lead to more violence.”
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, mass shootings have occurred on average every 64 days since 2011 versus mass shootings occurring every 200 days from 1982 to 2011.
90 percent of the mass shootings that have occurred since 1982 have had assault-style weapons used.
Fred, a junior, argues that there could be teachers that are unstable.
“You’re just enabling more people to be able to be violent this way. Who thought this was a good idea?”
Some counties, including Alachua County, have already stated that they will not be participating in the Guardian Program. Other counties such as Putnam and Lake have suggested that they will be participating in the program.
Students in Florida, however, seem to be adamantly against the arming of teachers. They believe that introducing more guns is not a good solution to end gun violence and may even introduce more opportunities for violence to occur.
It would also lower the students' feeling of safety in school, which should be one of the school board's top priorities.
