Republicans and gun-lovers (certainly not mutually exclusive) have - once again - put forth the absurd notion that the solution to gun violence at our schools is to add more guns to the mix. To most people, the notion is absurd, but since they seem to be serious about it, let's have a quick rundown on why that is such a spectacularly bad solution. Disclaimer - these aren't necessarily all my original ideas - thanks social media!

Arming Teachers

• Teachers are wired to help students in crisis, not shoot them


• Teachers are not trained for live-fire scenarios. Even police and soldiers trained to handle these situations can freeze under fire.


• What if a teacher fires at school shooter and accidentally hits a child?... or a first-responder?


• Police responding to 911 call may mistake the teacher for the shooter. It's bad enough when a teacher is killed by a school shooter - being killed by the police would just add to the misery


• Does the teacher walk around with a gun strapped on? Is it kept locked in the teacher's desk? Carelessness, confusion in a rowdy classroom, and accidents are all that's needed for a tragedy.

Armed Guards

• Also proposed is to have armed guards, "retired military", etc. in the schools. At what point do schools begin to resemble prisons?


• How will these guards get paid? Teachers are already underpaid and still having to buy some school supplies out of their own pockets.


• The most recent mass school shooting was carried out by a young man who was in ROTC, which means he was being trained to do this work. A person with a long-range plan to do this could become a guard in training, and use that to get inside a school with a weapon.


• The "retired military" route also seems ripe for corrupt contracting. I can see Blackwater (or whatever their nom du jour is) already writing up proposals to milk the system.

If more guns make us safer, than more atomic bombs around the world make nuclear war less likely, and more drunk drivers make car accidents less likely as well. Which is to say - they don't. Making weapons harder to get is the only proper solution to school (and every other type of) shootings.