To the editor:
Another Viewpoint (“Teachers carrying guns will backfire,” March 6, A4) has prompted me to write the following: Your viewpoint sounds like an anti-gun argument, and then you extend your viewpoint to the belief that no teachers have the ability to carry a gun safely in school.
How many teachers do you believe are NRA members? How many teachers do you believe would welcome the chance to be trained to protect their students? (I’ll bet the coach in Florida who put himself in front of his kids and died wishes he had had a gun.)
If you were a shooter and had two schools from which to pick your targets, and one was a “no-gun zone” and one said “our teachers carry,” which would you choose?
During the Cold War we were kept safe by both sides having more nukes than needed to destroy each other. The thought that both countries would face horrible deaths and destruction was the deterrent.
The same applies to schools. That is, the shooter thinking he may come face to face with a gun-toting teacher is a huge deterrent.
I am a grandparent, I have been a substitute teacher, and I would prefer to have my grandkid(s) in a school with trained gun-toting teachers.
(P.S. While doing some substitute teaching I’ve gone through lockdown drills … I did not feel safe.)
Arthur Greenman
Greenfield
