Deciding Whether To Become A Pistol-Packin’ Teacher?
Yvonne Vissing, Melissa Juchniewicz & Laura Thompson
Mass shootings are sadly becoming part of the American landscape. In 2020 there were 614 reported mass shootings, resulting in 446 deaths and 2,515 injuries. Eight of those shootings occurred in schools. So far in 2021, there have been 13 gunfire incidents on school grounds.
We have to remember that school shooting incidents are nothing new. When one of us authors was in second grade in Indiana, a mother showed up at the door of our classroom with a shotgun to shoot the teacher for allowing her son to walk to the corner store at lunchtime, which was a permissible activity at that time and place. The grey-haired teacher calmly worked with the mother and diffused the situation, while we students sat dumb-struck at our desks wondering if she, or we, would get killed. One of the authors who started her first teaching job at a Michigan college was told that a professor there had been shot dead while teaching a class a year or so before because a student was upset with receiving a grade of C on an exam, but not to worry because it was a freak situation. What is different now is the increased awareness that no place, including schools, is 100% safe 100% of the time.
After the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and a bunch of other school shooting incidents, former President Trump recommended that teachers like us pack pistols to defend students in case of a school shooting. While he is out of office, the debate remains with stark sides lining up, one advocating for teachers carrying guns and the other for those vehemently opposed to it. We who have taught at K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities, decided to find out what it would entail to be competent to do so. In support of critical thinking and conducting research to find answers to questions, we decided to investigate what it would actually entail for teachers to use guns in the classroom in an emergency.
Where would we even learn how to get or shoot a gun? No worries, Google tells us everything. The NRA provides a list of programs “near you”, as do websites like Where To Shoot or The Well-Armed Woman, “where the feminine and firearms meet”. We live near a firearms training program that’s recognized to be better than most and decided that would be the best place to go. They use a university-type of course line-up. They offered a class entitled Handgun Orientation for Women (Handgun 101 — $150) which is “for the new female gun owner, those who never had formal training, or for those who have not trained with a handgun in a long time.” That’s us.
We quickly surmised that an entry-level class would be insufficient for us to have the skills we would need to draw upon in case of a school shooting emergency. We would need upper-level courses such as Basic Practical Handgun Skills for Women (Handgun 102 — $250), which “utilizing the simple is good principle of handgun training, we take you through the efficient use of the handgun. Working from the holster, performing reloads, clearing stoppages, and correctly manipulating a trigger to maximize accuracy are all thoroughly taught in a relaxed hands-on environment… The student must know and be able to demonstrate how to safely load, fire and unload a handgun… students who cannot demonstrate minimum skills for this class may be removed from training.” Then recommended is Handgun 103, Intermediate Handgun Skills and Introduction to Defensive Shooting ($250) which focuses on “introducing tactical communication steps, situational awareness methods, mindset, and threat identification combined with realistic common sense based shooting drills, this course will introduce shooters to the defensive art of handgun shooting.” It seemed that these three day-long classes might give a teacher needed skills to do what the president had recommended.
Realizing that going to the shooting academy was a foreign world, we didn’t want to go alone and constructed a methodology of what to look for and what questions to ask before going to the gun academy to conduct our research. Parking our little fuel-efficient car amidst the over-sized trucks in the lot, our car looked out of place. Evidently so did we. We passed through the entrance metal detector and into a manly world of guns and weapon paraphernalia. Male sales clerks stared as we walked in the door, seemingly drawing straws to see which one would be forced to wait on us as we meandered towards gun cases gawking through rows of gun-metal-grey displays of holsters, ear-protectors, and conversion kits.
“May I help you?” a young clerk that lost the draw finally asked.
“We’re teachers and President Trump said we should learn how to shoot guns. Are many teachers coming in to find out?”
“No, you’re the first. But others could be coming.”
He quickly surmised that “You need women’s handguns classes” and explained how the first course is designed for “the new female gun owner” and covers information on purchase, storage, transportation, cleaning, laws, and dangers like ricochet, misidentification, or accidental discharges.
He unlocked the gun case and pulled out the type we would train on, saying it had plastic pieces that would be lighter for us to handle first but we would need to buy a metal, semi-automatic pistol if we were serious about learning to shoot. He proceeded to disassemble the gun and explained the parts. He demonstrated the ambidextrous lock on either side of the gun as we tried to understand if the gun is locked or unlocked when the latch is in up-or-down position. He showed us how to look down the barrel through a site to aim.
“Put the ammo into the mag here,” he announced. This gun did not look like the type Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, or Belle Starr shot in the movies. None had a round chamber that bullets went into where it would be hit by a little hammer when the trigger was pulled.
“Magazine, is that what it’s called? Hey look, you load the bullets sort of like we do the stapler at school!” one of us said as we checked it out. The clerk was neither amused nor fazed.
“This holds 15 rounds. At the end of the course, you’ll shoot 50 rounds.”
“Like that would be our exam or graduation?” we asked.
“Hmmm, well, sort of.” He looked us up and down. “You should definitely take 102 and 103 too.” The first course is to familiarize someone with guns, he explained, Handgun 102 teaches how to “really” use handguns, but Handgun 103 is what we’d really need since it introduces threat identification and “realistic common-sense shooting” skills necessary in defensive shooting.
We reflected, “Does gun-shooting count as learning a new technology?” He rolled his eyes.
He unlocked a cabinet and pulled out the gun he recommended we buy. To take Handgun 102, it’s required that students purchase a “quality semi-automatic pistol”, at least 3 magazines, magazine pouch, belt, holster, and plenty of “ammo”, using our newly acquired gun-owner lingo.
“We recommend you add a light for low-light situations. It will make the gun heavier, but it will help you to see who you’re shooting at”. He mentioned that he had dogs and small children so if he heard a noise in the middle of the night he wanted the light on his pistol to make sure he didn’t accidentally shoot one of them.
“Good idea,” we said to each other as we rolled our eyes, knowing that it would never occur to us to first grab for a gun if we heard a noise at night.
We’d scanned the guns and most were upwards of $1200. He saw us balking.
“We could give you a discount,” he offered.
“A teacher’s discount?” We weren’t impressed.
It was about that time that we realized he was quite willing to sell us a gun but said nothing about a background check or registration. We were clearly incompetent to be gun-slingers. Maybe he thought that with training we might not be a public health hazard.
“It’s expensive”, we observed. “Is that why people buy guns on the black market?”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” he said robotically.
We asked more questions. He’d been trained to give scripted answers. Anything too controversial he avoided with very neutral or pre-scripted statements or re-directed the conversation.
“How often do people miss?” Dumb question perhaps, but we wanted to hear the answer. He dodged a bullet by saying, “It depends on how good you are. You could kill someone if you’re not careful. That’s why we advocate high-quality training.”
“I have a question,” one of us said pointing to the AK15 and 47 assault-type rifles on the wall. “If somebody bursts into our classroom with one of those, would a pistol like this even matter?”
“It depends on how good a shot you are,” he replied.
“But how could someone with a handgun begin to take out someone with an automatic gun that was shooting a bunch of bullets really fast?”
“Better with than without,” a nearby customer butted in. “At least if you go, you will have gone down trying.”
OMG. Were these guys serious? Without saying another word, we realized they were dead serious.
“You’d have to practice,’ the clerk said rationally. “Taking classes isn’t enough. You’d have to find a gun-range and practice. Regularly.” If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at doing something, this means that we would be spending a lot of time at the gun shooting range. He listed some nearby.
“Waitaminute! Help me understand”, one of us insisted. “I’m standing in front of my class teaching when all of a sudden, a shooter shows up. So I need to reach under my sweater and get it out of the holster, take the lock off, point, aim and do this before the students or I am killed? That doesn’t make any sense!”
The clerk was firm in his response. “I said, it depends on how good you are and how much you practice. Getting it out from under your clothes takes time. Your students would feel safer if you wore it on your belt where they could see it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“If you don’t feel comfortable letting the students see your gun then you’d want to take both our concealed carry classes on how to get it out from the small of your back if you were wearing it under your clothes. Or maybe from your ankle under your pant leg. You’ll be quicker in summer when not wearing as many clothes, but if you’ve got a couple of layers on, learning how to get your gun out fast when you need it would be important. You’d all definitely need other classes too.”
The Concealed Carry Pistol for Women class ($250) is designed for women who want to conceal that they are carrying a gun and how they can pull it out quickly and safely when they need it. This class requires a .380, 9MM, .357 Sig, 40 S&W, or 45 ACP caliber pistol, and clearly a lot of research to figure out what each of them did before we could figure out which to choose.
Note to self — in order to become good enough to protect our students, we would need at least five classes, a couple of different guns, a bunch of magazines, equipment, and hours of practice. The time and expenses were mounting up. The clerk was patient and told us about other classes, and assurred us that their training program is very comprehensive. If one was going to learn how to shoot a gun safely, we are truly convinced that this would be a good place to come.
“But what about our teacher-friends who don’t live near places like you? How do they learn to shoot?”
The clerk explained that some people grow up learning to shoot and guns are a regular part of their lives. He also noted that many people have guns and think that they know how to shoot but actually need more instruction and practice. These folks can be dangerous. He explained the benefits of learning from a professional.
This we understood. “We see the same thing in school, don’t we? Students come in thinking they know a bunch about something when they don’t really know much about it at all.” We shared a teacher-bonding moment with our clerk.
Several cases down, there were much smaller guns that looked easier to handle and much less terrifying. Some were pink, others were purple, some had stars or fancy designs, elegant white mother-of-pearl handles, shimmery teal pistols, and dozens that looked easier to handle. They had fancy names like Rainbow, Scorpion, and We The People. We also learned you can buy American flag decals to dress up your gun.
“Are those for kids?” we asked.
“No. You have to be 21 to buy those.”
“What about them?” we asked, pointing at assault rifles on the wall.
“Eighteen is the purchase age.” The clerk clearly didn’t want to talk about how these mega weapons could be sold to teens but someone had to be 21 to buy the little pink handguns. He redirected our attention back to one called the Peacekeeper. “Those pistols are mostly for practice. I know a guy who owns every one (there must have been over 30 in that display case). He collects them.”
“Kind of like collecting baseball cards or beanie-babies,” we nodded to each other. “Only different.”
He flashed an annoyed look at us. “Feel free to look around. Let me know if you have any questions.”
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Adding up charges, we estimated we’d need to spend a minimum of $5000 out-of-pocket to take the necessary classes, buy the guns, ammunition, and equipment (including a night light) necessary to protect our students. There would be no way for our schools to pay for us to learn this skill and have the equipment we’d need. Heck, we fight to get markers and money to photocopy materials. The costs associated with learning to shoot would surely have to come out of our pockets. Then there would also be the membership at a gun range where we would have to spend hours each week practicing to be ready for an attack that may never occur.
Moral debate aside, from a cost-benefit-analysis is this the best way for teachers to spend our resources to keep students safe? Certainly, student and teacher safety is of utmost importance. Of that, we can all agree. What we can’t seem to agree upon as a nation is how best to do this.
What causes school shootings? Common responses are guns, mental illness, culture or relationship issues, but it may be something else entirely. We need to know cause-and-effect relationship to understand why pistol-packing professors are hypothesized to be the intervening variable for stopping school shootings. Northeastern University scholars found that schools are actually safer today than they were in the 1990s and that school shootings have not actually increased. Compared to other forms of violence that children are exposed to at home and in the community, schools may be safer. Mass murders take place 20–30 times per year and on average only one has been in a school, meaning that school shootings are not the epidemic that the public perceives. Four times the number of children were shot in schools in the 1990s compared to now.
Having metal detectors and armed guards may not ensure campus safety. The Virginia Tech type of mass shootings was atypical of most school violence episodes, and there were armed police on the campus at the time of the shooting who didn’t prevent it. While campuses have responded with a variety of means to prevent campus shootings, having more guns on campus has not been found to limit violence.
However, having emotionally supportive school and community climates, access to mental health services, having real communication and relationships with students has been found to reduce school violence. Saying mental illness causes shootings simply isn’t substantiated, since one in two people will have a mental illness diagnosis. People with mental illness are more likely to be victims, not perpetrators, of violence.
Students in K-12 and in higher education do not have access to the mental health and support counseling that they need. Counselor-student ratios vary significantly across the nation, with a low of 202 students per counselor in Vermont to 905 students for every counselor in Arizona. Information from the American School Counselor Association found that the actual average student-to-school-counselor ratio is 464 to 1 and 1 in 5 students — about 8 million children — do not have access to a counselor in their school at all, and 3 million of those students do not even have access to other school support staff, school psychologists or social workers.
A Campus Safety report by Winn found students are more likely to be hurt at school from bullying than shootings. Shootings are usually committed by males; 98% of the attackers perceived a major loss prior to the attack, 78% experienced previous suicidal ideation, 73% had a grievance against one of their targets, and 71% felt persecuted, bullied, harassed, or attacked by others before the attack. This report suggests that greater identification of students in distress (whether due to emotional, peer, family, or relational problems) could reduce conditions underlying shootings. Because about two-thirds of the shooters got guns at home, reducing access to guns could reduce opportunities for gun violence.
The Campus Safety report found that colleges in states with increased access to guns had the biggest increase of shooting incidents. States with strict gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths. The US has more gun ownership and violence than other developed nations. While people on both sides of the gun debate may argue about data, they agree that more research on gun violence and gun control would be beneficial. Gun control is an important deterrent to school shootings.
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IN CONCLUSION, there are many things that teachers and schools can do to create climates that make shooting others a less-likely occurrence. There is no evidence that if we expend large sums of money and spend countless hours becoming gun-competent it would make a difference in the lives of our students.
There IS evidence that having more school counselors and support services for students would help make schools safer places. Spending money to help us learn how to be better teachers, reduce class sizes, teach topics like human rights education and socio-emotional learning, improve school and community climates, communicate with and support students will have a positive benefit in violence reduction. Programs like the Jessie Lewis Choose Love Movement, founded in honor of a little boy murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2012, are growing around the world teaching there is always a choice to be made for love instead of hate. Instead of spending many hours a week at the gun range, we’d be better off using that time to meet students, run programs, and educate ourselves on how to teach human rights, and encourage the creation of greater resources and respect to every student in our school family.
Showing a commitment to non-violence may yield greater safety than cultivating a culture where guns are acceptable means of recreation and conflict-resolution. For instance, wouldn’t it be better to encourage third-graders to sell popcorn or fix up the park instead of raffling an assault rifle as a fundraiser? As teachers, we have the awesome responsibility to role-model the behavior we expect from students. Packing heat isn’t one of them.
We cannot find a good justification for encouraging teachers to use guns. There is no evidence that being pistol-packing teachers would do anything to curtail school shootings. We’ve done our research, and decided we’re not going to carry guns into our classrooms. Instead, we will work to make our schools safer by teaching well, listening to students and addressing their human needs for connection, and role-modeling how to use nonviolent solutions to address problems.
