In light of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, many people are vocal about how to solve the very real gun problem in the United States.

One argument is for teachers to help protect students from more violent acts of terror by arming them with guns.

Many, but not all, of the people making this suggestion are also against reforming gun rights in America, a solution that has proven worthy in other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia.

In order to keep their semi-automatic/automatic guns in their, hopefully locked, gun cabinets, they are willing to try nearly any other solution–whether it actually makes sense or not.

One of the largest suggestions is the aforementioned “solution” of arming teachers.

Upon reading this proposition I was bewildered beyond belief.

I grew up in the schools; my mother has been a fourth and fifth grade teacher for over twenty years.

Some of my old teachers are some of my fondest acquaintances.

Simply thinking of any of them armed with a loaded gun each and every day of school is ridiculous.

I am studying to be a high school English teacher and cannot imagine holding or having a gun with me at all times.

Furthermore, by adding this and other methods of trying to control this type of violence, such as metal detectors and armed guards at every entrance, we, as a country, are simply making schools more and more like prisons every day.

That is not what children should be faced with.

By adding more guns to their sphere of influence it simply normalizes the fact that guns, and the violence that seemingly accompanies them in America, are ever-present in their lives.

Children in today’s society are already hyper-aware of the constant violent nature of our country.

We do not need to make guns even more common in their day -to-day lives.

Also, even if the teachers are trained to use the guns they are given (another question–will the teachers have to provide their own guns and ammunition like they do the rest of the school supplies in their classroom without any form of repayment or tax write-off?) their accuracy in a high-stress situation will likely be very low.

Unless they are ex-military, as some teachers are, there is a good chance many have not shot at a moving target with their own semi-automatic or automatic weapon.

Nothing could even begin to prepare them for the difference between target practice and an actual, moving human with a weapon that could take their life.

Coming back to the question I posed earlier: would teachers have to pay for their own guns and ammunition?

In Trump’s America, teachers cannot even write off a box of pencils they buy so their students can write.

When my mother needs new school supplies of any sort, be that technological or simply scholarly, she has to pay out of her own pocket.

Teachers’ salaries are too low to begin with, and with the costs of school supplies (that students legitimately need and typically cannot always afford themselves) the salary is even more dismal.

If the government can find room to supply teachers with guns and ammunition, which to be honest, they probably will not, they need to address the lack of resources already afflicting classrooms all over America.

Learning should come before guns–plain and simple.

We do not supply and support teachers to begin with, what makes this any different?

If the government, and country, begin to support teachers by giving them guns they have to back them in every other way as well.

It is not a one and one deal.

Whether or not our country’s leaders agree, the school shootings that happened in Florida and all the other ones, is a gun violence issue.

True, there may be other factors that play into it but the main factor behind the deaths of children in schools and people in other public places is the fact that guns are readily available in America.

Yes, the ball was dropped when it came to background checks for the shooter in Florida, but he obtained the weapons he had in his possession completely legally.

This tends to be the case for most shooters who commit terroristic acts in America.

As many avid gun users have come forward and said: you do not need an AR-15 gun to go hunting.

Sure, it may be “fun” to shoot at a range, but it is not necessary for “everyday use.”

These types of guns should not be easily accessible, or accessible at all.

The idea of solving the violence that occurs in schools more than once a week–there have been seven school shootings in 2018 already, there had only been eight weeks in 2018 at the time of the Florida shooting–by arming school teachers is completely ridiculous.

It is not logical, ethical, or plausible.

The only way to solve this problem we as a country face is by reforming gun laws with new legislation.