Central Florida Future

Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: Opinions

What if you walked into your first class this week, sat down, got out some paper to scribble notes on and then you noticed that the professor at the front of the room is strapped with a 9-millimeter handgun on their belt? What would be your first reaction? Some say this occurrence should take place in every classroom in the country. Those some are also from the great state of Texas - the biggest bunch of "freedom" loving, church-going, gun- toting folks you will ever meet.

The school district in Harrold, Texas will allow all staff members to carry concealed weapons starting this fall. The district's superintendent, David Thweatt, said that the schools are at a disadvantage in the case of an emergency because the nearest sheriff's office is 30 minutes away. He also says that the district is near a very busy highway which could increase the chance of being targeted in a school shooting.

The teachers and staff would have to take a crisis management training course and obtain a concealed weapons permit. Concealed weapons permits aren't exactly the be-all and end-all of gun responsibility.

Anyone who wants to carry a gun around can go to the nearest gun show and sit through a two-hour crash course on gun laws and safety tips. The state runs a background check and barring any prior felonies, restraining orders or mental illnesses, the gun nut receives their license to carry a deadly weapon with them at all times.

Thweatt told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog."

While it is true that Congress tried to ban weapons from schools with the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, the Supreme Court subsequently shot that down in the case of United States v. Lopez where they ruled that the act was an unconstitutional exercise of Congressional authority. Therefore it is left up to each institution (or school district in this case) to decide whether to allow legally carried guns into schools.

Students and faculty at the University of Utah are allowed to carry weapons on school premises, but that has been highly contested by anti-violence groups who say that guns should be limited to trained public officials like police officers. The University of Utah actually preferred to have neither students nor faculty carrying weapons at all and instituted a weapons ban, but the issue was brought before the Utah Supreme Court and the ban was struck down in 2006.

There is absolutely no reason for anyone other than police officers or security officials to have guns. Allowing the average citizen to carry a weapon into a school only increases the potential for tragedy. Miscommunication could lead to disaster. A teacher may interpret a student's body language to be threatening or vice versa and then chaos ensues.

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