“Arming teachers is not the answer to school shootings — it’s a dangerous next step in the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda. We need to vote these reckless politicians out and elect lawmakers who will fight for the common sense, research-backed gun safety laws that Tennesseans deserve,” says Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, the anti-gun violence group founded after another horrific school mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012.
As parents tell me time and again, guns in classrooms simply are not the answer. “Can you imagine what would have happened if my son’s teacher left the classroom with a handgun to confront the shooter with military-grade weapons?” Beth asked me. “Not only would she have been killed, but she would have left terrified 8-year-olds alone — many likely crying and some following her — alerting the shooter to their presence. I have no doubt my son wouldn’t have survived.”
This moment requires our highest reasoning and the best of our efforts. It requires elected officials to do everything we can to end the gun violence epidemic plaguing our communities, our state and our nation. But the bill that passed the Tennessee Senate last week and is under consideration in the House is a red herring that not only prevents us from dealing with the problem of gun safety and fear in schools, but also puts our kids and teachers in more danger.
Arming teachers does not create the school environment we want or need. Students deserve better. They deserve nurturing and care in a trusting and productive educational environment where they can thrive.
We need what a vast majority of Tennessee voters and voters nationwide want: common sense gun legislation. These include those articulated by Covenant Families for Brighter Tomorrows and Mothers Over Murder, who are calling for more counseling for children, closing gun-buying loopholes, mandating stronger background checks and passing safer storage laws.
We must do right by our children and our communities. We can only do that by listening to them, rather than to those who profit from gun violence.
— Justin J. Pearson in I Was Expelled From the Tennessee Legislature for Advocating for Gun Control. They Still Don’t Get It
6 Responses
“Pearson: Armed Teachers Puts Students in More Danger”
False.
The greatest danger to students is not being protected where they are most vulnerable in ‘mass’…which is the ‘gun free zones’ of schools. And this has been suitably demonstrated by such zones being specifically attractive to mentally ill killers where they know there is no firearms defense available.
“it’s a dangerous next step in the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda”
False.
It has zero to do with any ‘gun lobby’. But instead it has everything to do with the only known defensive tool of a firearm that can be constantly employed and offers the best chance of success in stopping the mentally ill killers that are specifically attracted to ‘gun free zones’, such as schools, because these killers know its unlikely this best means of defense would be available to stop them in these areas.
“We must do right by our children and our communities. We can only do that by listening to them, rather than to those who profit from gun violence.”
You were to do right by our children, then stop putting them in this trap called a ‘gun free zone’ of schools and giving them a false sense if safety and lies…instead, let teachers and staff be armed and prepared to meet the threat, a threat to which your policy’s basically gurantee defenseless prey of our children. Stop sacrificing our children on your alter of Marxist soci- alism communism ‘gun control agenda’.
“Justin J. Pearson in I Was Expelled From the Tennessee Legislature for Advocating for Gun Control. They Still Don’t Get It.”
That’s a lie. You were expelled for basically facilitating a riot or at a minimum ‘civil unrest’ during legislature proceedings.
Oh we get it….you would prefer to sacrifice more of our children on your alter of Marxist soci- alism communism ‘gun control agenda’.
People love to make the same demonstrably disprovable claims over and over and over.
Either they’re intentionally lying to push an agenda or they really live in little bubbles and are oblivious to the outside world.
How many times do we have to hear “blood in the streets!” The only blood in the streets is found in Democrat owned and operated zones and is spilled there by repeat felons who behave independently of any laws or regulations.
“Students deserve better.”
Indeed the do. If laws were the answer the schools would already be a safer place.
Remember this, “”Laurich told parents that the decision to arm staff had been “a difficult one,” but in the event a shooting were to occur at the school, “I need to be able to stand in front of you and say that we have done all that we can do. This is a necessary step we must take…”
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/iowa-school-starts-arming-its-teachers/
Lawmakers and school administrators in many places cannot make the same statement.
Iowa House OKs bill allowing armed teachers, giving qualified immunity
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/15/iowa-house-oks-bill-allowing-armed-teachers-giving-qualified-immunity-sends-gov-kim-reynolds/73331790007/
“As parents tell me time and again, guns in classrooms simply are not the answer. ‘Can you imagine what would have happened if my son’s teacher left the classroom with a handgun to confront the shooter with military-grade weapons?’ Beth asked me. ‘Not only would she have been killed, but she would have left terrified 8-year-olds alone — many likely crying and some following her — alerting the shooter to their presence. I have no doubt my son wouldn’t have survived.’ ”
And another made up ‘can you imagine’ to appeal to the stupid and emotion.
1. Civilian semi-auto rifle Modern Sporting Rifles MSR’s (AKA AR-15) are not “military-grade weapons”. There is no civilian semi-auto rifle Modern Sporting Rifles MSR (AKA AR-15) that has ever been designated as ‘military grade’ by actual certification and testing as such or used by the U.S. military for military ‘assault rifle’ purposes, by the U.S. military.
2. You apparently don’t understand that both law abiding ordinary civilians and police, armed with only a hand gun, engage such people with these rifles successfully. For example, Eli Dickin did it in a mall with his Glock, with only basic skills, and saved the lives of around 100 people by doing so.
3. You apparently do not understand how this works. The teachers with students in a classroom would not be leaving the classroom to go hunt down the mentally ill killer, the kids will not be left alone. They would be securing the door, hunkering the kids down, and then if this killer managed to get into the room the teacher would engage. Is having some chance in that case better than no chance at all?
You are an idiot. Do you not understand that police do not instantly appear? Do you not understand that police show up with guns for a reason? IF police use guns to stop such killers, are you going to say ‘police should not be armed’? Oh yeah, your going to say ‘training this and that’ for the police but the truth is that armed law abiding ordinary citizens stop vastly more ‘shooters’ each year before they can become active than police do and that’s because these armed law abiding citizens are already there when the shooter becomes known and have a better chance of stopping them before they can begin or very early in the shooting when police are not there – the people they defended, along with their selves, had a much better chance by that armed law abiding ordinary citizen engaging than they had waiting for police to arrive 3 – 10 minutes after the shooter started firing.
Why would you want to remove the best chance your child has of survival, that armed teacher there with them, before the police arrive with that killer breaking into the classroom? Do you not like your kids very much?
I think you need to take a few steps back and do away with the ‘can you imagine’ thinking – look at the fact that the armed teacher is that immediate on the spot protection for your child in that 3 – 10 minutes it takes for police to arrive and get set up and enter and locate the killer. Look at Uvalde… would that teacher and those kids have had a better chance with an armed trained teacher in that classroom than the no-chance at all before police finally acted?
You love your son? Then give him the best chance of survival if the shooting starts and that killer wants into that room before police can arrive, and that best chance is that firearm armed law abiding ordinary citizen (in this case a teacher) in the classroom with them.