Posted on by Belinda O

Runaway Train

I don’t typically write about current events, but I was stopped in my tracks by this headline, from Mamademics:

If You Give White Teachers Guns, I’m Pulling My Black Son Out of School.

It brought a whole new dimension to the argument to find another damn way to stop mass shootings. (Even as I write that, I have to wonder, who in their right mind thinks arming people will deter violence?)

Putting guns in the hands of teachers is such a phenomenally bad idea I don’t know where to begin. I don’t care how well you train someone, if a crisis is the only real-life situation in which they’re called upon to pull a gun, the wrong people are going to die.

As Danielle at Mamademics points out, it’s simply a matter of time before a teacher pulls a gun to stop something less critical than an armed gunman. And black children are more likely to be victims, especially if the teachers are white.

Do we need to add to the racial divide by arming people who otherwise would never touch a gun? Whose sensibilities are going to be tainted by the thought, this is here in case I need it? Whose racism, however deeply buried, will be fueled by the gun on their hip?

All it can do is create a greater chasm between teachers and students, between black and white, between growing awareness and old-time bigotry.

I am white. I don’t have children. I can’t fully understand the pain that is behind Danielle’s headline.

But it stopped me in my tracks, and there’s a runaway train heading our way.

Image Credit: © welcomia.com — fotolia.com

10 Replies to “Runaway Train”

  2. Yes, this administration and gun control is getting crazy. I watched the news the other night and they had a news segment on arming teachers in schools. I remember in one interview they talked with a teacher is armed in the school. Then they talked with other teachers about teachers having guns. They all agreed that they didn’t like the idea at the start but they are starting to like the idea more and more as more school shootings happen. Honestly, I find it sad that some teachers like the idea of having an armed teacher in school now. Personally, I can’t help but think what this has come too.

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      1. Exactly, the one comment the teacher who is armed with the gun mentioned that he is scared of missing if a gunman comes into his classroom. I have a mom who is a teacher and I cannot fathom the idea of her or her colleagues carrying a gun, even if the gun is unloaded, in a school. Not only that but I keep hearing about children having to have practice lock down drills where they hide in the bathroom and some teachers going to active shooter training. It is all sad in the end.

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  3. Absurd is the word. I’ve read so many excellent rebuttals to this absurd idea and your blog is another example of how so many people are scratching their heads on this topic.
    Thanks for sharing, Belinda.

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