Ever since the Sandy Hook shooting in late 2012, it has become glaringly apparent an alarming amount of the United States’ populace and lawmakers would sooner sacrifice the lives of children than ever dare consider the idea of constricting some of the freedom a gun carries. It might be a tad bit of an overgeneralization, and obviously very few would ever admit to believing they fall into that category, but the history of gun violence in the US shows the lack of attempts and resistance to improved weapon laws speaks louder than their words. Following the aforementioned shooting at Sandy Hook in 2012, there has been roughly 63 school shootings, give or take, ranging from only one being injured to over a dozen being murdered. After all these
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Say, an educator is face to face with a school shooter in their classroom, both of them having weapons actively ready and on them. There’s still no guarantee the teacher will be able to successfully take down the shooter, even if it was just the two of them face-to-face. Dr. Linda Woolf of Webster University argues that, unlike in television and movies, killing a person is much harder to do than portrayed, especially for one who isn’t professionally to do so, like a SWAT or military personnel. It may be even harder for a teacher if the shooter is a familiar former student, their hesitation potentially being enough for the intruder to act. Woolf also brings up what she refers to as the “Weapons Focus Effect”, an occurrence where, when emergency first responders arrive to take down the active shooter, they aren’t always going to be double checking to make sure who’s the good person with the gun and who’s the bad person with the gun. Rather, their training teaches them to act fast, so if someone’s holding a weapon they’ll target them immediately and ask questions later. This unfortunately can mean that the teacher trying to protect their students may be shot down for doing good which, again, is needlessly putting their lives at risk for
Say, an educator is face to face with a school shooter in their classroom, both of them having weapons actively ready and on them. There’s still no guarantee the teacher will be able to successfully take down the shooter, even if it was just the two of them face-to-face. Dr. Linda Woolf of Webster University argues that, unlike in television and movies, killing a person is much harder to do than portrayed, especially for one who isn’t professionally to do so, like a SWAT or military personnel. It may be even harder for a teacher if the shooter is a familiar former student, their hesitation potentially being enough for the intruder to act. Woolf also brings up what she refers to as the “Weapons Focus Effect”, an occurrence where, when emergency first responders arrive to take down the active shooter, they aren’t always going to be double checking to make sure who’s the good person with the gun and who’s the bad person with the gun. Rather, their training teaches them to act fast, so if someone’s holding a weapon they’ll target them immediately and ask questions later. This unfortunately can mean that the teacher trying to protect their students may be shot down for doing good which, again, is needlessly putting their lives at risk for