Schools Turning in to Battlefields

Armed teachers and stricter gun control is the major topic of choice since the shooting of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. The idea of arming teachers is not new, in fact, efforts to arm teachers and school staff were jumpstarted in 2012. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary in Connecticut, which left 20 children and six teachers dead the public started to question whether or not teachers should be allowed to carry guns. Not only has the armed teacher debate reemerged but even the sales of bulletproof backpacks has increased dramatically since the Florida shooting. Armed teachers and bulletproof backpacks? Is this truly necessary?

U.S. President Donald Trump has said arming teachers with guns could prevent other school shootings from happening. Although arming teachers and school staff could have some benefits, though there is still no hard evidence supporting this theory, others believe it may cause more problems. "I think teachers have enough to do without worrying about where their gun is" said Teresa Radcliffe, a mother of two girls, one in high school and one in college. Radcliffe suggested schools should hire trained security guards to help protect schools. Giving teachers a chance to focus on educating students instead of having their minds worry about their guns.

Bulletproof Backpacks

Another thing that has been on the rise since the Florida shooting is the demand of bulletproof backpacks. Guard Dog Security, a company who created bulletproof backpacks

and is the nation's most recognized tactical self defense brand according to their site, experienced this high demand after the shooting. If you go to Guard Dog Security's website you will notice all bulletproof backpacks are sold out. The company began selling backpacks in 2012 soon after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.

A picture of a Guard Dog Security Bulletproof

Backpack.

So what's the difference between a regular backpack and a bulletproof backpack? The bulletproof backpacks look the same the only difference is that there is a compartment with a soft Level IIIA ballistic protection, as rated by the National Institute of Justice.

However, these bullet blocker panels are not capable of stopping bullets from a rifle like an AR-15. The AR-15 ,which is a semi-automatic civilian version of the military's M16, is becoming a popular weapon of choice for mass shooters. This weapon was not only used in the Florida shooting, but it was also used in the November church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which left 26 people dead.

Soft body armor panels that are able to stop

bullets from a handgun.

The AR-15 was also one of several guns used in October to kill 58 people and injuring hundreds more in the Las Vegas shooting. In June 2016, the gunman who killed 49 people and injuring 50 more at the nightclub Pulse did not use a AR-15, but a Sig Saucer MCX which is another type of semi-automatic rifle. The Sandy Hook mass shooter used a AR-15 and shortly before that, a shooter used an AR-15 to open fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado that killed 12 people and injuring 58 others. ABC News put Guard Dog Security's bulletproof backpack with an AR-15 and the bullet went straight through it.

"I would not buy my children bulletproof backpacks," said Radcliffe. "I just don't believe the backpack would be accessible when they needed it". Radcliffe points out some schools, like Quitman High School, don't allow backpacks on campus or only allows clear backpacks.

Mental Illness and Mass Shooters

In a study of 185 public mass shootings from 1900 to 2017, criminologist, Grant Duwe found that 59 percent of mass shooters had been diagnosed as mentally ill or showed signs of having a serious mental disorder before the attack. Mother Jones complied a database of mass shootings going back to 1982, and found that half of the shooters suffered from some form of mental illness.

However, the issue of mental illness is usually lost in mainstream media and instead focuses on stricter gun control or arming teachers and school staff. Research from the New York Times that shows mass murderers are nearly 20 times more likely to have a "severe" mental illness than the general population. Research conducted from Los Angeles Times shows that just one-third of mass murderers in the U.S. since 1900 sought or even received mental health treatment before they committed their attacks. Research on this treatment gap shows that the U.S. has higher rates of untreated mental illness than most other Western countries.

With so much evidence, why are people so reluctant to focus on this factor? One reason why is that people fear the stigmatization it will cause. This is a valid idea because the vast majority of people with mental disorders are not violent. A study conducted by Harvard Health shows that 60 percent of people thought people who suffer for schizophrenia would commit violent acts, and 32 percent of people believed people who suffer from major depression would commit violent acts.

Most Americans tend to focus on one solution to prevent mass shootings. Some believe in stricter gun control, others think we should arm teachers and school staff, and some believe we should focus on the mental illness factor. It is possible that everyone is right to focus on all of these factors. Los Angeles Times wrote, "Conversely, some have insisted--wrongly in our opinion--that mass shootings are strictly a mental health problem rather than a gun problem. They,too, are on the wrong side of the evidence. It's possible for mass public shootings to be both a gun and a mental health problem".

So, do you think we should be arming teachers to protect students?

Do we need stricter gun control?

Would you send your child off to school with a bulletproof backpack?

Should we focus more on mental health?

Or should we look at all of these factors to help prevent school shootings?