The Shorthorn - The Wrong Answer

The Wrong Answer

Written by Sylvain Rey, The Shorthorn Columnist

Thursday, 28 August 2008 09:34 PM

Arming teachers fails to address the deeper problem

s students go back to school this week, campus security will again be an issue.
Recently, The Shorthorn reported that crime had risen from last year’s data.
So it will not be surprising that campus security will again come to the fore, especially when it comes to guns.
Most of us remember the incident involving a student allegedly carrying a gun in his car last semester, which revived talks of gun-friendly policies on our own campus. The memory of Virginia Tech is still fresh in our minds.
It is to avoid such violence that the Harrold school district, a small district near Wichita Falls, has, with Gov. Rick Perry’s support, passed a decision that makes Harrold the first school district in the nation to pass such a measure.
The resolution, passed last week, allows teachers to carry guns at school if they have a state permit and district authorization.
The logic behind the decision is simple: If licensed teachers carry weapons, defense against a potential murderer will be made easier and quicker.
But, the very fact that guns are now allowed in schools, where our children theoretically receive the education they need to be a part of society, is worrying — even scary.
Only Thailand and Israel have policies allowing armed protection in schools.
In Thailand, it is to defend students and faculty against Muslim separatists who have been waging a bloody war since 2004. In Israel, armed guards are employed to potentially fend off terrorists from Israeli schools. In both countries, the necessity of these measures is imposed by a state of war that involves potentially serious attacks on civilians.
If the U.S. now also resorts to such extreme defense measures, should we then understand that the nation is at war? I mean, at war with itself.
If this is the case, then guns will not solve the war, and only deep reflections on society will help. If it is not the case, then arming everybody may backfire.
A professor trained to shoot and licensed to carry a gun may himself become a weapon if he turns mad.
The fact that citizens have to provide for their own defense points to a failure of the law to do it. The problem now becomes to create better laws. If not, every one will enforce his own law, and the Constitution itself will be the final victim — it will become useless.
Possessing a weapon is not in itself deadly, neither is shooting it for fun. But when guns are associated with madness and lack of self-control, they become deadly and no one can predict madness.
The question to ask should be: Why are there school shootings in America?
In Switzerland, where every single household owns a weapon — every person is a citizen-soldier, no such shootings are reported. The problem then lies in the heart of American society.
If schools, which were founded to make better citizens, are themselves victims of social violence, then they have failed in their role. School shootings and violence are the most dramatic symptoms of a deeper illness. And guns are not the cure.
Only a deeper analysis of the roots and conditions of social violence will provide an explanation and shape better, long-term policies.
And America will avoid an undeclared, underground civil war.

— Sylvain Rey is an anthropology senior and columnist for The Shorthorn
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