<![CDATA[Polling]]>

When Ohio recently enacted a law “making it easier” for teachers and school administrators to carry firearms in schools, some went pretty apoplectic over the measure. The way things used to be structured, teachers would have to undergo 700 hours of training, with the new law lowering that to 24 hours of training. To say “easier” would be a misguided attempt at eliciting emotion, as the law change made it “possible”, because who’s going to go through over 87 days of training? While all that was going on in the background over the summer, some opinions may have shifted. A recent Rasmussen poll shows an interesting result, “Nearly Half of Americans Support Arming Teachers”. 

The title does not do the subject justice because not only is the support nearly half of all Americans, but the story here might be that support for armed teachers is 12% higher than those that think it’s a bad idea. Is that “overwhelming” support? When 15% “aren’t sure”, we could be trodding close to having a country where the majority think it’s okay to protect our children the way we protect our politicians and money.

Americans are worried about the danger of school shootings, and support has increased for arming teachers to defend their classrooms.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 76% of American Adults are worried about the possibility of mass shootings at schools, including 44% who are Very Worried. Only 21% are not worried about school shootings. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Ohio recently enacted a law to have teachers trained to carry firearms at schools. Forty-nine percent (49%) believe it’s a good idea to have teachers armed and trained to protect students against school shootings. That’s up from the 41% who supported such a policy in 2018. Thirty-seven percent (37%) now say it’s a bad idea to have trained teachers to carry firearms to protect students. Another 15% are not sure.

I’ve heard many of the nay-sayers that think such proposals are bad run their mouths about the dynamic, and that our schools should not be war zones. The quixotic that think if all firearms were banned, bad things would not happen to anyone or our children. The critics of having openly armed security surly would be okay with no one knowing who’s packing heat with concealed carriers on site to protect our most valuable resources. The ability to empower the educators and administrators to protect their kids versus cowering in the corner is a game changer when it comes to the subject of a school shooting.

Other opponents might say that it’s not a teacher’s job to do this, it’s not what they get paid to do. Fair enough. But we’re not talking about the mandatory taking up of arms, but rather people that would volunteer to do so. Just like every segment in society, firearms aren’t for everyone, and some might find the idea to be personally unappealing. 

Those educators and school staffers that love their students enough to take up arms for them should be afforded the opportunity.

The statistic that perhaps counts the most has little to do with political party. Noted are some breakdowns on how members of the GOP views the topic versus Democrats. But it’s households with children that really count here.

Democrats (57%) are more likely than Republicans (32%) or those not affiliated with either major party (41%) to be Very Worried about the possibility of mass shootings at schools. However, more Republicans (69%) than Democrats (35%) or the unaffiliated (45%) think it’s a good idea to have trained teachers with firearms to protect students.

A majority (57%) of Americans with children at home believe that arming teachers is a good idea, compared to 43% of those without children.

That 57% tells us all that we need to know about public feelings on the topic. The majority of the people that actually have skin in the game feel having armed teachers is a good idea. For the childless taxpayer out there, I feel for you. However, clearly you’re skewing the overall average a bit here, and perhaps you should sit this one out.

Luckily there are resources out there which are becoming more available to educators and learning institutions to help them in training armed school staff members. FASTER Saves Lives is an organization that teaches not only armed response, but also bleed control, first aid, and triage techniques. The program is primarily in Ohio, but has started to open up training to other states as well. The training is essentially free and from all accounts I’ve heard about it from colleagues, the program is top notch. 

While polls don’t act as the arbitrators of the way things should be, hence the checks and balances at the different levels in our representative republic, they are important in gauging the atmosphere. The Constitution has no feelings. It’s comforting to know that Americans, and more importantly the majority of households with children in them, are increasingly coming onboard with what’s truly commonsense. All the teacher’s unions out there and Karens that want to poo poo this idea can go pound sand, we the people are speaking. Isn’t that what the establishment educational system preaches concerning our “democracy”?