In the U.S, there have been various incidents of shooting in schools (Webster, Cerdá, Wintemute and Cook, 2016). It has led to a proposal to arm teachers to stop the shooters before they hurt the students, and most teachers have started training on the use of firearms. On the other side, there is a proposal that the solution to the problem is to increase regulation to access and use of a firearm. Those in support of arming the teachers indicate that most of the shooting takes about three minutes and the police take five minutes to respond. Therefore arming the teacher will enable them to neutralize the threat within the minimum time possible.
However, in the simulated training for the teachers, it was observed that the teacher shoot people who were supposed to be students. Further, it was noted that the presence of guns in schools could lead to accidental shooting (Hemenway, 2017). That is an indication that more guns in schools cannot help to make it safer for the students. Those supporting the arming of teachers in school accept that it can lead to accidental shootings but argue that it is the cost of saving many others. However, the presence of guns makes the potential gun violence perpetrator afraid to go the schools, and it also makes the schools more prepared in case of an attack. Therefore arming of teachers can have an impact on either the positive and negative side.
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"How Utilitarianism Applies To Common-Sense Gun Violence Prevention".
The use of guns to prevent the violence uses utilitarianism moral theory. The main idea of the moral theory is that action is determined to be morally correct or wrong by its impact (Mill, 2016). Arming the teachers is dangerous, but its moral appropriateness will be determined if it can prevent gun violence in schools. The arming of teachers will be considered morally correct if they can prevent gun violence. If the armed teachers are not able to prevent gun violence, then their action will be regarded as morally wrong.
- Hemenway, D. (2017). Private guns, public health. University of Michigan Press.
- Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge.
- Webster, D. W., Cerdá, M., Wintemute, G. J., & Cook, P. J. (2016). Epidemiologic evidence to guide the understanding and prevention of gun violence. Epidemiologic reviews, 38(1), 1-4
