Editing School shooting (section)

=== Armed classrooms ===
{{main|Arming teachers}}
There has been considerable policy discussion about how to help prevent school and other types of mass shootings. One suggestion that has come up is the idea to allow firearms in the classroom. "Since the issue of arming teachers is a relatively new topic, it has received little empirical study. Therefore, most of the literature does not come from peer-reviewed sources but rather published news reports. In addition, most of these reports are not objective and clearly appear to support a specific side of the debate."<ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=Teachers with Guns: Firearms Discharges by School teachers, 1980–2012 |url= http://homicidecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Teachers-with-Guns-RESEARCH-REPORT-FINAL.pdf|website=Homicidecenter.org|access-date=May 21, 2018 |page=3 |date=2013}}</ref> So far, data has been inconclusive as to whether or not arming teachers would have any sort of benefit for schools. For years, some areas in the US have allowed "armed classrooms" to deter (or truncate) future attacks by changing helpless victims into armed defenders. Advocates of arming teachers claim that it will reduce fatalities in school shootings, but many others disagree.

Many teachers have had their concerns with the idea of armed classrooms. "One teacher stated that although she is pro-gun, she does not feel as though she could maintain gun safety on school grounds (Reuters, 2012). Teachers expressed the fear that bigger students could overpower them, take the weapon, and then use it against the teacher or other students." Some members of the armed forces have also had concerns with armed classrooms. Police forces in Texas brought up the potential for teachers to leave a gun where a student could retrieve and use it. "They are further concerned that if every teacher had a gun, there would be an unnecessarily large number of guns in schools (even including elementary schools). This large number of guns could lead to accidental shootings, especially those involving younger children who do not understand what guns do."

To diminish school shootings there are many preventive measures that can be taken such as:
* Installing wireless panic alarms to alert law enforcement.
* Limiting points of entry with security guarding them.
* Strategically placing telephones for emergencies so police are always reachable at any point in the campus.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Morris|first1=Robert|last2=Duplechain|first2=Rosalind|title=New Ways To Stop Bullying|journal=Monitor on Psychology|date=2002|volume=33|issue=9|pages=64}}</ref>
* Employing school psychologists to monitor and provide mental health services for those that need help.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf|title=Now Is The Time|website=[[White House]]|access-date=May 21, 2018}}</ref>
* Coordinating a response plan between local police and schools in the event of a threat.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Deadly Dreams|last=Robertz|first=Frank|date=August 1, 2007|work=Scientific American}}</ref>

In a 2013 research report published by the Center for Homicide Research, they find that many also reject the idea of having armed classrooms due to what is termed the "[[weapons effect]]", which is the phenomenon in which simply being in the presence of a weapon can increase feelings of aggression. "In Berkowitz & LaPage's (1967) examination of this effect, students who were in the presence of a gun reported higher levels of aggressive feelings towards other students and gave more violent evaluations of other students' performance on a simple task in the form of electric shocks. This finding points to possible negative outcomes for students exposed to guns in the classroom (Simons & Turner, 1974; Turner & Simons, 1976)."<ref name="auto"/>

In 2008, [[Harrold Independent School District]] in [[Texas]] became the first public school district in the U.S. to allow teachers with state-issued firearm-carry permits to carry their arms in the classroom; special additional training and ricochet-resistant ammunition were required for participating teachers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/29texas.html?scp=2&sq=gun+control&st=nyt |first=James C. Jr. |last=McKinley |title=In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 28, 2008}}</ref> Students at the [[University of Utah]] have been allowed to carry [[concealed carry|concealed pistols]] (so long as they possess the appropriate state license) since a [[State Supreme Court]] decision in 2006.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Campus-Guns.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219151807/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Campus-Guns.php |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 19, 2008 |title=Guns on college campuses allowed in U.S. state Utah |agency=The Associated Press |newspaper=[[Int. Her. Trib.]] |date=March 29, 2009 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref> In addition to Utah, Wisconsin and Mississippi each have legislation that allow students, faculty and employees with the proper permit, to carry concealed weapons on their public university's campuses.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/Channel/University-Security/News/2011/09/07/U-of-Wisconsin-Prepares-for-New-Concealed-Carry-Law.aspx |title=U of Wisconsin Prepares for New Concealed Carry Law |journal=Campus Safety Magazine |date=September 7, 2011 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=February 19, 2012 |url=http://www.thedmonline.com/article/mississippi-passes-new-campus-gun-laws |title=Mississippi Passes New Campus Gun Laws |newspaper=Daily Mississippian |access-date=August 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109162315/http://thedmonline.com/article/mississippi-passes-new-campus-gun-laws |archive-date=November 9, 2012 }}</ref> Colorado and Oregon state courts have ruled in favor of Campus Carry laws by denying their universities' proposals to ban guns on campus, ruling that the UC Board of Regents and the Oregon University System did not have the authority to ban weapons on campus.<ref>{{cite news |first=Monte |last=Whaley |newspaper=[[The Denver Post]] |url=http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20104814 |title=Colorado Supreme Court affirms that CU students with permits can carry concealed guns on campus |date=March 5, 2012 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Bill |last=Graves |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/09/oregon_court_of_appeals_reject.html |title=Oregon Court of Appeals rejects university system's ban on guns on campus |date=September 28, 2011 |access-date=May 4, 2012}}</ref> A selective ban was then re-instated, wherein Oregon state universities enacted a ban on guns in school building and sporting events or by anyone contracted with the university in question.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ous.edu/sites/default/files/state_board/polipro/OUS-Policy-on-Firearms.pdf |title=Oregon University System Policy on Firearms |date=March 2, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504202504/http://ous.edu/sites/default/files/state_board/polipro/OUS-Policy-on-Firearms.pdf |archive-date=May 4, 2012 }}</ref>
A commentary in the conservative [[National Review|''National Review Online'']] argues that the armed school approach for preventing school attacks, while new in the US, has been used successfully for many years in Israel and [[Thailand]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel200409022215.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107001716/http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel200409022215.asp |archive-date=January 7, 2010 |first=Dave |last=Kopel |title=Follow the Leader: Israel and Thailand set an example by arming teachers. |journal=[[National Review]] |date=September 2, 2004}}</ref> Teachers and school officials in Israel are allowed and encouraged to carry firearms if they have former military experience in the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]], which almost all do. Statistics on what percentage of teachers are actually armed are unavailable and in Israel, for example, the intent is to counter politically motivated terrorist attacks on high value, soft targets, not personal defense against, or protection from, unbalanced individual students.

The National Rifle Association has explicitly called for placing armed guards in all American schools.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/nra-calls-for-armed-guards-at-schools.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231005300/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/us/nra-calls-for-armed-guards-at-schools.html |archive-date=December 31, 2012 |work=The New York Times |first1=Eric |last1=Lichtblau |first2=Motoko |last2=Rich |title=N.R.A. Envisions 'a Good Guy With a Gun' in Every School |date=December 21, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> However, Steven Strauss, a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, offered a preliminary calculation that placing armed guards in every American school might cost as much as $15 billion/year, and perhaps only save 10 lives per year (at a cost of $1.5 billion/life saved).<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-strauss/armed-guards-in-schools_b_2468810.html | work=Huffington Post | title=Five Concerns About Armed Guards in Schools | date=January 13, 2013}}</ref>