After the devastating school shooting in Parkland, Fla., President Trump defended the idea to arm teachers in schools via Twitter. Since then, there has been a country-wide debate about the issue. One that goes much further than the usual gun control debate.

First of all, guns in schools are the cause of this whole problem. Why on Earth would it be a good idea to bring the problem into the school? I had this conversation with a friend of mine, and one of her biggest points was, “it isn’t like teachers are going to be just holding their gun all the time, students are not going to know which teachers have guns.”

This belief is very much underestimating the intelligence of the average student. Not only that, it is underestimating the danger of a situation. If a student who wanted to do harm in a school, either to themselves or someone else, knew there was at least one gun in the school, what is going to stop them from finding it?

Kids are not stupid. They know what teachers are going to have guns. They know that if the school allows teachers to carry guns that they are going to be able to find a gun in the school. You think a student, especially a high school student is not going to be able to figure out who does and does not have a gun? You think someone who is willing to shoot up a school is too far above going through a teacher’s personal belongings to find out if they have a gun or not?

The problem does not stop with the students, but continues with the teachers themselves. There was a teacher when I was in middle school who got fired for literally throwing chairs at students when he got angry, imagine if he had a gun. Though I do believe teachers are underappreciated and most of them are incredible, not all teachers are great. Is it really that hard to believe that one could snap and shoot somebody if they were allowed to have a gun?

It is a super dangerous decision that really needs to be thought through. The main argument for arming teachers is that they will be able to protect themselves and their students against school shootings. A hand gun is not going to be much help when up against a person with a semi-automatic rifle. Not only that, but if and when the police come in a situation like that they go for the person with a gun and having so many people with guns is just going to end in a lot of unnecessary confusion and possibly gunfire, making the situation even more dangerous.

Lastly, why do we even expect teachers to go to such ridiculous lengths to protect students? Do not get me wrong, I believe most teachers would do all that they could to protect their students in a dangerous situation, but what gives us the right to expect them to? Teachers are underpaid, underappreciated, and overworked and yet we still expect them to literally take a bullet, or in this case shoot one, for their students. Teachers have their own families and people who care about them and need them.

They went to college to teach the future generations, not risk their lives for them. It is unfair and unreasonable to expect them to do something that they did not sign up for.

Overall, we learn as children that fighting fire with fire is a bad idea. So stop trying to add to the problem by throwing more guns into the mix. Instead, make it harder to get a gun. Gun violence needs to stop in this country, I think we can all agree on that, so do not try and solve a gun violence problem with more guns, especially in schools. It is counterproductive and dangerous.