I was casting about for something to write about for this post. I want to write things y’all find interesting and make them at least a little fun to read, but this month I was coming up empty. Then last night a little while before bed, Budge was reading a story in the news to me and to be honest, it bothered me more than usual so I thought I’d write about it.

The story comes out of Tennessee where the state legislature, both houses, have passed a law allowing teachers in public schools to carry guns on campus. The governor has signed the measure into law. It isn’t binding on any district as each district is free to choose if they want to have their teachers armed or not.

I think this is a supremely bad idea. Still, let me say from the start you will be hard pressed to find a more gun supporting person than me. I own guns that I shoot regularly. I support the broadest, least restrictive interpretation of the Second Amendment. I wouldn’t call myself a stereotypical “gun nut,” but I am pretty far to the right on guns. They’ve just always been a part of my life and I think they have some tremendous uses. If you come into my home uninvited in a wrong state of mind, you will be met with a response up to and including lethal force. In this case, however, I think the State of Tennessee is making a mistake — a grave mistake. There’s a time and a place for everything and schools are no place at any time for guns in the hands of faculty and staff.

The first reason I am against this law is that it provides no guidelines for who specifically is allowed to be armed and what training these people are going to have; if they are going to have any required. Tennessee is a southern state and the gun culture is pretty strong there, but still, I imagine there’s a great spectrum of gun knowledge and gun training among the faculty of any given school. Some people may have hours of training either in civilian classes or perhaps the military, while others barely know which end of the gun the bullet comes out of. That’s a problem. Is a district that opts to arm its teachers and staff going to provide any training before they are allowed to carry guns on campus? If not, what qualifications will be in place to allow a teacher to carry his or her gun? Will there be any? That’s a lot of questions.

A second reason I think this is a bad idea is it is potentially a divisive force in a school. I am a former teacher. I taught high school for ten years and was a middle school librarian for an additional five. I can say with some authority that faculties are not monolithic blocks. A decent sized faculty is a microcosm of the community it teaches, with some interesting outliers thrown in. Everyone isn’t in step on what color the new tile in the faculty bathrooms should be, much less who is carrying a gun. For better or worse, it is a fact that some people are deeply disturbed by guns. They don’t like guns and they may even be scared of guns. Now you’re going to have gun toting teachers next to those teachers who don’t want to be around guns. That’s going to foster division in a staff and if there’s one thing schools can ill afford today it is for the staffs to be further divided.

I also thing the potential exists for tragedy to come out of this misguided attempt to guard students. Where are the guns going to be? In purses or desks? Or will they be carried in holsters? Either way, what happens when a student or group of students decides they want that gun. Think it would never happen? Much less dangerous stuff gets stolen every day in classrooms all across the nation. Students don’t hold teachers in the awe they once did either so an attack on a teacher to take a gun by a student or group of students is not as far fetched as one might hope reading this. I admit, it seems unlikely at first, but I have seen teachers attacked for no reason, and now they have a definite target to obtain? Things can happen in a split second and if someone reacts wrongly, tragedy can ensue.

This type of tragedy is my final reason I see this new law as a bad idea. A gun has one overarching purpose — to kill. You can argue about target practice all you want but what is target practice if not honing skills necessary to shoot something or someone. There is the rub. No one should be carrying a gun unless that person has settled in his or her mind that they are willing to kill someone if they draw their weapon. A gun is useless otherwise. Pull a gun without the foregone attitude you are willing to kill and that gun can very well be taken away from you and turned against you and others.

Killing is not natural to the overwhelming majority of people. It’s why soldiers must be trained to kill. Taking a human life is something you don’t get over. It stays with you in a lesser or greater degree. On top of that, who are these teachers going to be asked to kill? Who does most school shootings? Students. Present or former students. Teachers get into teaching for students. Do it for any other reason and you won’t last long. God knows it won’t be the money. Teachers assume an overwhelming responsibility for the students in their care every day. Now you are going to have that teacher choose whether or not to kill or seriously injure one of the students they have practically vowed to protect?

I realize on the surface it makes sense. I also will concede several school shootings have been stopped by a teacher with a gun produced from a car or carried surreptitiously against policy. But what happens when there’s more than one motivated teacher? Could we see shootouts in the halls of a high school? What about friendly fire incidents? I know people are trying to find a solution to school shootings, but this isn’t it. The logistics are too nebulous and the psychological burden too great.

Love y’all, and keep those feet clean!