More guns is not the solution, giving them to teachers is certainly not

After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, there have been over 1,600 mass shootings, killing more than 1,800 people and wounding more than 6,400, according to Vox.

The U.S.A also owns 48 percent of the world’s civilian guns.  We have 31% of the world’s mass shootings despite making up only 5 percent of the world’s population, according to CNN. The US in turn one of the highest rates of death by firearm in the developed world, according to World Health Organization data.

Yet, the solution so far has been more guns.

President Donald Trump — who recently said that he’s willing to pay teachers “a little bit of a bonus” if necessary to arm and train them.

“These people are cowards. They’re not going to walk into a school if 20% of the teachers have guns — it may be 10% or may be 40%. And what I’d recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. We give them a little bit of a bonus,” Trump said. “They’ll frankly feel more comfortable having the gun anyway. But you give them a little bit of a bonus.”

Since the Florida shooting, teachers in states like Kentucky, Michigan, and Georgia have brought or been permitted to carry guns in schools.  Colorado law already allows school districts to certify teachers as safety officers so they can carry a concealed weapon on campus, according to the Denver Post.

“You don’t want to have a gun that’s available to a student or another worker who may have mental health issues,” said Maureen S. Rush, vice president for public safety and superintendent of the Police Department at the University of Pennsylvania.  

Most law enforcement experts agree that teachers should not carry guns. Civilians may be able to hit a bull’s-eye at the shooting range, but it’s a completely different to hit a moving target without injuring others.  And the mindset to kill someone, possibly a child, goes against the nature of the nurturing role teachers have in our lives.

The lengths that this nation goes to before it changes laws is ridiculous.  Schools would rather have their students carry clear backpacks, have metal detectors, and teachers carry guns before they consider making stricter gun laws.

So when a gunman determined to kill our nation’s future is not bothered by the “good guys” with guns on school campuses, then what?