Teachers in Accord on Safety Issues, Except for Guns

When it comes to bullying, teachers are on the same page. Guns? Not so much.

Bullying, they say, is the biggest safety concern at their schools, and safety measures like security guards and cameras don’t hurt school climate. But teachers disagree on whether they should be allowed to carry guns on campus and whether doing so would make schools safer.

More than half (54 percent) of teachers who responded to a survey of nearly 1,000 randomly selected educators conducted by the RAND Corp. said educators carrying firearms would put schools more at risk, while 20 percent said it would make them safer. The remaining 26 percent said it wouldn’t matter.

“It definitely caught our eye about just how unified teachers are about school safety issues generally, except when it comes to guns,” said Heather Schwartz, a senior researcher at RAND.

The idea of arming teachers, or loosening state restrictions to allow concealed-carry permit holders to bring guns into schools, is not new. The debates are often reignited after high-profile mass shootings at schools, the most recent at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn.

Advocates argue that having armed staff on campus allows them to respond to threats more quickly or dissuade would-be shooters from acting altogether.

As of 2021, 28 states allowed schools to arm certain teachers or staff beyond trained school safety guards, according to RAND.

Teachers have consistently opposed the idea in...

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