Gun violence cases in schools

A no-gun-on-campus policy to reduce the number of gun violence cases in faculties is a conservative way of thinking and is not a solution to curb public fitness crisis on gun violence. Wheeler’s main themes of the article furnish the only solution to gun violence in schools - permitting guns to enhance preparedness and response in situations of gun violence. The significance of guns in schools is explained during the article, and a gun is manifested as a lifesaving tool, as preparedness to defend, and as preparedness to respond to potential gun violence. This paper analyzes the Virginia student who used a gun to rescue lives, the preparedness of the vice president of Pearl High School with a gun in his truck and how lack of a gun led to slow response to Virginia Tech shooters.

Students’ lives could be saved from gun violence attacks in school by executing policies that allow guns in schools. Wheeler critiques the conservative thought that guns are the cause of violence by use of powerful adjectives to emphasize on the conservative think tank report. He states in the third paragraph, “They rehash all the tired rhetoric of bureaucrats and public-health wonks, including the public-health mantra.” The words used to create an image of incompetent public health officials and politicians reusing old slogans to create rhetoric policies. In support that gun-on-campus policies can be a solution to gun violence, Wheeler quotes the homicidal student from Virginia. The killer student was held at gunpoint by another student, and this prevented more shooting to take place. He insists that the Virginia Tech victims could have survived if there were some student with guns to hold the shooters at gunpoint. If policies allowing guns on the campus were passed, many lives could be saved when gun attacks occur in schools since students would be well prepared and brave to defend themselves with the guns.

Guns equipped to trained students and teachers provide a school with armed first responders in case of a gun violence. The guns in campuses provide a quick responsive back up in case of a gun attack in the school. Schools are a soft target of gun violence since most of them are gun-free zones and are therefore slow to respond to gun attacks due to lack of guns. Virginia Tech shooters could have been halted in time if the students had guns. The House Bill 1572 to allow students to carry guns to college campuses was rejected in Virginia due to the conservative thinking that guns in campuses would make everybody not to feel safe on the campus. In the second paragraph, the Bailey 2006, the Nickel Mines 2006 and the Buford Furrow’s 1999 murderers were all adults with no connection to the school and Wheeler proves that schools are a soft target for gun attacks. He also calls a gun a lifesaving tool to evoke the thought of how guns can be used for defense as opposed to violence. Equipping trained students with guns would be a better policy of fighting gun violence than a no-gun-on-campus policy.

Schools should establish gun violence policies that are based on real analysis of policies that can work without being manipulated by fear arising from pessimistic imaginations. As Wheeler quotes James J., gun violence can be reduced by embracing preparedness and promoting brave defenders equipped with guns. The article has clearly elaborated the gun policies that work as well as those that do not work and has recommended that guns should be allowed in schools to curb the gun violence in schools.



Work Cited

There's A Reason They Choose Schools. National Review. 2017. Available at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/222453/theres-reason-they-choose-schools-timothy-wheeler. Accessed November 15, 2017.