美国国家公共电台 NPR It's Hard To Imagine How Armed Teachers Might Change Schools（在线收听）

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

What would our schools really be like if teachers carried guns in their classrooms, if, as President Trump suggested at this week's White House meeting with families who have suffered through school shootings, 20 percent of teachers were armed? He repeated the idea in tweets the next day, saying, quote, "20 percent of teachers, a lot, would now be able to immediately fire back if a savage sicko came into a school with bad intentions. Far more assets at much less cost than guards, a gun-free school is a magnet for bad people. Attacks would end." Some people at the meeting seemed to approve of the president's idea. Many did not.

The president repeated his message to applause before the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday. But beyond the Oval Office, Dr. David Hemenway at the Harvard School of Public Health, an expert on gun violence, calls the president's idea a crazy proposal. And many teachers took to social media to say they're infuriated by the idea. But 42 percent of Americans told a Washington Post-ABC News poll they believe gun-bearing teachers could have deterred last week's school shootings in Parkland, Fla.

I've tried to imagine how pistol-packing teachers might change the nature of a school and the relationship between students and teachers. Will students now advise each other, don't get caught text messaging in physics class? That teacher is locked and loaded. Will principals who hire new teachers now say, well, his college recommendations aren't strong, but he's won marksmanship medals. And will teachers now flash their weapons before admonishing students. OK, class. Do I have to remind you what happens if you don't get those essays on Gwendolyn Brooks in by Friday?

The valor and devotion of American teachers is beyond doubt. In one school shooting after another, teachers and staff have risked and even given their lives to protect their students, including Scott Beigel, a geography teacher, Aaron Feis, a football coach, and Chris Hixon, an athletic director just last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But would strapping guns on teachers make them educators or armed guards? What happens if and when a teacher's gun is left unlocked or is stolen or gets wrestled away from a teacher by a disturbed student? Would giving guns to teachers make students feel safer or even more on guard when they should be open to learning? Isn't it already hard enough for teachers to teach?

(SOUNDBITE OF GOGO PENGUIN'S "A HUNDRED MOONS")