The news is ripe with gun violence. Once again, emotions are riding high while we argue about the place of handguns in American society. I connect this season to another emotionally charged moment in our history.
The morning of September 11, 2001, I was in my first year as a public school teacher. Rumor spread quickly among the teachers that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. By the time of my mid-morning conference, the principal had rolled a TV into the teacher lounge so we could swing through and catch up on the tragedy.
I watched the student body vanish that day. A campus of almost 700 students dwindled to a speck just over 200 as parents bolted to the school collecting their children and huddling around the home TV, wondering what would happen next.
When cultural tragedy strikes, we gather our children close to keep them safe. Knowing they can’t stay physically by our side forever, parents release them back into life monitored by a set of ever-gazing, cautious eyes and a new set of policies and procedures. Sometimes those are built by families; sometimes they’re enacted through legislation.
One such legislative action is the step my home state of Texas made this year to legalize open-carry 1. If you’re unaware, open-carry means that licensed, private citizens may have their handguns visibly holstered. Beginning January 1, 2016, people will see holstered handguns in downtown Dallas, Houston, Austin, and across the state of Texas. Many promote it as a way to keep our communities safe.
Recently, John Witmire, a Democratic Senator in the Texas State legislature, asked the Texas AG to decide whether the boundaries of K-12 school in Texas includes parking lots, sidewalks, and pick-up zones. If these areas are not banned, then many parents could be collecting their children while sporting a visible Glock on their hip.
This is an important decision because its results will decide the extent to which the US culture of gun possession will find expression on the local school campus. I believe we can explore this issue by understanding four thoughts about guns in schools.
1. CHL Holders are Already at the School Door.
In Texas, a person needs to take a class to own a Concealed Handgun License. This same license will apply for open-carry as well. During the class, instructors teach applicants where it is legal and illegal to carry a concealed handgun; they reinforce that these instructions will mostly apply to open-carry as well. While carrying a gun into a school building or school bus is illegal, CHL instructors teach that carrying in the parking lot, sidewalk or driveways of schools is legal. I can promise, many parents are currently walking their children to the school building door while concealing a handgun–and they are legally doing so.
2. Children in a School Building are Susceptible
Why did so many parents take their children out of school on 9/11? Nobody knew what was going to happen next. We all wanted our children next to us. But I remember thinking how easily someone could attack these schoolchildren. The only real protection between them and sinister minds are the adults in the building. They need protection. Horrific episodes have already taught us a locked front door is only an inconvenient obstacle for those intent on killing.
It’s a fair question to wonder if licensed CHL parents patrolling the campus borders offer needed, additional protection for susceptible children.
3. It Feels Wrong.
I’m trying to picture several dozen parents walking their children to the front door with a Sig on their hip. It feels immoral. The school-house should be a place of innocence and learning. Guns represent dominance. The place and the pistol are incongruous with one another. One of the reasons Whitmire is asking the Texas AG to decide on this issue (which I interpret has already been addressed in the law) relates to this idea of contradiction. I believe he is trying to expose the perceived absurdity of allowing visible guns anywhere near a school door.
4. My Feelings are Not Reliable.
While guns in the school driveway may feel inane, emotions are fickle barometers for important decisions. What feels right one day can seem strikingly wrong the next. Data can help with those decisions, but comes across as a stoic taskmaster rather than a safe guardian. I believe the best alternative to feeling-based decision-making is not data-based decision-making. I think purpose-based decision-making is a better approach.
Purpose-based decision-making has three ingredients: time, collaboration, and data. Time simply means we don’t make a rushed decision, nor do we extend the dialogue beyond the limits of reasonability. Collaboration means we remove the political talk from the exchange and have an authentic conversation about the pros and cons of the issue at hand. Data is the science and surveys conducted by social, anthropological, and educational experts. Apart from these three ingredients, we lack purpose-based decision-making and tend to the extremes of feelings or data.
To offer transparency, I am conflicted about this issue. While I’m not a gun enthusiast (I don’t collect them), I’m in agreement with every US citizen’s Constitutional right to possess them. Furthermore, I’m in favor of both the conceal and open-carry legislation in Texas. The conflict comes as I explore my educational side, recognizing that the very sight of a gun could prove stressful enough for a child that their learning environment is ravaged and consumed. That would be sad because we’re already losing too many students in a broken educational system.
But it seems we should provide some avenue of security lest we have no educational system to repair.
What do you think? Should adults with CHL licenses be allowed to open-carry up to the school building door?
- http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/texas-verge-passing-open-carry-law/ ↩
Douglas Guess says
Up front disclaimer. I believe in the right to bear arms, I myself do not own a gun. As a parent I find it concerning. Put yourself in the shoe’s of a child how are they to think or feel about a complete stranger openly carrying a gun. How are they suppose to problerly process a stranger with a gun? What if a grandparent or some else who is authorized to pick a child up, a unknown to the school staff, comes openly carrying. How is the administration suppose to know if that person has a right to he on their property?
Robb Bewer says
Doug, these are GREAT questions. If only one or two are open-carrying, questioning them would be fairly simple. If a dozen or more are doing so it becomes increasingly difficult. I think your thoughts about the shock-value for a child is right on point. I would also say that time can soften those images, even for a child. The videos of planes flying into the WTC do not shock me nearly as much as they did a decade ago. Over time, most believe children would grow accustomed to the sight of holstered handguns in the general public.
Heather Lei says
Many schools have armed security in them. Those kids have had to get used to seeing people with guns. It would be interesting to find out how the introduction affected the students or if that was even looked at.
Before you point out that those people are wearing uniforms I will point out that most of these students are from neighborhoods that don’t necessarily find an authority figure in a uniform to be more trustworthy that the mom of that kid over there.
Robb Bewer says
Heather, Thanks for the great comment. The proliferation of armed guards on school campuses is well-observed. We even have a number of armed guards at our church on weekends. Students are certainly getting used to seeing handguns in public. I also agree that wearing a uniform no longer provides the assumption of trustworthiness. Many students of color–or those with bad experiences–are watching the armed guard with great care out of the corner of their eye. I think my point is that–now with open carry–the student will be watching “the mom of that kid over there” out of the corner of their eye. Now even she has a gun strapped to her side. I just wonder the extent to which it will increase the stress level of students and thus impact the learning environment. But you may be correct: students could be quite used to the presence of guns in public.