There have been 387 school shootings since 1992, 59% of the victims were aged 10-19 (Stoptheshootings.org 1). School shootings have become a major issue in The United States, most recently after the Newtown shooting in which twenty eight people were killed including twenty children. Since this tragedy, people have been trying to decide better ways to make sure that children, and also faculty, are safe while receiving their education. Schools all across The United States have suggested ideas that they believe will better protect the children and young adults that attend, such as more security to prevent intruders and tighter gun laws. However, one idea stands out above the rest and has become a major controversial issue. Should teachers be allowed…show more content… Mr. David Thweatt, a superintendent from Nebraska who started arming teachers, states, "to say that the only people who can protect themselves have to [have] a badge ... that's just ludicrous. There are a lot of people who can act responsibly” (Teicher 1). Thweatt’s statement means that he believes that anyone should be able to act and stand up to an intruder with a gun. Going off of Thweatt’s statement, George Riley also expressed that “Just the simple notion for a psycho to know that there could be a person with a gun in the school . . . who could shoot back to protect the kids could change a lot of things. It would help even the playing field, and the outcome could be different” (Some Teachers 1). Also, the National Rifle Association suggests that willing teachers should be allowed to take a paid course on how to…show more content… The American Nurses Association believes that violence among schools is due to “the lethal combination of easy access to guns and inadequate access to mental health services” (Call 1). Many studies have been conducted to see how mental illnesses and other factors such as bullying affects the minds of adolescents and how violent thoughts could occur. Dr. Jeffrey Swanson reports, “A 2001 study looked specifically at 34 adolescent mass murderers, all male. 70 percent were described as a loner. 61.5 percent had problems with substance abuse. 48 percent had preoccupations with weapons; 43.5 percent had been victims of bullying” (Beckett 1). All of these could lead to mental disabilities or violent actions. If one wanted shootings to drop, one must first realize that most school shooters have mental instability and violent thoughts that could be sorted out before a shooting occurs. Although arming teachers is supposed to prevent students from shooting faculty and other students, what would happen if a teacher said they felt threatened and killed an innocent student? The case of Trayvon Martin and the “Stand Your Ground Law”, an unarmed child was shot and killed by someone who thought he was suspicious. Arming teachers could lead to a teacher shooting a student who is in fact innocent. This would just cause more destruction where it is not