Kayla Tarrant

Q: What is your opinion on stricter gun regulations?

A: I believe we definitely need stricter gun regulations like extensive background checks, domestic violence history, drug or alcohol abuse or checks to see if people are just more prone to being aggressive when they’re not in their natural state.

Q: What do you think of the Parkland students taking this into their own hands and looking to pass gun reforms?

A: It is expected after such a tragedy but I don’t believe their campaign will do anything. We always have mass shootings, I mean Sandy Hook was in 2012 and nothing has been done since then. We can have all these rallies and marches, but I mean that hasn’t done anything for the Black Lives Matter campaign, police are still killing unarmed black men.

Q: Should teachers have the responsibility to protect their students if they were allowed to bring guns to campus?

A: No, because of accidental shootings. Also, who is to say that teachers won’t have a bad day and will use this against kids who are acting out or known to be troublemakers. I believe we need different protocols like bulletproof windows and doors, metal detectors I mean this will make it seem like a jail or something but I do not believe arming teachers is the answer.

Q: What experiences have formed your opinions?

A: Criminal justice is my minor so most of my peers have a strong opinion on the Second Amendment which allows me to see the conservative side of this issue, which also allows me to see the full picture of owning a gun whether it is for sport, protection or hunting. I am able to see why people want to keep regulations the way they are but that has only made me firmly believe that we need more regulations since guns are so easily accessible. Personally, I do want to own a gun later on in life but it is pretty frustrating to learn how easy it is to buy a gun. I honestly have no background in guns, nor do I know how to use them or what bullets to use. All I literally had to do though was take a 15-minute test that I studied for five minutes prior and that is a bit ridiculous.

John Crosby 

Q: What is your opinion on stricter gun regulations?

A: Guns are dangerous machines, I think we need to treat guns like we do vehicles. You should have to attend a class, take a test, it might be a psychological test, and then interview with a bureaucrat. Then just like a drivers license you are able to now go on buying a car and drive but in this case you are able to purchase a gun.

Q: What do you think of the Parkland students taking this into their own hands and looking to pass gun reforms?

A: It’s politics, the definition of politics is resources and who gets those resources, as well as those values, will get passed to the next generation. It is there right to want to impose their values on our society, so we either reject them, modify or implement them and move on. So people to say they should shut up or they do not know what they are talking about, first of all, they are exercising their first amendment which beats the second amendment any day of the week.

They should be able to start pressuring their politicians since that is what our society is built on and if people are criticizing them for that, they are idiots and it is ludicrous and infuriates me that adults are questioning the passion of these students. This is how we have discussions and this is the whole purpose of our political system.

Q Should teachers have the responsibility to protect their students if they were allowed to bring guns to campus?

A: First of all, the job of a teacher is not to engage in a gunfight. Their job here is to educate. Secondly, once you start arming teachers you are going to get more accidental shootings or suicides. If you have a gun around it is much easier to do that and some teachers if you have a weapon it is going to escalates situations. Also, someone else could get access to the gun and use it wrongly. Trump is an idiot and is only suggesting this in order to take attention away from what we really need which is stricter gun regulations.

Q: What experiences have formed your opinions?

In the military there are accidental shootings all the time, the only time I heard a gun go off when I was on a base in Kuwait was accidental. Guns are dangerous even people who are trained and know what they are doing say they have accidents all the time and that is insane, we need to treat them with much more respect and limit their availability. So when we say we need to arm teachers you are opening the door to a whole new set of problems, like accidents and suicide. We need to look at the numbers also, for example, police officers go their entire career not firing their weapon so for there to be 330 million guns in America that are a waste of money and resources. So I just look at it from a logical perspective and a much broader perspective.

“There are more guns than people in the United States,” said Professor John Crosby when asked why he feels we need stricter gun regulations. As a lecturer in the political science department, Professor Crosby explained that he approaches issues like this from a logical much broader perspective. In my opinion, this approach is what will give us the results needed to prevent mass shootings.

When discussing issues like these we must look at this from the perspective like Professor Crosby.

“Guns are dangerous weapons and should be handled with respect and we should limit their availability,” Professor Crosby said when asked why he believes we need stricter gun laws.

In the wrong hands, guns have and will do a lot of damage, like Professor Crosby stated guns are dangerous weapons and from his experience in the army even when in the hands of individuals who are trained to handle guns there are constantly accidental shootings.

“When we say we need to arm teachers you are opening the door to a whole new set of problems, like accidents and suicide. We need to look at the numbers also, for example, police officers often go their entire career not firing their weapon so for there to be 330 million guns in America that are a waste of money and resources.”

Professor Crosby brought up a great point when asked how he felt about President Trump suggesting we arm teachers in order to combat this issue. Having a gun around will not de-escalate a situation if anything it will make matters worse.

If students are aware of a teachers gun possession there is the possibility of them trying to attain it, some teachers will be pushed to use it when kids are acting out or even use it on themselves after a hard day. Having a gun around will not help teachers protect students, first of all as educators that is not their job to engage in a gunfight. Secondly, it could potentially escalate situations or result in unwanted accidents.

Like Professor Crosby stated we must look at this with a logical much broader perspective. We can not let the right to our second amendment get in the way of protecting this nation from any further gun violence.

Nicte Hernandez can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter