AP Research Paper: Teachers and Gun Control

QUOTE: \"When we focus our policy responses almost entirely on firearms in these events, we overlook major things and we aren't going to address the root of the problem,\" said Laura E. Agnich, an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.

PARAPHRASE: In the 2010-11 school year, U.S. public schools reported 5,000 cases of student possession of a firearm or explosive device, and 72,300 cases of possession of a knife or other sharp object, according to the most recent information from the U.S. Department of Education.

QUOTE: \"Teachers should teach. But if there is [one with] good experience, that has an interest in it and is willing to go through this training of, again, 40 to 60 hours that is totally comprehensive, then that is an appropriate resource that a school should be able to utilize.\" said former Congressman Asa Hutchinson, director of the NRA's National School Shield Task Force.

QUOTE: \"You can address assault weapons and it doesn't stop someone bringing in a .45 caliber firearm into the school. It doesn't stop violence in the schools. And so if you're going to protect children, you have to do something about school safety and enhancing our safety measures in school. It can be done, and that's the whole purpose of this task force.\" said former Congressman Asa Hutchinson, director of the NRA's National School Shield Task Force.

VISUAL: Andrew Roland, a 2-year-old from Virginia, sits on a banner from the Million Mom March while listening to a rally for stronger gun control laws on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C., September 5, 2000.

SUMMARY: Guns aren't bad things or good things. They're things, inanimate objects, chunks of metal with no will of their own. They're really not the problem. We are. We are a society in which solving problems with violence has become an almost accepted norm. Our entertainment is full of it. We celebrate gun violence on film. And when someone acts this out in real life, we blame the gun. There is something wrong here, all right. I'm not sure it's firearms.

QUOTE: \"The 2.5 million times each year that people use guns defensively—including cases in which public shootings are stopped before they happen—are ignored.\"

QUOTE: \"Laws that restrict gun ownership do not reduce gun violence, but actually prevent law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves against crime and criminals. States that allow their residents to carry concealed weapons experienced a significant drop in violent crime rates because criminals are less likely to attack anyone if they think their potential victim may be armed.\" John R. Lott Jr., John M. Olin law and economics professor at the University of Chicago School of Law and the author of More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control

PARAPHRASE: In March 2003 Utah passed a law that gave licensed handgun owners the right to carry their weapons into any Utah school.

PARAPHRASE: In the United States from 1977 to 1999, states that adopted right-to-carry laws had a 60% drop in the rates at which the attacks occur, and a 78% drop in the rates at which people are killed or injured from such attacks.

SUMMARY: But the more than 2 million times each year that Americans use guns defensively are never discussed. In more than 90% of those cases, simply brandishing a weapon is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack. Citizens with guns helped about a third of the post-1997 public school shootings, stepping in before police could arrive.

VISUAL (POLL): \"What do you think is more important—to protect the right of Americans to own guns, OR to control gun ownership?\"

PARAPHRASE: The gun debate in the U.S. dates back to the 18th century, when the nation's founders were crafting the Bill of Rights--the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, adopted in 1791. The Second Amendment gave Americans the right to bear arms. However, for more than 200 years, people have disagreed over how to interpret the amendment.

QUOTE: \"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,\" Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's vice president

PARAPHRASE: The 1994 Brady Law, caused by a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, created a national system of background checks for gun purchases.

PARAPHRASE: With nearly 400,000 gun crimes committed every year, the United States has the highest rate of firearm deaths (more than 30,000 each year) among twenty-five high-income nations. Clearly, stronger and more effective gun control laws are needed to keep guns out of the wrong hands and to better protect the public.

PARAPHRASE: If guns really kept us safe, the United States would be the safest nation in the world, since we own an estimated 270 million firearms—approximately 90 guns for every 100 people. Far from keeping us safe, guns are used to kill more than 30,000 Americans each year and injure approximately 70,000. Guns are also used to commit nearly 400,000 crimes each year.

PARAPHRASE: One side claims that gun ownership is an individual right guaranteed by the Second Amendment and that guns are vital for self-protection. The other side believes guns should be banned or restricted because many innocent lives are lost because of their misuse.

QUOTE: \"Public health emphasizes prevention rather than fault-finding, blame, or revenge. It uses science rather than belief as its basis and relies on accurate data collection and scientific analysis. It promotes a wide variety of interventions—environmental as well as individual—and integrates the activities of a wide variety of disciplines and institutions. Most important, public health brings a pragmatic [practical] attitude to problems—finding innovative solutions and eliminating the fatalistic and complacent beliefs that little can be done to reduce the problem.\" David Hemenway, Private Guns, Public Health (2006)

PARAPHRASE: One of the key issues in the debate over gun control is whether placing greater restrictions on gun ownership will make society safer. Many opponents of gun control feel that access to guns makes it possible for law-abiding Americans to protect themselves and deter crime.