How Teachers Feel About Arming Educators In K-12 Schools: A Statewide Investigation

Teachers' Views on School Safety: Consensus on Many Security Measures, But Stark Division About Arming Teachers

“…These patterns align with findings from one other survey of teachers' views on this topic (Wood and Hampton, 2022). That survey-which was administered to roughly 4,000 teachers in one Midwestern state-found that such factors as political affiliation, gender, and geographic locale predicted teachers' support of firearm policies, their comfort with firearms in schools generally, and their interest in far outweighed the proportion who were strongly in favor (6 percent).…”

“…We asked them about their main safety concerns, perceptions of security measures in place at their schools, the effect of those measures on school climate, how confident they were about measures' performance, and whether they were concerned for their own safety a gun in the classroom" (Willner,undated,p. 8), and a 2021 survey fielded to teachers in one Midwestern state found that most teachers (71 percent) were against teacher-carry policies (Wood and Hampton, 2022). Students, too, have been skeptical of teachercarry policies.…”

“…personally carrying a firearm at school. More specifically, the survey found that male teachers, those who affiliated with the Republican party, and those who taught in rural schools were more likely to indicate support for teacher-carry policies and personal interest in carrying firearms (Wood and Hampton, 2022).…”