I'm a gun owner who locks down a school each morning

I work maintenance at a small elementary school in a small rural town in the u.s.<br><br>Every morning I get to school at 7:00am, unlock the buildings, turn off the alarm and unlock all the doors for the teachers as they show up. I get out of work at 2:30, but the teachers stay to around 4ish when the kids clear out.<br><br>Every morning I lock down the school, it's just a simple system. All the outside doors get locked, the playground gates behind the school get locked and the alarm gets turned on. Very simple.<br><br>I'm a pro gun owner. I believe everyone should own a gun. But I don't like kids carrying guns, it's too much of a risk. I don't like teachers carrying, especially if they are armed with a pistol. Now a rifle or shotgun would be perfectly fine,as long as it was not loaded. But I like the idea of school guards, hired by the school district to be armed. That way they have to meet strict requirements before being armed in the school.<br><br>There are armed guards at the high school and middle school. But not at the elementary school I work at, I was wondering why. So I asked the principle.<br><br>I was told it's just too expensive to hire armed guards. They get 50k a year plus benefits. And the school district doesn't have the money. Also the principle said it's just too big of a risk. Too many kids at the high school and middle school are carrying guns, and they're worried about a kid carrying a gun in their backpack and it goes off, hitting and killing and innocent kid, and a guard shoots and kills the gun carrying kid not knowing if they were dangerous or not.<br><br>I thought this was a good answer, but then I asked if they were prepared if a school shooter showed up.<br><br>The principle told me that every morning I lock the school down, the shooter would have to get in somehow, then once the alarm goes off, the police would be notified immediately, and the shooter would have to spend time getting in the school. He said the police would get there and the shooter would be dead before they even got into the school. Or if they got in the school, they would be in the office, which is not where the kids are. Then the shooter would have to get through 8 locked doors before they got to the first classroom. And by then the police would already be there and in the school. And even if we didn't lockdown the school, the shooter would still have to go through 8 locked doors before they got to a classroom. And by then the police would already be on their way and already in the school.<br><br>So that's why we don't have armed guards here. We just lock down the school.